North Dakota

North Dakota offers badlands hiking and horseback riding, paddling the Missouri River, prairie wildlife watching, and exploring the landscape that shaped a young Theodore Roosevelt. Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Lake Sakakawea, the Maah Daah Hey Trail, and the International Peace Garden anchor it.

Summer and early fall (June–September) are prime for the badlands and river. Fall brings color and the elk and bison rut; winters are long, cold, and windy on the northern plains.

Bison, elk, pronghorn, wild horses, and prairie dogs inhabit Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and the prairie pothole region is North America's premier 'duck factory' for breeding waterfowl.

Mixed-grass prairie, the badlands, the Missouri River corridor, and the pothole wetlands of the east — critical for continental waterfowl — make up North Dakota's grassland-dominated ecology.

The colorful, eroded badlands of the Little Missouri River break the rolling Great Plains, exposing layered clay, sandstone, and lignite coal seams (some of which naturally burn), while the glaciated drift prairie and pothole wetlands cover the east (3,506-ft White Butte is the high point).

The Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, and Lakota peoples inhabited the region; Lewis and Clark wintered here, aided by Sakakawea. North Dakota became a state in 1889.

Ranching and Western heritage, the Lewis and Clark and Native history of the upper Missouri, and a strong hunting and waterfowling tradition shape the outdoors.

Protecting the prairie pothole wetlands vital to waterfowl, conserving badlands and prairie amid oil and gas development, and bison and elk management are central concerns.

Bismarck, Fargo, and Williston have airports; the badlands (Medora) are reached by car off I-94. Distances are long and services sparse in the west.

Severe plains weather — extreme heat, cold, wind, and storms — is the chief concern. Carry water in the badlands, watch for rattlesnakes and bison (keep your distance), and prepare for remoteness.

State parks require a vehicle permit, and North Dakota Game and Fish administers licenses; Theodore Roosevelt requires a park pass.

Keep distance from bison, and carry water in the badlands.

Explore Theodore Roosevelt National Park at dawn or dusk for bison and wild horses, ride or hike the Maah Daah Hey Trail through the badlands, and enjoy the dark prairie skies.

North Dakota borders Montana, South Dakota, Minnesota, and the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, linking the badlands, the Missouri, and the northern prairie.