North Dakota Vacation Ideas
North Dakota is hard to beat when it comes to outdoor activities.
Sail across Lake Sakakawea, hiking, biking, kayaking, camping, boating, skiing, snowmobiling, golfing, rock climbing, caving, wildlife viewing and horseback riding, the list seems endless.
You can even visit and excavate at fossil bearing sites ranging in age from 30-years to 73-million years.
National Park and Historic Sites
During his administration, President Theodore Roosevelt founded the United States Forest Service, signed the National Monuments Act and established the first federal game preserve.
His conservation efforts led to the founding of the National Park Service, established to preserve and protect unspoiled places.
Theodore Roosevelt National Park
The two units of Theodore Roosevelt National Park offer majestic Badlands scenery, abundant wildlife and all kinds of adventures.
The North Unit and the South Unit are both distinctly different.
The North Unit has taller buttes and is heavily forested in places. The beauty and allure of the North Unit draws visitors year round for sweeping vistas of this designated wilderness.
You will see buffalo herds, prairie dog towns, wild horses, mule deer, elk and maybe even a coyote or two.
The South Unit is where the Badlands have been shaped by millions of years of wind, rain, erosion, fire and the meandering Little Missouri River.
The area was described in 1864 by Gen. Alfred Sully as "hell with the fires out." This area is great to see as a visitor in a car, but imagine having to cross it in a wagon train!
Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site
This was once a thriving civilization situated along the Knife River. Sakakawea lived at the Awatixa site when she met Lewis and Clark at Fort Mandan.
It is the only National Park Service site that preserves and protects the Northern Plains Indian Heritage. The Native Americans have occupied this area for over 11,000 years. There are the remains of three Hidatsa village sites within the park boundaries.
International Peace Garden
The International Peace Garden is a 2,339-acre botanical garden commemorating peace between the United States and Canada along the world's longest unfortified border.
It blooms with more than 150,000 varieties of flowers and showcases the Peace Chapel. It is also RV-friendly campground.
The Rendezvous Region
The Rendezvous Region is one of the most scenic areas in the state. It is referred to as the Rendezvous Region because large rendezvous were held there during the fur trade era.
Today it is an attraction because the oldest rocks in North Dakota are exposed in the Pembina Gorge. North Dakota's oldest fossils are found in these rocks.
The rocks and fossils entombed provide evidence that shallow seas, about 90 to 80 million years ago, covered North Dakota.
Camping
North Dakota has 1,300 campsites many equipped for RV.
North Dakota is a great place to camp because of its 17 State Parks and Recreation Areas and countless local camping facilities. Keep an eye towards the sky because this is a great place to star gaze, look for planets, learn about astronomy and the Northern Lights might be able to be seen.
Rivers
North Dakota's canoeing waters are as diverse as the state itself. Canoe rivers with great scenery such as agricultural plains, rugged Badlands, thickly wooded slopes or river bluffs, North Dakota's rivers offer a challenge to beginners and experienced paddlers alike.
Sheyenne River
Canoeists wishing to experience a variety of terrains should not miss the Sheyenne River. As it traverses eastern North Dakota, it flows through rolling hills, hardwood forests, open prairie and rich agricultural land.
Little Missouri River
The Little Missouri, North Dakota's only designated State Scenic River, offers a unique perspective of the badlands.
The river passes through Sully Creek State Recreation Area, the Little Missouri National Grassland and Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
From the river vantage, buttes, ravines, and plateaus rise to cast abstract landforms against the horizon.
Mouse River
Bordered by three national wildlife refuges, the waterway is a haven for North Dakota wildlife species.
Beaver, wood ducks, white tailed deer, muskrat and raccoons are just a few of the animals you may encounter while canoeing on the Mouse River.
Missouri River
This river's course was once followed by the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Strewn with sandbars and lined by gentle river bluffs, the Missouri River offers a challenging, scenic route to canoeists.
Devils Lake
North Dakota's largest natural lake is the perfect spot for a family fishing outing for perch, walleye and northern pike. The lake offers great winter recreation, too, for both ice fishing and snowmobiling. Next to the lake is Sully's Hill National Game Preserve with its herd of buffalo and elk.
Jamestown/Pipestem Reservoirs
These twin reservoirs, located just north of Jamestown, are full service, seasonal resort areas. Both feature walleye, northern pike, perch and crappie fisheries, boat ramps and docks, swimming beaches, campgrounds and picnicking.
Fishing
The North Dakota Game and Fish Department lists more than 150 fishing waters in every corner of the state, and most of them offer modern camping facilities, water skiing, boating, hiking trails and well-stocked concessions.
The Upper Missouri
The Missouri enters North Dakota from Montana and flows freely for many miles until it calms down at the headwaters of Lake Sakakawea.
This upper Missouri stretch, joined by the Yellowstone River just inside the state's borders, is where sauger fish bite well in spring and fall, northern pike inhabit many backwaters, and catfish much of the open water season.
Lake Sakakawea
Lake Sakakawea stretches out more than 150 miles to the southeast where Garrison Dam, one of the larger earth rolled dams in the world, contains it.
Walleye attract considerable attention from Sakakawea anglers throughout the reservoir. Northern pike, North Dakota's state fish, can grow larger than 20 pounds and cruise hundreds of bays that add up to the lake's more than 1,300 miles of shoreline.
The deep, cold water of lower Sakakawea harbors chinook salmon, while the northern face of the dam and underwater rocky points and islands support a tremendous smallmouth bass fishery.
White bass, yellow perch, crappie, sauger and rainbow and brown trout are also plentiful in certain parts of the lake.
Central Missouri River
From Garrison Dam, the Missouri River resumes its natural course until it reaches Lake Oahe's headwaters. the Garrison Dam Tailrace (just below the dam) is one of the premier fishing spots in the state.
State records for chinook salmon, and brown, rainbow and cutthroat trout were caught within 20 miles downstream of the dam. Walleyes are found in this entire stretch of river, with impressive spring and fall runs.
Devils Lake
Once known primarily for its jumbo perch caught through the ice. The lake has tripled in size since 1992 and fish populations have kept up with the expanding water. Its reputation has now grown for its northern pike, walleye, white bass and crappie.
Pike cruise in and around flooded trees. White bass are also found and it is said that they will nail your lure on almost every cast.
Walleye and perch are plentiful and ice anglers still come from far and wide in quest of perch that push two pounds.
Hunting
North Dakota is as bountiful a place as there is for hunters. In fact their biggest problem might be that they have so many options in fall.
Hunters can decoy ducks or geese in the morning, chase pheasants in the afternoon and be back in their decoy spread again for the evening flight.
Or they can bow hunt for pronghorn and mule deer in the Badlands.
North Dakota is known in the lower 48 states for some of the best duck hunting in the country.
Upland hunters come from around the country for a shot at ring necked pheasants, sharp tailed grouse and Hungarian partridge.
Big game hunts are available, too.
Birding
North Dakota offers bird watchers the premier birding location in the northern Great Plains. More than 400 species have been listed in a single year.
Wildlife enthusiasts will be thoroughly impressed with extraordinary destinations like the Missouri Coteau, the Turtle Mountains, the Missouri River Valley, the Badlands, the Pembina Gorge, and the Sheyenne Grasslands.
North Dakota's 62 national wildlife refuges are the most wildlife refuges in the Union.
The best part of North Dakota wild life is that you will find the best sightings off of the refuges. Quiet country road are great for encounters with a newly hatched brood of Canvasbacks, Sprague's Pipit, Baird's Sparrow or 40,000 Snow Geese taking flight over a harvested grain field.
Winter birds are rarer, but visitors might see a Snowy Owl, Rough-legged Hawks, Northern Goshawks, Bohemian Waxwings, White-winged Crossbills, Snow Buntings, Gray Partridges, Greater Prairie Chickens, and Pileated Woodpeckers and others.
North Dakota is one of the United States greatest natural recourses and is an outdoorsman's home away from home.
Enjoy your vacation!