Initial Rock, Custer Trail, Little Missouri Grasslands, North Dakota

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For Roadtrip 6 we decided we wanted to explore our nation's grasslands.  These are public lands, but largely fly under the radar when people think of our public lands.  National Parks. National Monuments, National Forests, and BLM lands are more widely known public areas.  

For good reason.  They are not places for people to visit and enjoy.  Mostly they seem to be places where there are cattle and oil wells.  We have found some areas of great beauty, but boy do you have to work to find them.  Nothing is set up for recreational users, except hunters.   If we did not have a lot of experience dealing with our public lands, it would have been impossible for us.

And of significance, when you look at a map and see an area that is identifed as a "National Grassland," you learn that this area is not really what it seems.  Within the boundaries of the "National Grassland," is hundreds of smaller areas that arer private.  It is not like a National Park where the boundary means something.

Without our sophisticated equipment it would have been almost impossible for us to hike in these areas.  Identifying where we can do this took a ton of effort.  It took all of our five years of experience dealing with public lands to figure it out.  

For two nights we camped at Initial Rock.  This is a very interesting historical spot where Custer's army spent one night on their way to the Little Big Horn.  At this spot two of Custer's solders engraved their name on "Lucky Rock."

Now, Lucky Rock is not the official name of the place.  But seeing as how the two soldiers who engraved their names there survived the campaign, I think the name is appropriate.

The little memorial is actually nice, but we have doubts as to whether many people visit.  We don't ordinarily camp in places like this, but there aren't many options in these "National Grasslands," and we want to hike around the area where Custer traveled.  

The Department of the Interior has done a nice job of preserving this site, and protecting it.  The Initial Rock has a protective barrier, and several information signs.  We were here two days and saw several people go look at it--mostly hunters.