Little Missouri National Grassland: North Dakota

We have spent four days here.

We read that the National Grasslands are actually more accurately described as National Federal Government Buy-Back Lands.  A good thing.

In the 1930s farmers and ranchers settled land that looked promising, only to find out after a few years that the promising look was due to an atypical weather pattern.  Most of the time this land was borderline worthless.  So, the government bought it from them, to help them.  And turned that land into public land.

We have not seen anywhere near all of it, but from what we have seen these grasslands are rugged and dry.  They are actually northern deserts.  On the land we have seen the government leases some for cattle grazing (grrrrrrr) and some for oil drilling,  And it is a hodgepodge of public lands, private lands, and state lands.  We had a devil of a time figuring out which areas are public, so we could camp and hike on them.  One problem is that nobody has invested any money in good old fashioned signs.

We have detailed maps (thanks to Vicky's diligence), Public Lands apps, Google Maps, and my Garmin maps, so we believe we can do a good job of knowing where we are and where we can be.

However, it requires a great deal of diligence and effort. Maybe this is why these areas are so infrquently visited by people like us,

We had several nice nights here, and several nice (but very difficult) hikes.  There are, of course, no trails.  And the terrain is basically badland, meaning that small grassy areas are broken by deep ravines.  One does not go in any kind of a straight line when hiking here.

But it is beautiful, in its rugged way.  Here are shots of where we stayed, followed by photos of our hiking, and of some wildlife.  We leave tomorrow morning to head south. Somewhere south.