In 1996, I made a quick trip to gain four Plains state highpoints, but I did not bother with North Dakota at that time. Since then, North Dakota stood out as an "orphan" highpoint for me: all by itself, and hard to justify the expense of going there just to get that one highpoint. I even toyed with the idea of leaving it for last if I ever get to that point in this hobby. However, a good opportunity arose when I committed to join a highpoint trip to Montana's Granite Peak in early August, 2002. If I got that biggie, I'd then head on over to get North Dakota as a nice chaser, and that's exactly how things transpired.

First, I took quite a detour. After getting off of Granite Peak, I went south to Thermopolis, Wyoming, then on to Sturgis, South Dakota. The intention wasn't highpoints- it was bikes! The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally was going on in full swing and I thought that would be good fun for a day or so. So that's what I did for most of the 7th. That evening, I started the drive north to North Dakota via Belle Fourche on US-85. I drove headlong into a storm and ended up pulling off the highway about 40 miles north of Belle Fourche to wait out the storm. It was about 10:30 p.m. Next thing I knew it was 3 a.m.! I'd fallen asleep, so I figured I may as well sleep some more, finally awaking from my car-hotel at 6 a.m. to the sound of birds and the occasional vehicle. The storm was gone and I was amid fine rolling countryside dotted here and there with neat bluffs. I drove on into North Dakota and arrived in Bowman, south of the highpoint, around 7:30 a.m.

My intent was to spend a day or so in North Dakota and get a lot of county highpoints, too. My first try was neighboring Adams county (Whetstone Buttes). But I was driving a tiny Nissan Sentra and no sooner had I gone 10 feet onto a dirt section road, my tires began spinning... I immediately reversed back onto the highway and figured this may not be such a good idea. I decided pretty much to just go get the state highpoint and then bag the trip and go home.

I eventually wormed my way to the town of Amidon, county seat of Slope County. The county has abouty 850 residents and Amidon barely 50. I stopped in at the general store, got some goodies and asked about the roads to the highpoint. Turns out these are more solid gravel so my car would have no problem. I also got nailed by that fake-policeman-dummy-in-a-patrol-car trick. One was sitting along side of the road, and sure enough I slowed down pretty fast. Then I took a closer look and saw it was a mannequin! This may very well be the entire Slope County Sheriff's force, for all I know.

Anyway, from Amidon I went east just under 2 miles to a gravel road just after some signs pointing to White Butte (note: from the highway it isn't clear which bluff is the highpoint according to the signs). About 5 miles south and 1 mile west brought me to the home of Ms. Van Daele, an elderly woman who owns the land and bluff. She was very friendly and she gets lots of visitors, so this probably fills her days nicely for her. She does ask for a $20 donation, which seemed fair. She directed me to where to drive and park. From a small hill near an abandoned barn, I parked my car and started the hike. White Bluff was just a short ways south from here.

The hike follows the two-track south to a gate. I crossed the gate on its right side and followed paths toward the base of the buttes. The ground is this interesting chalky-sandy mix. In dry weather it probably isn't a problem. But last night's rains gave it all a very wet, thick consistency, like wet cement. And it was sticky, too. As I hiked it glopped onto my boots and stayed there. I then reached the base of the bluffs and started up a steep hillside, reaching more solid footing amid the grass and scrub atop the butte. A fine trail winds to the summit, and about 30 minutes after leaving my car I was on top of North Dakota! The weather was cool and very cloudy. Everything was kind of gray, but even then the views were nice. White Butte has about a 400-foot prominence over the surrounding plain. In some shielded bowls among this hill/butte system, there were stands of trees- a somewhat unusual sight for the usual treeless plains. The summit was marked by a stone cairn, a USGS benchmark on a post, a grave marker for a former landowner and a green strongbox holding the register. I signed in and picked out some familiar names, including one of the guys who climbed Granite with us (he was here a week before me).

Coming down went uneventful until I reached the exposed clay muck at the base of the buttes. I slipped! My whole left side fell into this and I slid about 5 feet, thereby getting that gray clay crud everywhere on my boots, socks, shorts, shirt, left leg and arm. My clothing is shot, pretty much- it's like dried cement on it now. It took many minutes of aggressive scrubbing at a gas station later to get the crud off my arm and leg. Oh well. From here I pretty much decided that this had been a very successful trip and that I really wanted to just go home. I spent the remainder of the day driving back to Billings, about 310 miles away. On the way, in Miles City, I took a lunch break and exited off of Interstate-94. An old bearded man was standing on the offramp, holding a sign along with his bags, hoping for a ride. Problem was, he was facing the other way, downhill! I don't think it ever occured to him he was on the offramp for westbound traffic and not on the onramp for eastbound traffic. I ate at a Subway then as I got back on the highway, I looked back and there he was, still holding up his sign and wondering why everyone was going the other way.