Western North Dakota

[Henry Hammer]

Two friends and I are planning our trip to ND for october this year and looking for a little advice. We ventured there a couple years ago and had a great time in september. We were hunting around Beulah/Golden Valley area, but are going to go farther west this time. We are looking at the Grassy Butte area and we will be bringing the pop-up camper. Anybody have any advice on campgrounds or camping in that area of the National park/grassland? Thanks..Henry

[Henry Hammer]

Here are some pictures from last time.

[PSUBowhunter]

I hunted western ND a few years ago and loved it. We hunted just south of Medora along the little missouri river. We had a blast camping and hunting in the National Grasslands. If you have any questions feel free to ask. I know we had some very good maps that showed what was private and what was public. I can get you the contact info for the supplier of the map if you are interested.

[rock_hunter]

The last few winters have been very hard on the mule deer, so be prepared to see fewer deer.  The whitetail numbers are still good, however.

[Henry Hammer]

Winter has been tough and now the flooding is not been helping much either!! The deer numbers are not really to much of a concern though to us as long as we are hunting and having fun that is what counts..Henry

[Don Stokes]

Henry, I hunted up there a couple of years ago, along the southern shores of lake Sakakawea. The deer stayed in the "coolees" along the river during the day, and came out into the open early and late. We had access to a corn field, rare in those parts, and a number of deer were using it. We even saw an elk one morning, a 5 point bull.

We saw good bucks nearly every hunt, and my buddies missed a few. For us Southern woods hunters, it's really hard to judge distance in the grassland, with deer larger than we are accustomed to seeing. Everybody shot under. We had a blast, but didn't bring home the venison. We saw more whitetails than mulies.

[Cootling]

Road construction and oil extraction are proceeding at a breakneck pace in western North Dakota.  The character of the region is rapidly changing, with no end in sight.  Brings to mind the expression "Past performance does not guarantee future results."