The Maah Daah Hey Trail traverses the North Dakota badlands and connects the North and South Units of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The first 96-mile section was completed in 1999, too late to be included in detail in my 1999 guidebook “Exploring the Black Hills and Badlands.” But my publishers at Johnson Books and I recognized that the Maah Daah Hey, combined with the trails of TRNP, would be deserving of a guidebook of their own. Jean and I jumped at the chance to explore the newly built trail and to be some of the first to backpack it.
We
had tried a short section of the trail in 1999 on a backpacking loop around the
Petrified Forest in the South Unit of TRNP. Our 2001 trip was to be the start
of a systematic traverse of the MDH that would eventually lead to my 2006
guidebook “A Trail Guide: The Maah Daah Hey Trail, Theodore Roosevelt National
Park, and the Dakota Prairie Grasslands.” For the 2001 trip, we chose the north
section of the MDH from the crossing of the Little Missouri River to the
northern end at the Forest Service CCC Campground since jean had not yet
visited the North Unit.
The
Maah Daah Hey Trail was not as developed then as it is now. There were no
developed campsites along the trail, no sources of potable water, designated campsites,
or water caches. Our biggest concern for
the trip was water. From our earlier guidebook work we developed good contacts
with Curt Glasoe and Russ Walsh of the Forest Service, and were able to get
good information on the latest maps, stock ponds and stock tanks where we could
find water, and a list of potential camping spots. The FS had plans to build
campsites with water along the trail, but construction had not yet started. The
next issue was finding a shuttle, for even by North Dakota standards the Little
Missouri trail crossing is remote. Luckily, Dakota Cyclery in Medora was
already shuttling mountain bikers on the MDH and Buffalo Gap trails near
Medora, and they agreed to shuttle us.
For
all my previous guidebooks, I’d scouted the trails on day trips to avoid
carrying all the gear needed for overnight camping. I soon realized what a good
idea that was. Carrying a full pack with all the stops for observing and note
taking was much more effort, as it created a lot of stationary time where I was
still wearing my heavy load. This trip was in the pre-cell phone, pre-GPS era
so I was recording my observations in a field notebook and sketching the route
of the trail on a xerox copy of the topographic map. In 2001, the current
versions of the USGS maps for the area that show the MDH were not yet available.
However, we did carry the 2000 version of the Forest Service MDH Trail map
which showed the trail and the mileposts but at a broader scale. The mileposts
for the Maah Daah Hey originally started at MP 0 at Sully Creek on the South
end and extended north to MP 96 at the CCC Campground. Subsequently, the south
end of the MDH was moved to the Burning Coal Vein Campground, which became the
new mile 0, and the north end at the CCC CG is just north of MP 144. I’ve used
the new mile markers here, except for in the names of two of our campsites
In
May 2001 we drove out to the Badlands arriving two days early to try and break
ourselves in. The dry heat and sun of the west always seemed to both dry out and
tire me out much sooner than I’d expect. We started with an easy hike on the
Painted Canyon Trail and drove the South Loop Road on our first day, and stayed
at the Trappers Kettle in Bellfield.
The next day we moved up to the North Unit to hike the longer Buckhorn Trail after checking out the CCC Campground ahead of our shuttle. We spent that night at the Juniper Campground in the North Unit. This blog will focus on the experience of backpacking the Maah Daah Hey in 2001. If you are looking for detailed trail info, see my current trail guide “Trails of the North Dakota Badlands & Prairie; A Guide to The Maah Daah Hey Trail, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, & Dakota Prairie Grasslands” Here
5-23-01
The
start of long hikes seldom go exactly as planned, and this trip was no
different than others. Our first issue though, was totally unexpected. As we
were packing up camp in the morning Jean looked outside the tent and muttered
something like “uh oh.” I looked out to see a herd of bison wandering through
the campground. The campground is not fenced off from the rest of the park, and
it turns out it is not uncommon for the herd to use a ford near the campground
to cross the Little Missouri River. A cardinal rule of hiking in the badlands hiking
is to give the bison plenty of space, but what to do when they invade yours? Luckily,
the herd dispersed enough that we were able to jump out, hastily put away the
tent and stow the last of our gear. We arrived just in time at the CCC
Campground to meet our shuttle.
The
plan was to leave our car at the campground, and have the shuttle drop us off
at the nearest road crossing to the Little Missouri River. Our shuttle driver
Wes from Dakota Cyclery had recently lived in Jamestown TN, next to the Big
South Fork, another of our favorite, but vastly underappreciated national
parks. The gravel roads in the Forest Service managed areas of the ND Badlands are
generally well maintained. Currently with the gas boom in the underlying
Williston Basin the roads are extremely well cared for and also well signed. But
back in the early 2000s the signage left something to be desired. We started up
the wrong road and drove around for a substantial time, long enough that I was
getting worried that we’d never find our starting point. Finally, seemingly out
of nowhere, we spotted a Maah Daah Hey sign and pulled over. As it turned out
we couldn’t have chosen a much more remote spot. We were on FS Road 712 at
least 5 miles beyond where Magpie Campground now is, just a bit to the east of
current MP 98.
To
save Jean some distance carrying the backpack our plan was for me to hike down
to the river and back without my pack, record the notes I’d need for the
guidebook, then return to join her on the hike north back to the CCC
Campground. We were well east of our intended target, so this was a longer wait
for her than we’d imagined. It took an hour to go 3+ miles down to the river (~MP
94.1) where I started my mapping and note taking for the guide.
The
trail started by turning away from the river up the valley of Whitetail Creek.
The mileposts were all in place and along with the fences and gates that marked
the various landownerships and grazing plots there would be abundant features
for a trail user to track their progress. After climbing up from the river
there is the Midpoint Marker and monument to Curt and Russ and the crews who
had built the trail. We were in the Devils Pass Oilfield and like much of the
FS land along the Maah Daah Hey Trail there were well sites and access roads.
After
meeting back up with Jean, our route turned east and followed FS Road 712. Next
up would be a traverse over Devils Pass. Back in the frontier days one of the
easiest routes across the badlands followed what is now FS Road 711. The only
difficult part of the crossing was the narrow and steep sided Devils Pass. The
pass was coated with a layer of gumbo, the slick, sticky water-loving clay that
makes the badlands so tough to traverse when wet. But with dry weather we were
able to cross easily.
We
were finding the backpacking nearly ideal. Obviously, there are no tall
mountains in the badlands and so far, we hadn’t had any long or steep climbs.
Both the badlands and grasslands have few trees, so the views across the
landscape are nearly constant. Particularly for easterners the startling,
sharp-edged landscape is so alien as to be captivating. All we missed was the
prolific wildlife we were used to seeing in TRNP.
Just beyond the Devils Pass we saw two mountain bikers, and we then stopped to pump water at a small stockpond. We also saw a group of backpackers heading to FS Road 711 from the CCC camp. They had cached water along the way, but gave us some tips on where we might find drinkable water. Around MP 104 we were briefly lost for one of the few times on the trip, confused by several new oil and gas roads that were not on our maps. By this time, we were tired, and hoping to reach Magpie Creek where we expected to find water and campsites.
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| Pronghorn on the grasslands. |
We
crossed FS Road 712 and signed Magpie Creek, and picked a camp spot on the open
flat area on the far side of the creek. (I returned to this area in 2019 and
found no trace of the old ranch building and two track road that we’d seen in
2001).There is now a trailhead on FS 712, a nearby campground with water, and a
side trail from the campsite to the MDH. Magpie Creek was barely flowing but
had pools deep enough to collect clean looking water. We’d had a great day;
solved the hardest part of the hike (getting to the trail), made good progress
hiking, found this section of the MDH to be great walking, and were enjoying a
nice campsite with a good water source.
Magpie Creek, 14 miles
5-24-01
The next morning we had minor frost on the tent, but were down to tee shirts by the time we left camp. After leaving, we soon passed a small pond north of the trail lined with trees that also would have provided a nice camping spot. Many of the next few ponds we encountered were partially filled in with weeds and we wondered if some had been abandoned by their ranchers. Around MP 108 we started to see fragments of petrified wood, some lignite, and a few intact petrified stumps buried in gumbo. Besides needing to be in badlands topography and originally covered by the volcanic ash deposits that have now turned to gumbo, it was hard for me to predict the areas where we would see petrified wood. It seemed some horizons had it, and others did not. Maybe the paleontologists and stratigraphers that worked these rocks knew them well enough to tell, but I could not.
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| Fossil wood along the Maah Daah Hey Trail. |
Past
MP 108 the MDH trail now joins the Ice
Caves Trail. As intriguing as that area sounded, Jean and I didn’t feel we had
the leeway to make the extra side trip, particularly without a trail to guide
us. But we did enjoy the break in scenery that the nearby aspen grove provided.
We were mostly in grassland with only a solitary mule deer in sight, but at
least the grasslands provided to be fast hiking. We were on long narrow finger
ridge, my favorite type of walking as it combines easy terrain with extensive
views. From these ridges pronghorn are often in view and we were lucky enough
to see a group of four.
Our
concerns about water were growing. I described the water in one concrete tank
as nasty, and it was worth thinking about just what we might have to force
ourselves to drink from. The water we had pumped was so silty that we’d had to
clean our filter after filling every bottle. I was getting heel blisters that
we treated by covering with duct tape. It was now overcast, and we wore our
warm coats at lunch. From Curt’s notes we were looking forward to a stock dam
with trees near the crossing of FS Road 809 near MP 115.
Beyond
FS 809 is the remarkably flat plain of Beicegel Creek. Beyond was a gumbo flat
that was nice walking when dry and overcast, but could be hellish in summer’s
dry heat, or in mud season. We sped through the gumbo flat eventually climbing
to the safety of the grassland. Around MP 118 there was another nice pond, some
geese, and a potential campsite, but we felt it was too early to camp. At the
crossing of paved Beicegel Road (County 50) we talked with a group of four
mountain bikers, our only people sighting that day.
Beyond
County 50 we stopped to camp at the next stock pond, a little short of MP 121
(MP 73 originally). The site was a big letdown, kind of run down and muddy, but
with some scattered cottonwoods. We were able to get water out of the pipe that
fed the nearby tank, and of course treated it. The water in the tank was far
too contaminated to think about using. On our next visit to the MDH in 2004 we
were smart enough to cache water for ourselves during the drive to the
trailhead, and used the Elkhorn Campground that had recently been completed.
Pond MP 73, 15 miles
5-25-01
The next morning, we headed out again through the grasslands above the head of Cottonwood Creek. Near MP 122 we encountered the FS trail crew. The MDH had already been relocated several times over the section that we would hike that day. Much of the trail north of Beicegal Road to Cottonwood Creek and a second section just north of the China Wall are shown on the revised topo maps for the area, but have since been relocated.
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| Maah Daah Hey Trail along Cottonwood Creek. |
The
FS had also not yet built the Bennett Campground and Trailhead, or the Cottonwood
or Bennett trails which would intersect the Maah Daah Hey south of the China
Wall. The trail next dropped into the west side of the valley of Cottonwood
Creek giving us some nice vistas on the descent. The creek had widely scattered
potholes with water. North of MP 124 we took a snack break near some petrified
wood. North of MP 126 the trail dropped down beside the creek and began a long
traverse of a boring sagebrush covered flat area.
The
trail turned west at its junction with Bennett Creek and after passing a few
unappetizing looking ponds approached the China Wall just past MP128. The wall
is one of the few imposing climbs on the Maah Daah Hey, but the climb is really
barely over 200’, and we climbed up and over in less than 20 minutes. Passing
an oil well we crossed signed Bennett Creek and then a gravel road shortly
beyond.
Here
we saw a group of four mountain bike riders on a three day, end-to-end ride of
the MDH. This pattern of use would continue. Though conceived by horse riders
and imagined for hikers as well, most of the use of the MDH has come from
mountain bike riders lured by the promise of one of the longest ridable single
tracks in the country. The absence of long climbs, the endless views, plentiful
wildlife, and bizarre badlands landscapes were just as attractive to bike
riders as they were to us laboriously hauling our backpacks.
Beyond Bennett Creek there was one stiff climb up a face of bentonite cliffs back up to the grasslands. The trail would drop off the grassland into Collar Draw where we would pick our campsite beside a small side creek on the floor of the draw beside a small pond. I took no notes about this campsite, which should not be taken as an endorsement. I believe this was another site where we were getting highly questionable water out of the pipe feeding a stock tank. After 12 miles of backpacking we needed whatever water we could get. Despite four days of treating questionable water on the trip neither Jean nor I ended up suffering any ill effects.
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| Sunset Dam 85. |
Dam 85, 12 miles
5-26-01
After our unappealing campsite the night before, we were treated to one of the MDH’s highlights not long after we stated the final day’s hike. In an unassuming spot in Collar Draw sits a massive, fossilized tree stump. Most of the tree fossils in the ND Badlands were buried by ash from volcanic eruptions in what is now Yellowstone National Park. The ash buried the lower sections of these trees and the silica in the ash fossilized the buried portions of the trees. This particular specimen was about 5-6 feet in diameter and about 5’ high with a very wide spread at its base, much larger than any others I’ve seen in the badlands.
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| Corral Creek, Fossil Stump. |
Not
too much farther on we came to the 6’ bison fence that marks the boundary of
the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Unfortunately, the TRNP-N
section of the Maah Daah Hey Trail doesn’t connect to the North Unit’s other
trails, and cuts across the unit’s southern edge merely as connector between
two swaths of FS land split by a large area of private land. When designing the
trail, a goal was to keep a continuous band of FS, State of ND, or NPS property
as the trail corridor. This was done with the original MDH. However, the
appearance of so many mountain bikers on the trail created a couple snags. The
land in both units of TRNP used by the MDH is designated Wilderness, which
excludes mountain bikes. In the South Unit of the park there was ample FS and
State land to build the Buffalo Gap Trail, which serves as a bypass for bikes
around the South Unit. In the North Unit there is no continuous land corridor
for a bypass. For hikers and horse riders this isn’t an issue, but mountain bike
riders must use public roads, or most often just start their trips at the
Bennett Campground.
In the North Unit, the MDH follows the sagebrush filled valley of Corral Creek to the southeast corner of the Unit with views of the Achenbach Hills to the north. At least the normal cow patties of these flats were replaced here by native bison patties. Another gate and bison fence marked our exit from the park. We climbed up to the grassland across two washouts on a section of trail that has since been relocated. The trail next headed east across a shadeless grassland to the current site of the Long X Trail junction and waterbox. How we could have used a cold drink there! We were getting broiled by the sun, thirstier by the step, and now were getting harassed by gnats as well. We took temporary refuge in a small grove of trees just beyond the current junction, our only break of the day in our rush to finish. Near MP 141 we got our first views of the North Unit Visitor Center across the river to the north. Here we met two horsemen from Hamilton, MT. Their dog was experienced enough to rest in the shade cast by the horses, and we were envious of any means to get out of the sun. The day had turned hot as soon as the sun had come up, and by the time we had reached the park boundary it was already getting uncomfortable.
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| Badlands near the north end of the trail. |
Dropping off the grasslands we walked through another petrified wood locale and reached a junction with the now much relocated and temporarily (I hope) abandoned FS Summit Trail. Approaching the end, my navigating and note taking got a little sloppy as we were much fatigued by the heat. We got a bit disoriented by unexpected splits in the trail before finally reaching the end of the trail and our car in the CCC Campground. We immediately headed over to the North Unit and got cold sodas before heading back down to Bellfield for a room and meal at the Trappers Kettle. Our final tally was 4 days and 52 miles. We would return to complete the southern end of the Maah Daah Hey on a three day backpack trip in 2004. In 2011 we would ride some of the new southern section of the Maah Daah Hey and in 2019 complete the new southern section of the trail while researching for the new guidebook.
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| Signpost at the north end of the Maah Daah Hey. |
For
more information on the current state of the MDH, TRNP, and associated forest
service trails see my latest, soon to be released guide Here.
For
the latest on the Maah Daah Hey, visit the Maah Daah Hey Trail Association
website; MDHTA.
