The Sheyenne is the easternmost of our National Grasslands, and very nearly the northernmost as well. (Only the Little Missouri is closer to Canada). Being far from the grasp of the rain shadow of the Rockies, it gets a healthy dose of precipitation each year, at least by Great Plains standards. For this reason, you'll find a tallgrass prairie here along with the attendant flowers.

According to a pamphlet put out by the USDA Forest Service (which oversees our National Grasslands), this is one of the few remaining tall grass prairies in public ownership. [footnote]   However, I've heard through the grapevine that the Nature Conservancy has been diligent in protecting various plots in Minnesota; maybe these areas will fall into place some day and form a new, contiguous tallgrass prairie that we can all enjoy.

Where to Find It

The Sheyenne National Grassland is located in southeastern North Dakota, not far from Lisbon, which is where the District Ranger's office is located. The grassland boundaries encompass some 70,000 acres, but as usual there is a fair amount of private land intermingled with this.

The Sheyenne River runs through the north part of the Grassland, hence the name. I found this river to be fairly murky and laden with silt, and yet it was quite beautiful in its own way. It winds and twists like a slithering serpent and is fringed by many trees and a goodly amount of undeveloped land. I have no idea where the spelling (with an "S") comes from.

We passed through the Sheyenne National Grassland on the way to Montana as part of our fabulous Little Bighorn Battlefield trip of 2002. Since we had to cover a fair amount of ground the first day, we weren't able to spend much time here. Instead, this was a preliminary reconnaissance to help us plan for later trips. We were captivated with what we saw and expect to return for a more leisurely investigation.

The North Country National Scenic Trail

One of the more intriguing features of the Sheyenne is the fact that the North Country National Scenic Trail passes through it. This is a substantial recreational trail, winding amongst the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota.

Designated in 1980, and supervised by the National Park Service, the North Country National Scenic Trail will one day be a 4000 mile long footpath across the northern United States. To date, 1700 miles of it are complete, with a good 25 mile unbroken stretch in the Sheyenne. Be sure to see the link, below, to the North Country Trail Association; you'll find a ton of excellent information there.

There are two trailheads in the Sheyenne, one in the northeastern corner, and the other on the west-central side. We stopped by the latter one, just to check it out and found a parking area and an information placard there. See the picture to the left.

Since this is ranch land, the area was gated to keep cattle from coming and going. The trail, winding away into the distance, was most enticing but unfortunately the sun was starting get low (as you can tell from the photo) and so we had to keep moving to get to our first night's camping.

By the way, there are no campgrounds in the Sheyenne National Grassland, although it is legal to pitch a tent just about anywhere in it as long as you keep well away from the trail, trailheads and the stock watering tanks. We were looking for something a little more organized and easy to do from the back of my minivan, so we continued on another half-hour to Fort Ransom State Park. I didn't know what to expect from North Dakota State Parks, but let me mention that I was greatly impressed! This was a wonderfully quiet and rustic area with some of the best birding I've ever witnessed. More about that later...

A Scenic Backway

Serendipity strikes again! I had asked the Delorme Map 'N' Go program to route us from Lisbon to Fort Ransom in the shortest way possible, since our first day on this trip would be fairly lengthy. As it turns out, we were guided along the Sheyenne River Valley Scenic Backway. This is a rustic gravel road which hugs the river and takes you along fantastic terrain with hawk-filled skies. Best of all, we saw many "No Hunting" signs adorning the roadside fences, which means this area would be a good, safe one to visit in the fall. (I've had way too many errant bullets whistle by me in the past while merely trying to hike.) Be sure to check out the North Dakota Scenic Byway and Backway program; see the link below.

• Federal
  • National Grasslands Main Web Site
  • National Park Service
  • North Country National Scenic Trail (NPS)
  
  
• State
  • Fort Ransom State Park
  • North Dakota Scenic Byways
  • State of North Dakota Tourism
  • North Dakota State Parks
  
  
• Municipal
  • Town of Lisbon
  
  
• Other Interesting Sites
  • The Nature Conservancy
  • The Rain Shadow Effect