Lewis and Clark State Park

This is the homeland of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara, the MHA Nation, whose reservation lies along Lake Sakakawea to the south and east. For centuries their villages and hunting grounds spread along the Missouri, and the lake that now fills this valley bears the name of Sakakawea, the young Shoshone woman who lived among the Hidatsa and traveled with Lewis and Clark.

When the Lewis and Clark expedition came up the Missouri in the spring of 1805, this rugged badlands country was among the sights that filled their journals. The river they knew ran free through the valley then; the wide reservoir came much later, when the Garrison Dam was built downstream in the mid-twentieth century and the rising water reshaped the whole landscape.

The signature of this park is the collision of two worlds. Behind the shoreline rise the eroded buttes and coulees of the badlands, banded in tan, gray, and rust, dry and rugged and full of shadow. In front of them stretches the broad, deep blue of Lake Sakakawea, one of the largest reservoirs in the United States.

That contrast makes for some of the most striking scenery on the northern plains, especially in the low light of morning and evening when the buttes glow and the water goes still. It is a landscape that rewards a slow drive, a walk to a high point, or simply a seat by the shore at sunset.

Lake Sakakawea is a boater's and angler's water, big enough for sailing and prized for its walleye, northern pike, and salmon. The park's marina and boat access make it a launching point for exploring the vast reservoir, and campers settle in along the bay for long summer weekends on the water.

The park also protects a rare pocket of native mixed-grass prairie, the kind of grassland that once covered this whole region before the plow. Nature trails wind through the buttes and the prairie, and interpretive signs explain the grasses, wildflowers, and wildlife that make their home in this tough, beautiful country.

The mix of prairie, badlands, and water draws a good range of life. Deer and pronghorn move through the buttes, sharp-tailed grouse and songbirds live in the grass, and the lake and shore host pelicans, gulls, and migrating waterfowl. Hawks and eagles patrol the open sky.

Summer is the height of the boating and camping season, with long warm days and busy weekends. Spring greens the prairie and brings the wildflowers and nesting birds. Fall is quiet and often clear, with cool air and thin crowds, and the badlands hold their color late into the season. Winter is cold and still, the lake frozen and the buttes dusted with snow.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.