Merritt Reservoir State Recreation Area

Trip to Minot, ND Days 1 & 2 | Omaha to Badlands National Park | Kayaking in Merritt Reservoir | September 2022

This year, we made a conscious decision to travel less over the summer. Some of that was driven by Curtis finishing school, some by major life changes we expected to have to work through, some by a general dislike of summer, and some by the lack of work trips (we were very fortunate to have had so many trips ‘sponsored’ by the Navy last year). In fact, since our kayaking trip down the Niobrara in May, we’ve only spent time a way from our home by visiting family in Iowa.

But as Summer ends, our time in Nebraska coming to a close, and Curtis having finished his graduate program, we sprung at the chance to take a work trip to North Dakota. Similar to our trip to Great Falls, MT last year, we took the opportunity to drive out to the Air Force Base near Minot, North Dakota using the weekends before and after as travel days. So on the Friday before, after work was over, we packed up all our camping gear and hit the road.

The start of our trip followed the same route we’ve taken many times now, avoiding interstates, and driving through open country. We even stayed the night in a repeat campsite in the Nebraska National Forest near Halsey – a campsite that we conveniently forgot how many trains went by through the night. On top of that, a thunderstorm passed over early in the evening and we wondered if we would get any sleep.

The next day we deviated from our previous tracks through the Sandhills and followed NE-97 North towards Valentine. Along the way we passed by Merritt Reservoir, a surprisingly large impoundment of the Snake River. Having only 4-5 hours of driving scheduled for the day, we stopped to stretch the legs and arms and kayaked along the Southern Arm of the Reservoir. The sand hills in this area are quite tall and make for an impressive background. The weather was favorable, and we also were starting to see the beginning of the winter migration, seeing gulls and pelicans along the shore. Altogether we kayaked around 2.5 miles — you can see our Alltrails recording here.

We continued North through Valentine and into South Dakota, following US-83 into Mellette county, a hole that we failed to fill despite visiting South Dakota three times last year. We then continued further West along SD-44 into Badlands National Park – and, as a side note, we can safely affirm that this route had absolutely zero advertisements for Wall Drug, plus the scenery along the White River is significantly better than from I-90.

In the Badlands, we checked into the Visitor Center and checked on a campsite for the night. We had originally planned to camp at the Sage Creek Camping area in the far West portion of the park, but the ranger was very quick to recommend against camping there with Charlotte. It turns out that, while prairie dogs are adorable and a pleasure to watch, they can also be a carrier of bubonic plague carrying fleas, and dogs can easily transfer those fleas to humans. That’s not to say all prairie dogs have the plague, but when it comes to diseases that killed 1/3 of Europe, we tend to play it safe, if only for Charlotte’s sake. Fortunately, the ranger was very quick to recommend several wild camping sites in the neighboring Buffalo National Grassland. Honestly, top tier customer service.

We drove the scenic route through the park, stopping at scenic areas for an impromptu picnic, pictures, and (for Curtis) a quick hike up to a peak. Charlie can’t walk the trails but she enjoys sniffing parking lots nonetheless. We even saw a herd of bighorn along the road sporting their ever fashionable radio collars, but Charlotte was unimpressed.

Satisfied with the day, we drove South through the park back to SD-44 and the Baja ORV area of Buffalo National Grasslands. This section of the grassland is designated for people to drive wherever they want – maybe not the most sustainable use, but we followed previous tracks as far as we felt comfortable and set up camp on a dried mud flat on the North Side of a short mound with great views to the North of the Badlands Wall.

It was still the middle of the afternoon, so after we set up camp we relaxed in the tent reading and writing. Maybe one or two vehicles passed us coming out of the ORV area, but by and large we were by ourselves…that is until we set up for dinner. As we were boiling water for dinner, we heard rifle shots nearby, clearly from someone shooting targets. But as they continued, we started to hear the bullets themselves flying overhead. Curtis (perhaps unwisely) walked back down the road towards the entrance and the source of the shots and waved down the shooter, asking him to stop, or at least shoot a different direction, which fortunately he obliged and left shortly after. Honestly, that’s a first for us…as a PSA, if you go target shooting, please, don’t be stupid, shoot with a backstop.

Once the threat of being shot was taken care of, we enjoyed our dinner. Afterwards we went for a short walk and watched a vibrant sunset that lit up the cliffs of the badlands, followed by the rising of the harvest moon.