International Peace Garden

Trip to Minot, ND Day 8 | International Peace Garden on the North Dakota/Manitoba Border | Geographical Center of North America | White Horse Hill National Game Preserve | Sheyenne National Grassland | September 2022

Our return trip South to Omaha began with a 2 hour drive North to the International Peace Garden on the border of North Dakota and Manitoba. Obviously it wasn’t efficient, but we hadn’t ever been to Manitoba and didn’t know when we would ever make it up this way again. The weather was still damp and chilly from the previous night’s rain, and we watched as the rolling fields gave way to forests. Eventually, we were driving through the Turtle Mountains – a hilly region right on the border with frequent bog-like areas – and it seemed like the perfect place to see a moose, but no moose were spotted. But the lakes were lovely nonetheless and we enjoyed this quiet drive.

We arrived at the Peace Gardens before noon and had no trouble getting in or entering Canada. If you’re just visiting the gardens, you don’t need to show your passport or go through Canadian customs, but you do have to go through US customs on the way back and a passport makes that process very easy. We paid the fee to visit the gardens, then started driving the long loop around counter-clockwise, beginning in Manitoba.

There were a few trails we had seen on maps, but once we were actually on the roads we had trouble finding them — it turns out that the Manitoba side of the gardens is less developed than the North Dakota side. Maybe that’s just because we were visiting in the off season, or maybe because the CCC developed the US side substantially, and there was no Canadian equivalent (no CCCC if you will). We ended up just stopping at some picnic areas to admire the limited views and claim we had been to Manitoba without actually hiking. It would have been a great place to kayak had the weather been nicer – and maybe then we would have seen moose – but It was lightly sprinkling while we were driving through, and after thinking it over we decided against kayaking. Minutes later, the skies opened up and it started pouring, so we made the right choice! Instead, we kept driving around the loop enjoying the Northwoods feel of the area, played PokemonGo, then crossed back into North Dakota.

We passed by sports facilities, campgrounds, and a few overlooks (all built by the CCC), and eventually made our way back to the flower gardens and paths right along the border. It was still raining, but we decided to suck it up and go for a walk anyway since we had rain jackets and umbrellas – and let’s be honest, this is one of the few locations in the US where you can (legally) walk ON the international border. We walked down the long path between the countries, admiring flowers, fountains, and monuments. The groundskeepers were out winterizing the sprinkler system, but there were still a few flowers in bloom – our favorite display was two flowerbeds in the shape and color of each of the country flags. Maybe someday we’ll return in nicer weather, but for now we can at least say we’ve visited our 6th Canadian province!

Since we couldn’t (legally) go any further North, it was time to start heading South. We took ND-3 down to Rugby and stopped at the Geographical Center of North America – a long contested, and oft disputed claim, but one that is unlikely to be resolved any time soon. Long-time readers may remember that back when we were moving to Hawaii, we visited the Center of the Nation North of Belle Fourche, SD. Just another fun spot to see since it was already on our way.

We continued driving to our next stop of the day: White Horse Hill National Game Preserve on the South side of Devil’s Lake. The lake itself is geographically interesting as it is an endorheic lake (meaning it has no outlet to the ocean), something you don’t typically see East of the Rockies, or with this much water. Driving around and across the lake was really something — there were points where we couldn’t see the other side of the lake and it felt like we were looking out over the ocean, or at least one of the Great Lakes, but that could have just been the fog.

We entered the preserve and began driving around the scenic loop. There were claims that we could see bison, elk, or other big game here, but we didn’t see any on our drive. We did enjoy the one spot where we could get out and go on a short hike straight up a long set of stairs up to an overlook. There was also a big prairie dog area where we were able to observe them from our car — we’re pretty sure this is the first time Charlotte has seen them, and we were glad to be able to view them safely after the park ranger at Badlands warned us that they may carry the bubonic plague.

After this, we made our way Southeast to our chosen campsite for the night: Jorgens Hollow Campground in Sheyenne National Grassland, just Southwest from Fargo. This is also a trailhead for the North Country Trail, so we went for a short walk just to check it out (definitely not a long enough walk for Curtis’ liking, but it was cut short because Charlotte was spooked by something). This turned out to be a busier place than we expected, maybe because of its proximity to Fargo or because this was possibly one of the last nice weekends of the season for camping, but the sites were spread out and we enjoyed our stay here.