subject: Biking Trails To Ride In North Dakota [print this page] North Dakota has many places for people who enjoy biking. You can ride on paved bike trails, long stretches of open highway, or hardcore off road biking. The big cities in this state have all made loops and trails where people can bike ride. For instance, Fargo has a 25-mile bike trail in the city. Since there is very little traffic and the road conditions are great, this makes North Dakota country roads an ideal place to take a scenic ride. Let's have a look at some of the biking trails that are popular in North Dakota.
The Sheyenne National Grassland is located in the southeastern edge of the state. Here you can ride in a twenty-five mile section of the North Country Trail that is available for biking. It offers a scene of lovely rolling prairies where you can see local wild animals such as deer, elk, wild turkeys, and prairie dogs. This trail is nestled in the National Grasslands that includes over one million acres of nature.
The Maah Daah Hey Trail is located in Sully Creek State Park just south of Medora. There are nearly 120 miles to cover on this out and back trail located in the heart of the Badlands where you will be surrounded by plateaus, buttes, and a grass prairie. This is a multi-use trail that is open to horses as well. Campsites are nearby so you can make a weekend of your biking trip. This is wilderness biking so be sure to pack plenty of drinking water before setting out on the trail.
The North Star Trail is a ten-mile loop trail that takes you across steams and past rolling hills and through the deep woods of Turtle River State Park close to Arvilla. This park is open the entire year; however, the trails serve as cross-country ski trails during the winter season. You can reserve campsites here if you want to mix biking and a weekend of camping for instance. The trail is perfect for family rides and for bikers of all levels, except there may not be much to thrill hardcore bikers.
Sully's Hill is a collection of biking trails near Devil's Lake that covers nearly twenty miles. These trails are more suitable for intermediate or advanced bikers as there are many painful climbs and rapid descents. The trail winds through heavy woods and crosses grassy prairie. Some stretches of the trail require technical skills.
For a historic and scenic family bike ride, you can catch the Lewis and Clark bike trail as it passes through the state. This trail follows the path through ten states that the famous explorers took and highlights historic landmarks along the way.
Custer's Last Trail is near Medora, North Dakota in the Little Missouri National Grassland. These trails are also used by four wheel drives so the condition of the trails depends upon the amount of use and recent rainfall. This requires intermediate effort to climb the hills and cross streams but the scenery makes it all worthwhile as you are rewarded with the beauty of the Badlands and its natural inhabitants like deer, antelope, and sheep. The trail covers thirteen miles and is an out and back type.
North Dakota is known for having strong winters, however thankfully winter pastimes such as cross-country skiing and snowmobiling have kept the bike trails cleared and well worn through much use. When the snow melts away and the weather calls for biking, the residents of this state head up to the trails to experience the majestic beauty of North Dakota's great outdoors.
