On the Road Again...To the North Dakota Prairie!

I drove all but the westernmost mile of I-94 through North Dakota--and the scenery was amazing

June 20, 2026

It’s just starting to get light out as I wake up in my tent at Charles A. Lindbergh State Park in Little Falls, Minnesota. I know it’s early—only 5:00 a.m. Central Time—but I still have seven hours of driving to go, and I want to get started. So I quietly pack up my tent, hop in my car, and get back on the road.

Yes, that's Charles A. Lindbergh's boyhood home. I also learned that he spent most of his childhood/teen years herding sheep.

This is the second day of my first major research trip for my next book. Yesterday, I drove for ten hours through Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Today I’ll reach my destination—the prairies of North Dakota.

Prairie. I love the way that word sounds—vast, open, and mysterious. I’ve lived all my life in woodlands, and I’ve only seen the vast prairies of the Great Plains twice—once in 2008 and once in 2011, both on family vacations to the scenic wonders of the American West. That was before I started studying agriculture, and at the time I was more interested in canyons and mountains than in prairie grasses and forbs, which I barely noticed. And those trips went through Nebraska and South Dakota. I’ve never been to North Dakota.

I have two specific goals for this trip. One is to see, walk through, and experience the prairie itself. I’ve set aside a day and a half in Theodore Roosevelt National Park specifically for that purpose. My other goal is to visit some of the farms where the no-till agriculture, soil health, and regenerative agriculture movements of today began. I’ve recently discovered that all three of those movements have roots in North Dakota.

I could, of course, just do interviews over the phone—but I want to experience the climate, see and feel what challenges farmers face in this vast, open, windy, and dry land of the northern Plains. When I discovered that the trip would be quite inexpensive if I tent-camped and drove my fuel-efficient car—and when I saw that there were still campsites available at Theodore Roosevelt National Park for a summer weekend just two weeks in advance—and when Gabe Brown was able to squeeze in a quick farm tour with me despite his busy schedule—I decided to go for it. So here I am.

This rest area commemorates building I-94 across North Dakota, which was completed in 1977

There are still trees in northern Minnesota; the first couple hours of today’s drive look similar to what I did yesterday. Then I cross the border into North Dakota, drive through Fargo, and everything changes. The speed limit goes up to 80 mph, the trees disappear, and all of a sudden I’m driving through the prairie! I’m so glad I decided to go in June, because there’s still a lot of green.

And lakes. The eastern part of North Dakota is the prairie pothole region. They call Minnesota the “land of 10,000 lakes,” and I did see plenty of lakes in that state, but eastern North Dakota has just as many. The difference is that these lakes are surrounded by reeds and grass instead of forests. I-94 goes right through some of them. I hope there will be someplace I can stop to get a picture; I can’t do that while I’m driving. There are signs saying not to park by an especially scenic lake that the highway goes right through. Cattle graze up to the edge of some of the lakes.

Unfortunately, I didn't plan a farm tour in the prairie pothole region, but at least I got to drive through it on I-94

Finally, I come to a rest area that’s scenically situated right next to one of the lakes! I snap some photos and read a sign listing some of the plentiful waterfowl that nest here, but I’m not seeing any. I start getting back to the highway, but before I’m halfway down the on-ramp, I spot three pelicans in another section of lake. I quickly pull over to get some photos. There’s also a mama duck with a string of ducklings swimming behind her, undisturbed by the roar of traffic on nearby I-94.

The prairie pothole lakes are full of waterfowl. I pulled over to photograph the two pelicans (upper right) and then noticed the mama duck with a string of ducklings (center left)

The pothole lakes continue almost halfway through the state, then thin out and disappear altogether just before I get to Bismarck. The grasses here are still lush, but shorter—now I’m driving through the mixed prairie in the center of the state. I’m quickly learning that there are different types of prairie, just like there are different types of forests. I pull over at almost every rest area to get pictures and discover that North Dakota has some pretty cool-looking rest areas. The one just past Bismarck is built to resemble a Mandan/Hidatsa/Arikara earthlodge. (The Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara are the agricultural Indigenous peoples of North Dakota; I’ll be visiting the sites of several of their earthlodge villages later in this trip).

This cool rest area building is built to resemble an earthlodge in honor of the agricultural Indigenous peoples of North Dakota

As I near the western side of North Dakota, the prairie changes once again. Now I’m driving through shortgrass prairie. I stop at one last rest area—Painted Canyon, which is also part of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Here I get my first view of the North Dakota badlands, and all I can say is, “Wow.” They’re so huge, vast, and colorful. A large, happy family is at the overlook trading off taking photos of each other. I make a deal with them—I’ll take a picture of all of them together if they’ll take a picture of me. Click. Now I’ve got photo evidence that I’ve made it to western North Dakota! The adventure is just beginning.

Painted Canyon is marked as an I-94 rest area--and the first introduction to Theodore Roosevelt National Park for most people (including me)