Kildeer Mountain Byway

Before leaving Pick City we found a car/truck wash in "downtown". Ken washed the vehicles and I went for coffee. It's really hard to get all the grasshoppers off the bumpers and grills. Driving up the Lewis & Clark Trail of 1806. The park ranger said this would be a nicer drive than just Rte 200. This route will take us through the Kildeer Mountains.

We stopped at a turnout in an area where they were mining Lignite Coal. From Thomas Jefferson's wish to determine the presence of "pit" coal until today. We were standing in the heart of the Coteau Properties Freedom Mine, America's largest Lignite coal mine. Producing over 15 million tons a year. This mine provides boiler fuel to generate electricity and also converts to synthetic natural gas for millions of Americans across the Northern Great Plains and Upper Midwest.

We passed waves of grain and saw our first herd of Bison in a wildlife management area. We stopped at the Crossroads Cafe at the intersection of Rte 22N and Rte 8 for lunch in Kildeer. We had Knoelph Soup (potato dumpling) for lunch. After lunch we turned onto Rte 22N known as the Kildeer Mountain Four Bear Scenic Byway. This drive runs from Manning ND along the Kildeer Mountains and then to Crow Flies High Butte just east of New Town. The ranger told us there was a beautiful new bridge leading into New Town called the 4 Bears Bridge. We are going through our first mountains. They are lush green and have flatter tops rather than pointed peaks. We see small oil wells in many of the fields along the road. The landscape is absolutely beautiful and very different from what we are used to. We came up a hill into New Town and found the 4 Bears Casino at the top of the hill and just before the bridge. There was a little RV park in the back but no sites available. However, you could camp anywhere so we pulled up a piece of grass by some bushes and parked. We have a great view of Lake Sakakawea and the new bridge. Naturally we went in to check out the casino and then came back to camp. We made dinner and it began to rain. We are only here for the night.