After 3 days of hiking in the wonderfully isolated Theodore Roosevelt National Park, I left for an early morning drive down to Amidon to find North Dakota's highest point. White Butte was easy to spot from the road, shining in the early morning sunrise. I drove up to the property owner's home, startling a deer out of the tall grass in the process. The landowner, Angie, came out to greet me and we shared a few pleasantries about the beautiful morning and the deer I startled. Angie asked for the $20 "donation" to access the high point on her property and what state I was from. I found out she keeps a calendar for each year that totals the number of visitors and what states they were from on each day. She let me know that she had visitors to White Butte from all 50 states, and for this year so far well over half of the states were represented.

Leaving her driveway I headed south on a two-track dirt road with 12-18 inch tall grass. The tall grass actually helped clean my bumper of the bugs I'd accumulated since leaving Indiana. I pulled off the dirt road just past the old home site, and started to walk along the fence path towards the butte.

Approaching White Butte.

Cows stopped to stare at the lone highpointer as I crossed one gate than began the ascent up the butte. It's a pretty short walk to the summit, but the butte does rise several hundred feet over the surrounding terrain. Black Butte (the second highest landform in North Dakota) was visible to the west, and farmland delineated by girded roads spread out toward the horizon.

In a wooded valley to the west of the highpoint I spotted a herd of deer grazing. The deer froze, and I stopped and we all started at one another. There was no movement from the deer until my lense cap made a clumsy click, and the deer bounded for the trees.

Reaching the highest point of the butte, I signed the register, snapped a few pictures and noticed another car heading toward the butte. On my way down, I meet a highpointing couple from California out attempting some of the midwestern highpoints.

On the summit, looking north.

I managed to find my green car again amongst the tall grass and started the drive down to South Dakota where I would hike up Harney Peak the next morning.