Region
Highlights
- White Butte is the highest point in North Dakota.
- It is a prominent butte in the Badlands of southwestern part of the state.
- An easy climb; the hike takes about one hour round-trip.
- The best time to go is during the early summer when the prairie flowers are in bloom.
- The road to the trailhead is now gravel surfaced constructed by Slope County in 2921. Maah Daah Hey Trail Ass'n(MDHTA) constrcuted and surfaced a new trai from the trailhead to the top this summer 2023. so an all weather trail is now in place.
- Located within the boundaries of the Little Missouri National Grassland and about 35 miles south of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
- On private property and the owners request a $10 donation to help maintain the area.
- A new self closing gate, bench and kiosk were installed at the trailhead this summer, also a bench was placed on top for your use. All with donations from High pointers Foundation, MDHTA, Slope County and the ND Park and Rec dept with a RTP grant.
- One can see 3 states on a clear day from the top of North Dakota.
Routes
14 climbs • 3.4 mi • 392 ft gain • 58 min
7 climbs • 1.5 mi • 322 ft gain • 50 min
Latest climbs
"Stopped here to hike this No. Dakota High Point on the way to my first Highpointers Konvention in Rapid City SD. Nice, recently maintained pkg area and trail. Met some other Konvention-bound hikers at the summit!" — SteveM_StickMan • Jul 17, 2024
"Long drive with Danny from Spearfish South Dakota. Trail was easy to follow, quick hike to the summit, shotgun a beer, sign the book, and back to the car. Not much else to say. " — LGH-Tom • Jul 31, 2022
"quite n easy hike...but if it is wet or rains , as it did right about halfway up...white stuff sticks like drywall paste to your shoes. lol. We parked at the old abandon house on grass driveway." — 6sniders • Jun 17, 2017
"The third State high point of the weekend enroute from Ontario to Calgary, AB. The location of the farmhouse was tricky to find in Google and I had to resort to the Subaru GPS to see the location of the farmhouse. Looked like no one was home and the mailbox was locked. I followed footprints from a day before across the field and up to the summit in snow up to knee deep in places. 5km round trip in an hour. Just before sunset and a nice 2 State high point day." — alexjoseph • Dec 4, 2016
"Left late morning.....after traveling down dirt roads we parked along the fence....started walking along the fence till we entered the gate then proceeded on trail to the summit.....about 1 mile to the top....great views of the plentiful ND farmland and spectacular buttes across the plains....." — walteroddo • Sep 29, 2015
"First up in the morning was the White Butte, North Dakota’s state high point. It stands at 3,506 feet, but only has 500 feet of prominence over the landscape. Still, that is plenty high enough to give a decent view over a rolling prairie. It was already 70 degrees at 6:30 in the morning, foreshadowing another scorching day for the Plains. It was a perfect temperature for our little hike though.
We had heard from numerous sources that White Butte was renowned for having a large rattlesnake population, which was another reason we wanted to start early, before all the snakes came out. Luckily, we did not see any, but who knows how many were hiding in the grass, just inches away. Better not to think about it. The butte was made up of primarily a chalky, white soil (the name makes sense right?). It was extremely slippery when wet, and since it had rained last night, we had a few slides.
There was a surprisingly well-defined trail the whole way. I thought the state high point of North Dakota would be low on just about everyone’s list, but apparently over 10 people had come just that week. Guess there are lots of crazy people like us out there! It took us a half hour to get to the ..." — justinraphaelson • Aug 13, 2015
"Hiked White Butte after a nasty thunderstorm came through the area. The trail was easy to navigate, no sign of snakes, but the clay soil was slick from the recent rain. We prevailed, however!" — nairon • Jun 25, 2015
"Made it up here late in the day after doing Harney Peak, SD and stopping to let a local rancher know he had some cattle grazing along the road that had gotten through a fence. It was extremely windy at the summit but the evening views were awesome. On the way down I took some time to rebuild some cairns showing the most direct approach. There are a couple of wandering paths probably caused by cattle over the years which can be confusing. I made it back to the Jeep as the sun set and a huge Moon rose over the horizon; it was pretty sweet." — StoneMan • Jun 4, 2012
"Hiked this one with my Dad and it was quite an interesting summit though not very lofty. Thankfully, we didn't see any rattlesnakes. White rock due to bentonite was very cool to see." — catamount • May 18, 2006
"I parked in the farmyard to the east of the butte and walked to the butte from there. I also climbed this butte another time. That time we parked on the section line north of the butte and walked south to the summit. " — bobneugebauer • Jul 2, 1995