From hunting for prehistoric sea monsters to white-water rafting, gorgeous Pembina Gorge has it all

WALHALLA, N.D. — When the state’s Senior Paleontologist Clint Boyd leads first-time visitors into the Pembina Gorge for public fossil hunts, their responses often surprise him.

Of course, these weekend paleontologists are thrilled that they might unearth part of a mosasaurus — a prehistoric sea “monster” bigger than a city bus — from the oldest exposed rock in the state.

But whether they’re native North Dakotans or Italian tourists, they also thrill at the beauty of their surroundings: a 2,800-acre stretch of land so filled with hills, soaring river-valley cliffs, pockets of wetlands and the largest continuous, undisturbed forest in North Dakota that it seems custom-built for its own full-color coffee table book.

Some say they never anticipated such lush landscapes in North Dakota, which is sometimes unfairly stereotyped as one endless farm field. But this, they’ll insist, looks more like the north woods of Minnesota or perhaps even Canada.

Now the Gorge is getting its due.

In May of 2023, Gov. Doug Burgum announced plans to develop the Pembina Gorge State Recreation Area into North Dakota’s 14th state park. Drawing from an ambitious master plan developed in 2014, North Dakota Parks and Recreation has invested $6 million in state dollars and $2 million in federal dollars toward completing the first phase of that plan: a 55-unit campground, with 50 modern campsites, five primitive sites, up to six year-round cabins, underground utilities, roads, a maintenance shop and a comfort station.

The campground is slated to open in 2026.

It’s all to provide an “adventure park” experience to the estimated 8,000 to 10,000 visitors who explore the trails through Pembina Gorge annually, said Mike Deurre of North Dakota Parks and Recreation.

The area boasts trails for hiking, mountain-biking, ATV-riding, snowmobiling and horseback riding. The Pembina River offers the only white-water rafting (albeit a fairly tame, Class 1 version) in the state. That’s not to mention sightseeing, leaf-gazing, bird-watching and fossil-digging aplenty.

Ask Mike Deurre, who manages the Gorge recreation area and nearby Icelandic State Park, if he’s excited about the Gorge’s upcoming upgrade, and he chuckles.

“I’ve kind of described it like the Gorge has been like my fourth child,” he said. “After year 17 here, I feel like my baby got a full-ride scholarship to college.”

He’s not alone.

“We’ve had people showing up at the construction gate with their campers until they realized it was still under construction and wasn’t quite ready to go yet,” he said. “We get questions all the time: ‘When is it ready? What are we looking at?’ It’s been really fun to see that.”

Especially for Deurre, a Mandan, N.D., native who admits “I’d never even heard of anything north of Grand Forks,”  before applying for a job here in 2007.

But once he saw firsthand the beauty, wildlife and landscape, he was amazed he hadn’t heard of the area sooner. The 12,500-acre formation was shaped by massive glacial runoff which carved out the soft shales left by the oceans millions of years ago to create one of the deepest and steepest river valleys in North Dakota.

Back then, Deurre’s top priority was to find a workable solution for ATV enthusiasts and landowners alike amid the Gorge.

“Originally, there were a lot of landowner complaints on ATVs with people driving everywhere. So they hired me, the dumb 26-year-old, to go up there and figure it out,” he joked.

The agency quickly realized they couldn’t stop ATV traffic, as the four-wheeling genie had already roared out of the bottle.

“You have to give people somewhere to go, because there’s not a lot of trails for ATVs in North Dakota,” he said. “The consensus was we had to build something.”

That would spark the 2014 master plan, which outlined a template for development based on public feedback in a 159-page document.

Today, the recreational area offers nearly 30 miles of trails for everyone from horseback riders to ATV drivers. Deurre described the pathways as tight and twisty, with hairpin turns. “I usually tell people if you’re going over 8 (miles an hour), you’re going too fast. But people have a lot of fun on them,” he said.

That’s not to mention the extensive snowmobile trail network in this area, which totals 455 miles, taps into a statewide trail system and is managed by volunteers from the Northeast Snowmobile Club Association.

Trails may be an ideal way to explore the Gorge, as they can take you into the most scenic areas. Case in point: The Tetrault State Forest Lookout Point, which is so naturally magazine-ready that it frequently graces state tourism publications.

Trail-blazing might also give you a glimpse of wildlife, like elk, white-tail deer, red fox, river otters and even the occasional lone wolf or black bear. The Gorge contains a sweep of forest that serves as a transition zone between three different biogeographical provinces: boreal forest, eastern deciduous forest and central grassland. It’s one reason you’ll find the state’s most extensive woodlands for oak and birch here.

The diverse ecosystem also includes 30 plant species and 21 animal species categorized as “rare” in the state.

It’s getting late for this season, but autumn is historically the Gorge’s time to shine. The trees form a plush carpet of greens, orangey-browns and golds that rolls across the undulating terrain. Look closer, and you’ll spot the fiery reds of sumac and other smaller plants beneath the canopy of bigger trees.

“To get out on the trails during that time, it’s just nice,” Deurre said. “It’s nice, crisp air and it feels so good. You find yourself stopping and staring at things.”

Some say the best way to see the Gorge is to forego trails completely and canoe or kayak it instead.

Visitors can kayak the Pembina River by contacting the office of the Pembina Gorge State Recreation Area. Through this program, they can opt for a 3.5-mile, two-hour float, which begins at the Vang Bridge near Frost Fire Ski Resort and travels to the Brick Mine Bridge. The bridge is a charming, red structure originally built by the Fargo Bridge & Iron Company for Mayo Brick & Tile Company in 1905. Traveling to and from it will expose you to some of the Gorge’s prettiest views.

Another kayak option is to travel from the Vang Bridge to the Highway 32 Bridge, which is 10.75 miles and provides four to six hours of scenic sailing.

The Pembina Gorge State Recreation Area offers kayak rentals for $32/half day or $50/full day. Life jackets and paddles are provided with your rental. The recreation area also will transport kayakers for an additional fee.

“It’s a really cool way to see the Gorge on the river,” Deurre said. “You kind of feel like you’re right there in the middle of nowhere.”

Clearly, people dig the Gorge.

Like, literally.

The North Dakota Geological Survey runs public dinosaur digs in four locations across the state — Bismarck, Dickinson, Medora and the Pembina Gorge.

The Gorge alone opens up 100 spots to aspiring archaeologists each summer. Clint Boyd, who oversees all the public digs, says that when registration for its statewide digs is announced to its 2,500-strong email list, they fill quickly — sometimes within minutes. “It’s crazy popular,” he said.

Since the state’s first public dig in 2000, Boyd said the event has attracted people from 45 states and countries as far-flung as Norway and Italy.
Boyd cites several reasons for the dig’s attraction.

One is that North Dakota’s public dig program is so affordable. The department charges $40 to $60 per person per day to cover supply costs and the salaries of summer interns to help at the site. In comparison, he said, public digs in other states charge up to $300 per day.

People also can opt to dig just a day, or even a half-day, rather than committing to a full week.

Another is the high concentration of specimens found in the Gorge. “Normally when you go look for fossils, you dig out what’s there and then have to explore around to find another,” Boyd said. “This site we’ve been working at Gorge, we collect a skeleton for a mosasaurus and shortly after that, 40 or 50 feet from there, we’ll find another one. “

The Gorge has proven to be an especially rich source of marine life from 75 million years ago, including turtles, fish, plesiosaurs, squid and sharks.

It’s a mecca for the mosasaur, a huge, carnivorous aquatic lizard whose bones have been found in the black shale of the Pierre Foundation, which runs throughout the Gorge.

Mosasaurs were essentially the kings of the food chain for their time, with some species growing as large as 60 feet.

In 2015, Boyd and a team discovered a new species of mosasaur which may have been a precursor to the Mosasaurus, a larger form that grew to nearly 50 feet long and lived alongside the T-rex.

“If you put flippers on a Komodo dragon and made it really big, that’s basically what it would have looked like,” said

Amelia Zietlow

, a doctoral student in comparative biology who co-authored a study on the discovery with Boyd and another researcher for the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History.

The researchers also described the prehistoric predator as possessing an extra row of teeth, a shark-like tail and a bony ridge on the skull which gave it the appearance of “angry eyebrows.”

Boyd named the discovery Jormungandr walhallaensis to honor the nearby community of Walhalla and the ethnicity of the area.

“Given the similarity of spelling between Walhalla and the mythological Norse location Valhalla, we chose to name it after the legendary sea-dwelling World Serpent: Jormungandr,” Boyd wrote in a North Dakota Geological Survey newsletter.

Those itching to unearth their own sea-faring fossils should know there’s no prior experience required to participate in the dig. Kids as young as 10 can attend for a half-day, but must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Participants must be 15 or older to attend a full-day dig.

Learn more about fossil digs at

https://www.dmr.nd.gov/dmr/paleontology/fossil-digs.

Information about rentals and other Gorge attractions is available by contacting the Pembina Gorge State Recreation Area at 701-549-2444 or pgsra@nd.gov.