Kayaking the Missouri River

After leaving Minnesota, we headed west to North Dakota, specifically we were headed to Theodore Roosevelt's National Park on the west side of ND. But along the way, we stopped for several nights at Washburn, ND. We had a great parking spot at the city park, right on the Missouri River. The park sign said we needed a permit (free), but you could only get the permit during work hours, 8-5 and Mon-Fri. We arrived on Saturday. Also at Washburn was the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and there they said the police patrolled the park and we really needed the permit. So we were planning on moving on down the road until we went across the road to the gas station. In a casual conversation with the clerk, they were so nice, they contacted the police department for us and let them know we were going to be at the park. So we were not harrassed and yes the police did patrol the area regularly. Only on Sunday afternoon was anyone else using the park. While there we wanted to visit the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and Fort Mandan. Fort Mandan was a fort, not a military fort, but the fort built for Lewis and Clark to spend one winter, in 1805. When they returned in 1806 the fort had flooded and burned. It has been restored upriver from its original location. The fort was one of the most interesting since it was so small. Built in the shape of an A, it only had 10 rooms, five on each side and a small area in the middle. The interpretive center was very good. It had Lewis and Clark's travels from their beginnings through the end. They even had info on all the people who traveled with them. Quite interesting. But of course, we also decided to kayak the Missouri River. It was only 9 miles down to a state park. We shuttled cars and then put in our kayaks at the park. It wasn't too bad when we started, a little headwind, and the current on the river is not much at all. There were lots of sandbars and logs in the river, but no problem for us in our kayaks. Until, the wind picked up. As we continued the wind kept getting stronger. Before long if we didn't keep paddling the wind would push up back upstream (later we found out the winds were blowing up to 40 mph). We did find some small rapids, but even there we had to paddle hard to keep from going backwards. At mile 7 we saw the campgrounds for the state park. We pulled out and Max walked the final 2 miles down to the jeep and came back to pickup the kayaks. While on his walk to the jeep he saw waves on the river that were several feet high. We were glad we took out when we did. It was at the visitor's center at the state park where we found out the winds were 40 mph and the park (which usually rents and shuttles kayakers and canoers) wouldn't put anyone on the river that day. But we survived and can now say we have kayaked the Missouri River.

 

This is where we took out 7 miles down river.

Our campsite on the Missouri River in a Washburn city park.

Here is where we put in our kayaks in Washburn, MN, on the Missouri River

Inside one of the room at Fort Mandan. Up to 7 people would sleep here.

In front of the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.