Devil's Lake and Lake Sakakawea are the largest bodies of water in North Dakota, the first natural, the second man made. Both had both eluded me last time through so this time I did not want to miss them. It was a grey day, clear and cool, as I headed out of Grand Forks.  

Devils Lake ( Spirit Lake to the Sioux) is interesting because it is in a closed basin . This makes it more saline, with higher nutrition levels than open access lakes. So it just gets bigger and bigger until something happens, like an overflow into the neighboring Sheyenne River basin, or no rain and lots of evaporation.   The current flooding cycle which started in 1993 has eaten up a lot of crop land, and some trees whose photos I took. Government has tried to fix it by creating a runoff option, with mixed results so far. So the lake continues to expand. If connected to the Red River of the North, a leading option, there are fears the lake will be invaded by river carp, decimating the existing fish population. The railroad has already had to be re-routed, and water has reached the foundations of US highway # 2.

Lake Sakakawea I never really saw. I turned south to get a look at the Missouri river which was damned to create it.   When I got down there though, another prairie storm came in, this time with very strong cross winds, and rain, which had me fighting to go straight and not into the lines of oncoming traffic. I eventually gave up for the night in New Town ND, which is right on the river.

Riding through Western Minnesota and North Dakota is not boring. It is prairie, but not completely flat. The land gently rises and falls like an ocean swell, cut by small rivers and a million lakes and wetlands. I cannot believe how wet it is in this part of the country. The farmland looks rich and dark, with half the fields showing incipient bright green lines.   Silos dominate the landscape, the way church spires do in the European countryside. Fracking hasn't started here yet. Very quiet and pastoral until the squalls hit.