Cross Country Ski Trails
in North Dakota State Parks
North Dakota's state parks have an assortment of cross country ski trails designed to challenge novice and advanced skiers. In particular, Cross Ranch, Turtle River, Lake Metigoshe and Icelandic state parks offer excellent cross country skiing opportunities when winter descends on North Dakota.
While groomed trails can be found throughout the state, there are also areas where skiers can blaze their own trails through undisturbed snow.
Snowshoers, hikers and pets must stay off the groomed portions of state park ski trails...in particular, the "grooves" or tracks that skiers glide along.
Park Name |
Length |
Description |
Cross Ranch (Sanger) |
10 miles |
marked/groomed, warming house, cabin rental |
Ft. Abraham Lincoln (Mandan) |
|
skiing allowed, no groomed trails |
Ft. Ransom (Ft. Ransom) |
6.5 miles |
marked/groomed, warming house |
Ft. Stevenson (Garrison) |
3 miles |
marked/groomed |
Grahams Island (Devils Lake) |
3.5 miles |
marked/groomed |
Icelandic (Cavalier) |
5 miles |
marked/groomed |
Lake Metigoshe (Bottineau) |
11 miles |
marked/groomed, ski rentals, warming house, cabin rentals |
Lake Sakakawea (Pick City) |
skiing allowed, no maintained trails |
|
Lewis & Clark (Williston) |
4 miles |
marked/groomed |
Turtle River (Arvilla) |
5 miles |
marked/groomed, warming house |
Current Trail Conditions
Cross Ranch State Park: (1/28) Trails will be groomed Friday Jan 30. Snow conditions: hard packed snow but trails should be in good condition for skiing Snow depth: 2 ½ to 3 feet of packed snow trails
Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park: (1/23/09) There are no groomed trails at Ft Abraham Lincoln or the Missouri River Natural Area. Visitors are free to ski and snow shoe on their own. Lots of snow, roads are all plowed and open, campground is open.
Turtle River State Park:(3/1/09) We’re still sledding and skiing! Conditions remain pretty icy, but we still feel pretty comfortable saying the trail conditions are “FAIR”. Our crew is planning to do what they can to them, Thursday, in an attempt to get them in shape for the weekend. (We might just make them worse, so cross your fingers). There can only be a couple weekends of decent conditions left, so get out and enjoy these winter activities while you can!
Lake Metigoshe State Park: (2/12/09) All trail were groomed Thursday morning. All trails are in “GOOD to EXCELLENT” condition.
Graham's Island State Park (Devils Lake): (3/1/09) DLSP received fresh snow last Friday and the trails still look good. We have chances of snow again this week and we will track the trails on Friday.
Fort Stevenson State Park: Two feet of snow on the ground making for excellent skiing conditions. There are six miles of groomed trails available.
Icelandic State Park: (3/1 /09)Trails were groomedFeb. 20. We’ve had mostly wind to affect trail conditions since then. If we have enough new snow (some is predicted) before the weekend trails will be groomed again this Friday. Conditions should be good to very good."
Fort Ransom State Park: (3/2/09) Trails were groomed on Saturday, February 28 and they are in good skiing condition. The Oak Ridge trail was groomed for the first time in many weeks.
