CCC Campground
Located 15 miles south of Watford City, off Highway 85, south of the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Turn west on road # 842 just south of the Long X bridge over the Little Missouri River, travel 1 mile west to the entrance.
This newly remodeled and expanded campground remains a favorite for those planning on traveling on the Maah Daah Hey Trail from the North Trailhead. The campground has three loops, containing 38 camping spurs, a parking area at the North Trailhead of the MDH Trail, and access to the Long X Trail and Summit Trail.
The campground has handicap accessible vault toilets, picnic tables, and fire rings. There are horse tie-up areas on the west and east ends of the campgrounds and a well with potable drinking water. The campground also contains an informative kiosk at the entrance. Overnight camping is $6.00 per night during the summer months.
* Distance: all distances are out and back unless otherwise stated
o Sixteen miles out
o eight mile loop this is if you take the Long X trail loop back to camp
This trip will take you from the CCC campground to the entrance of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park and back again. You do have the Option at about the half way point to take the Long X Trail back to the camp ground, this will easy to find since it is mark with a sign post. This is a good way to shorten the ride more or give your self a different view on the way back. Since none of us on the Staff have ridden it we don’t have a clue what it is like.
We will tell you though what the Maah Daah Hey trail is like. In this are the forest service is doing a great job of rebuilding or building in some cases switchbacks and fixing wash outs in this portion of the trail, kudos to them for the job they are doing. Because of this the first mile and a half is nice single track with a couple of creek crossings these are usually low water with not to much to worry about. After this part you start a mile long climb, going up about five hundred feet. It starts out gradually but this starts to wear on you. Eventually the trail moves into a steep and virtually impossible climb I say this because of the grade of the climb and the terrain it goes over very tight switch backs and in some areas the water bars have eroded to form a drop of which will stop you deep in your tracks. At this point you will be forced hike the bike up the last few hundred yards. After this the trail comes up on a plateau, which with the exceptions of some excellent views and a few rollers is mainly flat. This goes on like this for about four miles and if it wasn’t for this section this would be one of my favorite areas to ride but it is just too long and boring. The last couple of miles before the park are pretty well all kick asses downhill with some nice switchback areas. The bigger suspension guys will love this downhill and the downhill back into the campground on the way back. Once the downhill ends, you will come to what should be a dried up (most of the year) creek bed named Collar Draw. The park is less than a quarter of a mile from here and this is where we usually turn around. This is an easily manageable day ride with two nice down hills or two shitty up hills depending on your outlook in life, with a four mile jaunt in between. My thought on it is divided on one hand you have some nice views everything in the northern part of the badlands seems bigger. I love both downhill sections but like I said you have to climb them both to enjoy them. Overall this is a nice ride, I look at the flat in between as a time to rest and the views are nice.
