Grant County High Point Trip Report

Pretty Rock Butte (2,857 ft)

Date: March 30, 2002
Authors: Pat Wymore, Jobe Wymore, Julie Kawa

From the junction of ND21 and ND49 just west of New Leipzig, set the odometer and head south on ND49 for 15.6 miles to a good dirt road intersection. Turn left (east) on the road and continue for 5.9 miles to a T-intersection. Turn right and head south for another 3 miles to another intersection. Notice Pretty Rock Butte to your left for this stretch. At this next intersection, turn left and go 1 mile to another intersection where, again, you turn left, but this time heading north. This road is a little bit lesser than the dirt roads you have been on up to this point but with a little bit of clearance you shouldn't find it that bad. We headed up and ran into a bit of a Y in the road about a mile later. The right hand fork went to a posted gate while the left hand fork went to an unposted gate. We parked next to the unposted gate and got out for the slog to the base of Pretty Rock Butte.

From this point you got about 1.25 miles to the top of the Butte and the going is pretty easy. We crawled through the gate and followed an old, overgrown road as it eventually curved to are right and then to another gate. Crawled through this one and followed it as it ended at an old, neglected farm house with lots of rusted junk laying around. From here the route that you are going to take is obvious. We headed north-northeast through an old field for about 400 yards until we got to the base of the butte. From here we slogged up the southwest ridge to the top, picking and choosing the easiest route. The BM sits atop the summit and is marked Pretty Rock and is dated 1934 or 1954 (?). Couldn't make out if the 3 was a 5 or the other way around. We returned the same way we came. Nice little hike.