Steele County High Point Trip Report
8 areas (1,570+ ft)
Date: March 28, 2002
Authors: Julie Kawa, Pat Wymore, Jobe Wymore
There are 8 areas for this one and they are all in farm land. Might be best to choose your timing on these or
you're going to end up having to decide if you want to bash through lots of crops. Probably not in your, or
the farmers, best interest since they make they're living out on this land. The time we were here the ground
was still frozen and cold winds still blowing, so everyone was still holed up. Nobody around anywhere.
To start, get to the town of Finley and look for the intersection of ND32 and ND200. Head south of out
town, reaching an intersection a mile later with the Finley Cemetery on the northwest corner. Set the
odometer here and head west on a good dirt road for 2 miles until an unmarked dirt road appears on your
left, heading south. Turn left here and 0.4 mile later you'll come to an old tree on the right side of the road.
Park here. Directly due east from you is going to be an obvious hill about 225 yards away in a field.
This is area #1.
The second, third and forth areas are close together and to reach these you need to continue down the road
another 0.6 mile until you come to an 4-way intersection with a black mailbox on one of the corners.
Turn right, heading west, for another mile to another 4 way intersection. Here, turn left heading south for 0.3
mile until the road crests. The 3 areas are out in a field to your left to the east and they basically run north
to south in a bit of a horseshoe shape. Head due east from where you parked, into the field and hit the
minor bump. From there aim southeast around a little pond a short ways to the second and then from there
southwest to the third area in this group. From there, slog back to the road and up to you car. Half way
done with Steele County!
The 5th area is reached by continuing south for another 0.6 mile, passing through another 4 way intersection
and parking by another black mailbox. From here it is a short stroll southeast to obvious, small bump.
Areas 6 and 7 are pretty close, out in the field to the southwest of you about 0.6 mile away. You should be
able to spot the obvious rise in the land out there. To get to these 2 areas, we went on back to the
intersection you just drove through to get to area 5 and headed west for 1/2 mile to a farm with a light green house.
Knocked on the door to ask permission but no one home. Struck out from there driveway south-southeast,
aiming for rise in the plowed field 1/4 mile away. From there, we sort of followed high ground in
a bit of a candy cane shape to the 7th area that is west from area 6 about 200 yards away. You'll see what I
mean when you get here. Looks like this one might be a corn field so it could be tough when planted.
The 8th and final area is all you have left at this point. To get to it, go back to the intersection by area 5 and
head south for 1/2 mile. You'll come to a driveway on your right that we turned into and took us to an old,
abandoned house in the middle of some trees. A huge barn owl flew over us as we pulled in. This house sits
in the middle of the 8th area but you'll need to get out and do some tromping in the trees and brush to get
the final area.
There's Steele county!