Ziebach County High Point Trip Report
seven areas (2,723+ ft)
Date: October 7, 2003
Authors: Bob Martin and Art Tauchen
Drive on SD20 to the Perkins-Ziebach county line. A little less than a mile east on SD20, drive north to a
house and other buildings. Get permission here. When we were there, no one was home and we found out
that the resident was in the hospital. One hp area is at an unused tower about 3/4 mile northeast.
Walk around buildings and orchards and through pasture to this hp area.
For the other areas, drive east about 2 1/2 miles and north a mile to the Dries Brothers Ranch house.
We talked with the lady of the house where she told us about her 20+ cats. We saw no dogs. More importantly,
she told us how to drive to the 5 areas east of the ranch house and also how to get to the 7th area,
Thunder Butte, which we understood was also on her property.
We drove to the western area, which is a storage place for machinery. We then drove the road shown on the
topo which goes over 2 of the areas. It was a walk through the pasture over the small area northeast of the
road and on to Flattop BM at the area to the northeast.
You can drive all the way to Thunder Butte, a landmark that can be seen from miles away. Drive about 4.5
miles east on SD20 from the ranch entrance to a cross road with a double-wide home and other buildings
just beyond on the left. Turn south, Hit the odometer. Follow Art's notes if you can: Road left 3 miles -
go straight. Bear west at 3.3 miles. At mile 3.9 turn south through gate onto field road. Wire gate at 5.0 miles.
Double gate at 6.2 miles.
Here we parked and decided to walk. We could see at least one more gate
on beyond. We walked 3/4 mile southwest to get on the north ridge where the vehicle tracks terminate.
The hike up the ridge leads to a nice gap in the cliffs to get to the flat top. A man on an ATV herding cattle
told us that there is a vehicle access from the south but it is much longer. Bob Packard said he tried an
access from the east that left him with a much longer hike.