Upon leaving Walhalla we attempted to follow the Rendezvous Region Scenic Backway, which traverses a remote part of Northeast North Dakota. This took a bit of luck to find the starting point but we were soon off and running. The drive took us on some rather poor roads that would probably not be open year around, but we did stumble across a couple of neat things along the way.
One noteworthy item was a large field full of old decaying cars. Of course these are a dime a dozen, but in this particular case all the cars looked to be at least 40 or 50 years old. At the very back of the group were some vehicles that looked to be significantly older again. This would be a great place to visit for vintage car buffs, as you can see many – although admittedly not in the best of shape!
Next we stopped at the Icelandic State Park. The park was quite attractive with a pleasant lake and attractive campsites. We decided to walk one of the local hiking trails which seemed to correspond to an electrical easement judging by the flags – and the walk was enjoyable. There was a lot of elevation change, but the path itself was mowed – helping somewhat with treading the uneven terrain.
At one point the path started heading down to the river side thru a shaded tunnel of trees – this looked very enticing until the mosquitoes came out in force and we decided a strategic withdrawal was in order. A good walk nonetheless.
Next we found our way to Pembina on the border of North Dakota and Minnesota, extremely close to the Canadian border. We found a great free museum there, the Pembina State Museum, and took some time to explore it. It had a lot of great information on the Métis culture that developed there, a blending of Native American and French European peoples. I found this very informative, and it was a good counterpoint to all the Scandinavian heritage information we had seen the day before – clearly demonstrating the local population was not completely homogeneous even in recent times.
From here it was determined we needed to find some lunch. Driving for quite some time we came to the town of Hallock, where we found a wonderful little restaurant called the Caribou Lodge. After eating way too much we determined there were very few camping options in the local neighborhood, so we made our way to East Grand Forks, and setup camp in a large campground on the Red River.