Here you can still see the mounds left by three earthen villages of the Hidatsas, who lived on the Knife River, a narrow tributary of the nearby Missouri, for more than 900 years. The National Park Service has recreated one of the earthen lodges, and there are enough hiking trails along the river to fill a half-day. Stroll through the mostly wide-open and wild park to the village site where Lewis and Clark met Sacagawea in 1804.
The visitor center is just north of Stanton (22 miles west of Washburn) on Hwy 200, which runs through verdant rolling prairie (punctuated by the odd enormous coal-fired power plant) for 110 miles between US 83 and US 85.