Roughrider OHV Trail

Roughrider OHV Trail is a 16-to-22-mile designated off-highway vehicle trail within Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park in Morton County, south of Mandan across the Missouri River from Bismarck, North Dakota. The trail traces the badlands terrain immediately above the Missouri River bottomlands: rolling prairie uplands, steep coulee edges that drop toward the river breaks, and ridge routes with sweeping views of the Missouri River valley and the historic Fort Abraham Lincoln site below. The landscape is identical to what Lieutenant Colonel Custer would have viewed from the fort before his departure for the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, a historical resonance that makes this one of the more culturally layered OHV destinations in the Great Plains. ATVs and side-by-sides meeting the 55-inch maximum width are permitted on the trail. A North Dakota state park vehicle permit and OHV trail pass are both required. The park itself features the reconstructed 7th Cavalry Fort Abraham Lincoln and the Mandan On-A-Slant Village historic site, making a combined history-and-riding day trip viable for visitors from the Bismarck-Mandan metro. Contact the park office (701-667-6340) for current OHV access hours and conditions.