Tour of Duty in Williston ND

[GALLATIN RC]

Hello All:
I'll be working right outside of Williston ND for the duration of this year. Looking to see if any groups of people get together regularly to crawl and also what some good locations might be around the area.

About myself: I'm all about rock crawling. Preferring mainly long rock outcrops and technical rock courses. Not too much into the speed thing.

Got a Wraith setup with all the goodies...4WS and Dig Transmission as building the rig has been almost as fun as driving. I have only crawled for the pleasure of it and never been to a competition. Would like to get into that scene, but probably at a beginner level.

Any insight would be appreciated. Haven't been too excited about the move as I have great crawling in Montana, but you got to go where the money is.

Much Appreciated.

EK

 

[Brainanator]

Welcome! There isn't much worth crawling on right in Williston that I have found. There are some areas with large rip-rap, but that's usually extreme for a trail truck/scaler. Large rock outcrops are pretty much the best, as you've said.
Join up at "Bakken RC Buy Sell Trade show off" on facebook. Interest has waned a little recently with the drop in oil prices. Lost some active people.

There is a little place right in town we call "the dirt hills". That's literally what they are, some 3-4' tall dirt hills, with some rocks and concrete scraps. Tom and I have been sort of maintaining it and arranging the rocks.

As for competitions, nothing much right in our area of the state. NDRCRC on facebook has a comp series going. Everyone is very nice, and very fun to run with. Unfortunately most are in the center of the state (Minot, Bismarck). The closest comp locations to us are Minot and Dickinson.

This is the schedule for the rest of the summer:

March-22 Dickinson
April-12 Regan
May-17 Fargo
June-7 Beulah Bay/Camp out
June-27 Car show
July-5 Bismarck
August-9 New Salem/King of the Holstein
September-27 Minot
October-25 Bismarck or Dickinson depending on the weather.

 

[GALLATIN RC]

Hey Thanks for the reply.
Sounds like there are some like minded people....which is always nice.
I'm headed over in a month or so and will try to touch base.

I was looking up the North Dakota Bad Lands.....any rock there or is it mainly dirt? Also, state parks around Montana usually have some good rock, and I noticed Lewis and Clark not too far away, but couldn't see decent pictures.

I'll be staying every other weekend in the area an not afraid of a road trip....used to long distances growing up in a big state.

Also, when the rest of the crews head to the bars, I prefer to do some night crawling.

Look forward to meeting up.

Cheers
EK

 

[Brainanator]

Lewis and clark state park has some huge rip rap, my scx10 pretty much got swallowed up. When I get back home I'll upload some pics of it. There is also some OK shore trailing to do there (or anywhere along the coast of Lake Sakakawea). Here's a quick little video I shot at L&C State Park while camping there last summer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SO4D8KdL0M

As for the badlands, you're mostly right, mostly dirt (though beautifully shaped dirt). It's often very hard, so for RC purposes pretty much rock. I haven't done a ton of exploring in the bad lands. There are some just South of town on the Missouri, but I think a lot of it is private land, and with the oil field I really don't want to accidentally be trespassing. There is Theodor Roosevelt National Park about an hour South of Williston. Stunning badlands and lots of hiking trails. BUT, being a National Park I would absolutely want to talk to the park rangers before doing any kind of off-walkway RC-ing. They are very particular about their dirt.

There are some "buttes" (as they call them, nothing like in MT) in the national park area too. I think that's more public use land, where maybe you wouldn't get bothered as much by rangers. That's all on the Little Missouri River badlands areas.

 

[Rsd]

I've been in Williston for a couple years now and have been actively searching for people into R/C's I have a scx10 honcho an sct couple Jatos mmm eMaxx and a t maxx let me know if you guys go crawling or bashing anytime soon Would love to find more people out here into this stuff

 

[Brainanator]

"Bakken RC buy sell trade show off" on Facebook is the main hub for Williston RC-ers. There will be a meet up at the dirt hills this Wednesday about 6:00pm and on. Couple people won't be there till 7:00.

https://goo.gl/maps/s35k2

There is a map to "the dirt hills".

 

[GALLATIN RC]

Rolling into Williston next week. Look forward to meeting up with you guys.

 

[Brainanator]

Don't know if you joined the facebook. Seems like scaler interest instantly got cut when a rough track went up. "The dirt hills" in town are getting leveled by the city it looks like too. Hope to see you out somewhere soon!