As I mentioned yesterday, all the trees you see on the “tops” of the drift prairie of North Dakota are plantings…installed by human hands as wind-brakes around dwellings and homesteads. What native trees there are are mostly cottonwoods and ash, deep in the river valleys, where the periodic prairie wildfires could not get to them, and where water was reliable all year. The exception is the Burr Oak and Ash forests that grow along the ridge of the Missouri Coteau, the glacial moraine that marks the edge of the ice advance. This is Hawk’s Nest Ridge, southwest of Carrington. It is on private land, but it draws people from hundreds of miles around, to hike and camp in the one of the only real forests in the state. These days most people call the landowners to get permission. Generations of some North Dakota families have camped and hunted on Hawk’s Nest.

And I can understand why. Even for an easterner like me, well acquainted with forest, the Burr Oak forest of Hawk’s Nest is a place of wonder.

Under the bright prairie sun, it is not an easy forest to photograph. Even my in-camera HDR left the highlights overexposed, so this is a traditional 3 exposure HDR assembled and tone mapped in Dynamic Photo HDR and processed in Lightroom.

Canon SX50HS. 24mm equivalent.