South Dakota has a lot of “Waterfowl Production Areas” that are managed by the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department. The website indicates that the Production areas have hiking. Based on what we saw, you can hike in the areas but there are no designated trails. I think the areas are used more for hunting and for birds to breed than anything else. Unless you want to walk-through knee-high grass and weeds and hope to have no ticks when done.

Our goal was to see a wood duck. Wood ducts breed in trees in South Dakota in the spring and migrate out of South Dakota in the fall. Because wooded the needed habitat has declined over the years, South Dakota started installing breeding boxes in trees. We have not seen a breeding box which might be the reason why we haven’t seen any wood ducks.

At one of the Waterfowl Production Areas, a UTV came up to us and stopped. He was wondering if we were interested in the land that was for sale. We weren’t but were able to ask him if he’s seen any wood ducks. The man on the UTV recommended going to Montrose, SD. So, off we went to Montrose in hopes of finding wood ducks.

Montrose, SD is about 12 miles from the Lake Vermillion Recreation Area. The town has a population of @450 people and has a lot going for it. Montrose has a campground with 39 camp sites. pool, baseball and basketball field and the vermillion river running along the town. From a business standpoint, the Montrose has a couple cafes, gas stations, veterinary store, and multiple grain silos / milling stations.

John and I walked around the campground, pool, Vermillion River and ball park. Still no wood duck sightings. We decided to go back to the trailer and make tacos for lunch 🙂