WATFORD CITY (AP) - Another way to see the Badlands is officially open to the public.

The Summit Trail, about 20 miles south of Watford City, was redone and relocated by the U.S Forest Service's Dakota Prairie Grasslands office. The four-mile trail was opened to the public in September.

The trail begins at the Summit Campground right off U.S. Highway 85, at mile post 94. It is a primitive campground without utilities or service, with signs to direct visitors off the highway. It connects with the last part of the Maah Daah Hey Trail close to the Civilian Conservation Camp on the Little Missouri River, in Theodore Roosevelt National Park's north unit.

The trail project has been in the works for about three years, said Curt Glasoe, a Forest Service coordinator and engineer.

Glasoe said the federal Environmental Protection Agency finished its environmental assessment last year and the project was contracted, but it got too late in the year to begin construction.

"We started on the trail a year ago in November, but we got weathered out," Glasoe said. "We completed it in late August this year. The Summit Trail - before it was so bad with washouts and slumps that we couldn't redo it in same place."

The first Summit Trail was done in the early 1980s.

The new Summit Trail took about a month to build. Foliage was cleared away, except for a rather large cedar tree.

"It's not official, but we measured the tree and it is 29 inches in diameter," Glasoe said. "We believe it is the biggest cedar tree in the state compared to another in the east, which is 22 inches."

The revamped trail is open to hiking and horseback riding, but not biking. Once on it and about a half mile into the trail, people can see why.

"It's a wilderness area with 200-foot drop-offs from the trail, but the grade is flat," Glasoe said. "There's a mini Devil's Pass like the one on the Maah Daah Hey."

The terrain and landscape are spectacular, but they can be rough in some spots, he said.

"It's a nice four-foot trail," Glasoe said. "We rode on horseback when it was halfway done and it took awhile, but on foot it would probably take a couple hours, depending on how fast you go."

Dickinson resident Don Mayer also has been on the trail on horseback. He went with family members a few weeks ago.

"The views are up so high and near the peak of everything, and with the leaves changing you get some phenomenal photos," Mayer said. "For about three-fourths of a mile, you are out on an edge the entire way with a 200 feet or so drop. So it's not for anyone nervous about heights or for a green horse."

Mayer has traversed many trails in the state. He said the Summit Trail has some of the deepest drop-offs anywhere in North Dakota he's seen.

"You get a combination of what's called a 'hog's back' which is when nothing is on either side of the trail," Mayer said. "You get those and cliffs and a 100-foot wall above you at one point, but it's not that challenging as far as a lot of climbing … It's a thrill being hung out there."

He reminds people to bring a camera.

"This new one is much improved and safer the way it is now than before," Mayer said. "It looks like it will continue to stay in better shape, too."

Also in the works is the Wolf Trail, a loop trail connecting the Maah Daah Hey to the Watford City area. Currently, the Maah Daah Hey stops short at the southern edge of the national park's north unit. Construction could start next summer, Glasoe said.

The Maah Daah Hey II Trail is ready to be designed this winter, he said.

The proposed 46-mile Maah Daah Hey II would go south from Sully Creek State Park, where the Maah Daah Hey now ends, to the Burning Coal Vein Campground near Amidon.