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North Dakota Physical Map

North Dakota’s western Badlands carve dramatic terrain into what looks like otherwise-flat plains.

Rendered from SRTM 30m elevation data + Natural Earth rivers/lakes + US Census state boundary. Four versions below, all free.

Highest Point

White Butte

3,506 ft

Lowest Point

Red River

750 ft

North Dakota physical map showing the Badlands, the Missouri Plateau, and the Red River Valley, with major peaks and cities labeled. Topographic relief from NASA SRTM elevation data.

Choose your version

Two maps, two versions of each.

The same North Dakota terrain as a classroom map and as wall art. All four are free PDFs.

North Dakota physical map, labeled: the Badlands, the Missouri Plateau, and the Red River Valley, with the capital, cities and highest point marked
Labeled
North Dakota blank physical map: the same terrain with no labels, for labeling practice
Blank
Physical map

North Dakota physical map for the classroom

Elevation in color with shaded relief, plus the surrounding states and water for context. The labeled version marks the capital, major cities and the highest point. The blank version leaves them off so students can label the map themselves.

downloadLabeled PDFdownloadBlank PDF
North Dakota relief wall art on a dark background
Dark
North Dakota relief wall art on a light background
Light
Wall art

North Dakota relief wall art

North Dakota on its own, with strong shaded relief and no labels. The dark version has the most contrast. The light version uses far less ink on a home printer.

downloadDark PDFdownloadLight PDF

The physical geography of North Dakota

North Dakota rises in three broad steps from east to west. The Red River Valley, along the eastern border, is the flat bed of an ancient glacial lake. West of it is the Drift Prairie, a rolling plain with many small lakes and the wooded Turtle Mountains on the Canadian border. The western half is the Missouri Plateau. In the southwest, the Little Missouri River has carved the Badlands, and White Butte, the highest point, stands nearby.

Major rivers

  • Missouri
  • Red River of the North
  • Little Missouri
  • James
  • Sheyenne
  • Souris

Find it on the map

  • Lake Sakakawea, the long reservoir on the Missouri
  • The flat strip of the Red River Valley in the east
  • The rough Badlands in the southwest
verified

Built from real data, not stock images.

Every North Dakota physical map on this page was rendered from NASA SRTM 30-meter elevation data, with hydrography from Natural Earth and the shoreline-clipped state outline from the US Census Bureau. Each map is colored over that state’s own elevation range, and the relief shading is exaggerated so gentle terrain still shows.

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Pair with

map

North Dakota political map

The blank outline version of North Dakota (state borders, no terrain). Useful for political-geography exercises.

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