HD 690 covers the country in southern Carter County between Ekalaka and the Wyoming and South Dakota borders—rolling sage prairie, scattered ponderosa-pine breaks, badland-style coulees, and the Little Missouri River drainage running through the eastern part of the unit. Elevations run from about 3,000 feet on the Little Missouri bottom to 4,500 feet on the higher pine-covered buttes. The country is a mix of the open SE MT prairie and the Black Hills-feel pine country: dryland wheat and CRP on the rolling cropland, native bunchgrass-and-sage on the prairie, scattered ponderosa-pine ridges with sandstone outcrops, juniper-and-mountain mahogany draws, and cottonwood-and-willow corridors along the Little Missouri and the seasonal creek drainages. Mule deer use the breaks and pine ridges; whitetail in the river bottom; pronghorn on the open prairie in real numbers; some elk filter through the larger pine pockets; sharptails in the CRP and Merriam's turkeys in the pines. BLM tracts scatter through, DNRC state checkerboards, and the bulk is private ranchland—Carter County is genuine ranch country, mostly third-and-fourth-generation outfits. Block Management is essential. Limited road access—county and section dirt roads handle everything, gumbo when wet. Ekalaka is the supply outpost; Belle Fourche SD is the practical larger town just over the border to the southeast; Broadus is northwest. Cell service is essentially gone. The country produces quality pronghorn, respectable mule deer in the breaks, and decent whitetail in the river bottoms for hunters who put in the windshield miles and walk the BLM blocks.