Makoshika State Park – Badlands, Bridges, and Hoodoos!

Near sunset at Makoshika State Park.

On Wednesday, 7/29, we moved to Riverview RV Park in Glendive, MT for two nights. Again, we had to cancel our state park reservation because it was dry camping and our streak of 100+ degrees has continued. Ugh. The drive was an adventure all its own. As is often the case, extreme heat can birth some monster storms. We had to drive straight through a severe storm with thunder, lightning, heavy rain, and strong winds that were pushing the coach all over the place. Both Rog and Bob considered pulling over, but it was a big system and they opted to soldier through rather than try to wait it out. It was a white-knuckled ride for sure.

Yeah, isolated showers was a bit of an understatement. Lol.

Riverview was fine, it had some shade trees and most importantly power, but wasn’t anything to write home about. But it was only a mile from Makoshika State Park and that’s what we’re really here to see. At over 11,500 acres, Makoshika is Montana’s largest state park preserving over 20% of the state’s badlands. The land was set aside as a state park in 1953 and is a world-renowned place to study paleontology, geology, and archaeology. Makoshika’s badlands expose 65-million-year old clay and shale from a time when these dry lands were a tropical paradise where dinosaurs roamed. Over ten species of dinosaurs have been found in Makoshika including T-Rex and Triceratops.

Dinosaur bones and fossils are often found in the area.

The dinosaurs are cool, but I was more interested in the amazing landscape. I just love the multi-colored layers of the badlands, hoodoos, and ravines. The lower sedimentary layers erode much faster than the sandstone above, leaving caprocks precariously balanced on delicate spires. With their other-worldly formations, whole valleys look like they were lifted from a science fiction movie. We did the scenic drive through the park at sunset on Wednesday evening stopping at several overlooks. There are lots of trails throughout the park, so I was also scouting out where I wanted to hike.

The colors are caused by the mineral composition of the layers,
iron is red and yellow while coal seams are black.

I love the capstones and bizarre erosion patterns.

View from Capstone trailhead. Yes, I'll be back!

Always fun to make new friends.

Dramatic sky.

While the storms have reduced the temps, it’s still waaaaay too hot to be out and about midday. My furry alarm clock (thank you, Raney) nudged me at 5:59am on Thursday morning. Instead of pleading for just a few more minutes, I dragged myself out of bed so we could get an early start on the trail. I’d picked two short ones, Caprock Trail which included the Natural Bridge and the more difficult, but also short, Kinney Coulee trail. I would be hard pressed to pick a favorite! Caprock was a half-mile loop, but there was so much to see that it sure felt longer. I may go a little crazy with pictures, so scroll through quickly if you’re not a big a fan of badlands topography. Lol.

We descend into a wonderland on this rickety staircase.

The trail winds through a maze
of hoodoos and intriguing formations.

Badlands Bunny. Lol.

One advantage of hiking down into the valley, you can focus on the details.

One of the highlights of this trail was a natural bridge. Do you see it on the right?

Photo op on the bridge!

Orange and black stripes.

Climbing up out of the valley.

One last look back at the playground.

The Kinney Coulee trail was about a mile long and listed as one of the more difficult hikes. It also packed a lot into a relatively short distance, and included a little more climbing on, shall we say, less than well-developed trails. It was all great fun and we managed to beat the rain, which was a good thing. Both of the trails had signs posted that they are impassible when wet because of the bentonite mud, which they called “gumbo”. Lol.

And down we go for our second mini-hike this morning.

Giant rock snake?

Caprock and mud slumps.

Mud ghosts and a balancing act. Lol.

Aren't the textures and patterns fascinating?

Rog hikes past a huge spire. 

Through the gate. Lol.

We managed to avoid the gumbo. Lol. 

We finished our hike and were on our way back to the RV, when we saw Bob and Carole’s car at the Visitor’s Center. We stopped and I was going to do the one-mile Bluebird Loop trail with them, but it had started to rain. We ended up coming back around noon, it was still spitting rain but, honestly after all the heat, a breeze and little bit of rain felt like heaven. Lol.

A greener vista from the Bluebird Trail...

...but still plenty of badlands beauty.

We had several one-night stops next on our schedule. The first was the Wagon Wheel Campground in Forsyth, MT on Friday, 7/31 (Happy Birthday Tim and Diane!). We found out that the area is known for moss agates, so Carole and I waded into the Yellowstone River in search. Let me just say it was not nearly as pleasant as rockhounding on the Great Lakes! The river was slow moving with lots of algae and a bit smelly too. Lol. On the upside, I do believe Carole found a moss agate and we both came back with more rocks to add to the “to be tumbled” pile. 😊 

Yellowstone River.

The search is on!

From there, we made our way to Billings Village RV Park in (you guessed it) Billings, MT on Saturday, 8/1. Rog finally was able to get his hair cut, he’s been trying for weeks and it got to be a running joke because all the places he tried were either booked or closed. He was nearly resigned to having Covid hair until we got home. Lol. We also visited Big Dipper Ice Cream, which turned out to be a real find. The website said they had flights, one of my favorite things. But when I asked the girl at the counter, she gave me a totally blank look. She had no idea what I was talking about or even what a “flight” was. She asked her coworker who told her it was six scoops. I told her what flavors I wanted to try and she started dishing up full size scoops! Even my eyes got big. After a couple, her coworker looked over and whispered, “kid sized scoops!”. Lol. She finished up the order with smaller scoops, but even so it was an impressive amount of ice cream. Have no fear, I was up to the challenge.

Big Dipper lived up to its name.
(And no, there is no such thing as too much ice cream! Lol.)

Our final one-night stay on Sunday, 8/2, was a Harvest Host site, Bridger Brewing in Three Forks, MT. By now the temps had dropped into the 90’s, so we decided to forgo the power pole and keep our reservation at the brewery. They had several areas for RV parking and we chose a spot next to a big open field where the pups could have some play time. 

Bridger Brewing, another excellent Harvest Host site.

Rog is outstanding in his field. Lol.

The pups loved some leash-free play time.

As Rog observed, every mile we drive is one closer to home now. But keep hanging with us, we still have some fun activities planned including an epic bike ride on the Hiawatha Trail coming up next!