Makoshika State Park, Montana, United States
Possibly the highlight of this road trip, Makoshika State
Park is the largest and maybe most famous state park in Montana. At the edge of
the Yellowstone River Valley just outside of Glendive and 30 miles from North
Dakota, the eroded badlands landscape is similar to that in Badlands and Theodore
Roosevelt National Parks in the Dakota, except on a somewhat smaller scale. The
scenery is just as impressive, though.
When I pulled into Glendive in the evening in search of a
basic motel for the night, I ended up at El Centro, and old school 1950s style
courtyard motel near the center of town, the same place I stayed one night in
2017 on my trip west for the eclipse. I
find Glendive to be a somewhat odd town. While larger than most on the Plains
because of the railroad and the interstate, it strikes me as especially hard up
with many downtown buildings in decay and few of the national chains you
usually find at highway exits. But it works as a place to stay for a night or
two.
While Montana’s state parks are open for recreation, their
visitor centers and other facilities are still currently closed because of the
Corona virus plague, even though there’s almost none of it in Montana
anymore. There was somewhat more human
life in Makoshika than other places along my route, mostly RV campers, but I
still didn’t see anyone else on the hiking trails. The tentative plan I came up
with was to hike most of the shorter lookout and loop trails through the morning
and early afternoon, head back to my room for an afternoon siesta during the
warmest part of a fairly hot day, and return in the evening to do the longer
Gunner’s Ridge/Hungry Joe Lookout Trail.
All went well – lots of photogenic hoodoos and mushroom like formations
as well as a natural bridge and a couple dinosaur fossil sites. While the
social distancing wasn’t as extreme as elsewhere, I don’t think I came across
anyone else on the trails all day.
By mid-afternoon I was ready to treat myself to a late lunch
and decided on a Glendive Burrito at Los Amigos Restaurant near the center of
town. Social distancing wasn’t hard; I
was the only patron in the place. My
siesta became rather extended and the skies clouded over by early afternoon. I
decided to skip the longer hike I planned to hang out in my room resting. There
will still be new trails to hike if I decide to stop at Makoshika again on a
trip to the Dakotas or other points east.*
2025-05-22