Explore the gorgeous badlands of Montana!
Makoshika State Park is located near the eastern border of Montana. The park is named after the Lakota name for badlands, Maco sika, and these are some gorgeous and unique badlands. The landscape drastically changes the further you go into the park. Near the entrance, there are dry washes and rough terrain in a valley. The road then climbs in elevation to views of the gorgeous badlands from above.
Jana Irving The first trail was the Diane Gabriel Trail and then connecting to the Hadrosaur Trail. It crosses several washes.
Jana Irving The hills had thick, purple-colored bands of rock, which looked pretty cool.
Jana Irving The cloudy morning was really making the color of the golden grass pop.
Jana Irving Very badlandy.
Jana Irving Really cool looking.
Jana Irving Colorful prairie.
Jana Irving The Hadrosaur Trail heads to the top of the hill giving some great views of the badlands.
Jana Irving A badlands canyon.
Jana Irving There are random layers of harder rock, which are slowly falling out. Rocks are weird.
Jana Irving The erosion here looks like Toadstool Park.
Jana Irving There is a hadrosaur fossil in this photo. Can you spot it?
Jana Irving Maybe a spine? Honestly, I don’t know.
Jana Irving Super cool looking.
Jana Irving Heading further into the park. There are a few overlooks. Very pretty.
Jana Irving Gorgeous purple badlands.
Jana Irving Turn around and see a pretty prairie.
Jana Irving Gorgeous views from the aptly named Eyefull [sic] Vista.
Jana Irving More gorgeousness.
Jana Irving The Twin Sisters. Not sure what hoodoo they are referring to here.
Jana Irving More hoodoos down the trail.
Jana Irving Very cool. Are these the sisters?
Jana Irving Now for the Kinney Coulee Trail. A coulee is a deep ravine apparently.
Jana Irving The trail steeply drops down into that coulee. It’s a short trail but hiking back up was a lot.
Jana Irving Badlands are so cool looking.
Jana Irving Seeing some weird rock formations down there.
Jana Irving A few hoodoos down there.
Jana Irving Little baby hoodoos.
Jana Irving Very weird looking.
Jana Irving Very weird hoodoos. They are like hoodoos with hats.
Jana Irving The sun decided to come out right in time to see more hoodoos.
Jana Irving Erosion really does weird things.
Jana Irving A very prominent hoodoo.
Jana Irving The trail follows a wash.
Jana Irving This was a tight squeeze.
Jana Irving Lots of melted hoodoos.
Jana Irving It really does look like the rock melted. I guess it kind of did.
Jana Irving The last trail was the Cap Rock Trail. I was about dead when I started this one.
Jana Irving More melted rocks over here, too.
Jana Irving I didn’t finish the trail. It heads to this natural bridge. I just zoomed in on the camera.
I am very glad I stopped at this park. I only found it because I wanted to see something in Montana. Happy accident, I guess. There are plenty of great trails and sights to see in Makoshika.
Check out my next update where I’ll be exploring Theodore Roosevelt National Park!
or
Start at the beginning of this northwest Midwest road trip!
