...an Eastern Montana perspective
Makoshika State Park has 8123 acres of spectacular badlands, fossils and wild life. The park has hiking trails, picnic sites and a visitor center. The park is near the city of Glendive, Montana, which has ample camping and lodging facilities.
Literature available at the Visitor Center explains that this land became a state park in 1953. The name Makoshika (ma-ko'-shi-ka) is a variant spelling of a Sioux Indian phrase meaning "badlands", or a barren and gullied terrain. These badlands expose older rock layers than those in the badlands of the Dakotas. Here, the Yellowstone River and its tributaries cut into a transition in time, or the passing from the Age of Reptiles, so dramatically represented by the dinosaurs, to the Age of Mammals.
I will quote from the Visitor Center literature: "Makoshika is an island in time -- a vantage point from which to look back millions of years, to imagine a vastly different environment right here, to ponder the extinction of the dinosaurs, to contemplate the development of mammals, the change of climates, the creation of these badlands, and man's place in all of this."
The park is open year around with seasonal restrictions.
September 2005 personal photos
a sketch by sid blair
See Disclaimer @ Eastern Montana .. a perspective of a former resident and frequent visitor