Makoshika State Park
1301 Snyder Ave
Glendive, MT
A wind-carved country of hoodoos, caprocks, and natural bridges on the edge of Glendive, where the same layered rock that shapes the badlands still gives up Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops bones.
Makoshika State Park is Montana's largest, more than eleven thousand acres of badlands spilling off the edge of Glendive in the far eastern corner of the state. Its name comes from a Lakota phrase for bad land or bad earth, and one look at the pink, gray, and rust colored slopes, the hoodoos, the caprocks, and the natural bridge tells you why. It is a landscape that feels older than time, and in a sense it is.
The rock here belongs to the Hell Creek Formation, one of the richest windows on the end of the age of dinosaurs anywhere on Earth. Erosion that carved these badlands has also uncovered the bones of Tyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops, and other Cretaceous giants, so a hike at Makoshika is a walk through both a sculpture garden of stone and a graveyard of the last dinosaurs.
What Guests Love
- Driving and hiking among hoodoos, caprocks, and a natural bridge in Montana's largest state park
- The dinosaur story, from a Triceratops skull to Tyrannosaurus rex bones out of the Hell Creek beds
- Some of the darkest night skies in the state, with the Milky Way blazing over the badlands
- A disc golf course threaded through the formations, and a visitor center that lays out the geology
Worth Knowing
- The clay roads and trails turn to slick gumbo when wet, so a rainstorm can make the park hard to drive or hike
- Summer days are hot with little shade, so carry water and start early
- Fossils are protected, so it is look but do not collect, and the visitor center explains where finds have come from
- Rattlesnakes live in the badlands, so watch where you step on warm days
Details
Glendive, MT
Learn about Makoshika State Park
How the badlands formed
The layered rock of Makoshika was laid down at the end of the Cretaceous, roughly sixty-six million years ago, as rivers and swamps buried sand, mud, and ash on a low coastal plain. Over the ages the land rose and the Yellowstone River and its side streams began cutting down through it, and the soft clays and sandstones eroded fast into the maze of ridges and gullies you see now.
The hoodoos and caprocks are erosion in slow motion. A harder layer of rock, sometimes a slab of sandstone or a band of ironstone, shelters the softer clay beneath it, so the protected column erodes more slowly than the ground around it and stands up as a spire or a mushroom shape. The park's natural bridge formed the same way, and the whole landscape keeps changing with every hard rain.
The end of the dinosaurs, written in the rock
Makoshika sits in the Hell Creek Formation, the same beds that have made eastern Montana and the western Dakotas famous in paleontology. These rocks capture the final chapter of the dinosaurs and the mass extinction that closed it, and fossils weather out of the slopes as the badlands erode. A Triceratops skull, Edmontosaurus remains, and Tyrannosaurus rex bones are among the finds tied to the park.
Just above the dinosaur beds lies the thin boundary that marks the asteroid impact and the extinction that ended the Cretaceous, one of the most important lines in the entire fossil record. The park's visitor center interprets this deep history, and the surrounding Glendive area is a hub on Montana's Dinosaur Trail.
Wildlife and the night sky
For all its stark look, the badlands are alive. Ponderosa pine and juniper cling to the ridges, prairie grasses fill the flats, and mule deer, prairie falcons, golden eagles, turkey vultures, and turkey range through the park. Bull snakes and prairie rattlesnakes hunt the warm slopes, and the play of light on the colored clays shifts hour by hour.
Because it sits far from any big city, Makoshika has some of the darkest skies in Montana. On a clear, moonless night the Milky Way arches over the hoodoos and the stars come down to the horizon, and the park has become a favorite for stargazers and the occasional astronomy gathering.
Getting out into the park
A scenic drive climbs from the visitor center into the badlands, with overlooks and trailheads along the way, and short walks like the Cap Rock Nature Trail lead to the natural bridge and classic formations. There is a campground, picnic areas, and even a disc golf course laid out among the ridges, so you can make a quick stop or a full day of it.
Late spring and fall are the most comfortable seasons, with cooler air and good light. Summer brings heat and dramatic storms, and winter turns the badlands quiet and snow-streaked. In any season, watch the weather, because the clay roads get treacherous when they are wet.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near Glendive
Glendive and the Yellowstone River
Adjacent
The gateway town sits right below the park on the Yellowstone, with a paddlefish fishery famous for its caviar, small museums, and services.
Frontier Gateway Museum
About 3 miles
A Glendive museum of local pioneer, railroad, and natural history, a good companion to the park's deep-time story.
Montana Dinosaur Trail
Across eastern Montana
A string of dinosaur museums and dig sites, including the Makoshika visitor center, that follows the fossil beds across the eastern half of the state.