With no signs of rain relenting upon Glacier National Park we left early heading east to Glendive, Montana for Makoshika State Park. For miles and miles we drove across all of the Big Sky listening to local radio featuring the morning police reports from each Montana county. One by one sheriffs reported how many people they helped with road trouble and fire permits. There were no actual instances of crime, except maybe a report of a drunk person for whom they called his family and found him a place to stay overnight. Very different than the Atlanta news covering the violent protests and routine nightly homicide.
We arrived to Makoshika after passing through the bumpiest roads of Glendive’s downtown and a few neighborhoods. There is one water spigot at the welcome center and clean composting toilets at the campsite. No electricity. No water hookups. However, each campsite has views of the eroding canyon walls, which reminded us of Palo Duro Canyon. Without cell service nor wifi, we made a few visits to Albertson’s grocery to research things to do, get directions and connect with the world.
A two-lane road winds from the bottom up to the top where panoramic views abound. The rock varies greatly in color and density with most surfaces being sandy to the touch. Signs warn against taking fossils, so we had to look for them! And watching Jurassic Park our first night was a must.
In the city, we stopped by Hell Creek Music to see the fully assembled T-Rex. The owner was very nice and showed us around the store that offered guitars, comic books and rocks. It is more of museum than a store with the T-Rex and several autographed guitars encased with photographs of them being used by rock stars. It was our 10 year-olds birthday, who is interested in geology, so we bought him a hunk of polished local Montana moss agate.
Throughout the west each county has a museum. In most cities it is pretty much the only thing to do. So we stopped in to see Glendive’s museum, which offered a look at more dinosaur fossils, Indian tools, pioneer clothing and more. With 4 kids aged 3-10 this stop didn’t take long. We rounded out the trip into town with fishing from an old bridge going over Yellowstone River…the same river we had visited where it starts in Yellowstone.
After a heavy rain we ventured out for a hike and quickly realized how much water the ground absorbs. The dirt produced a pasty, sticky, heavy mud almost like cement that stuck to our tires and shoes. A layer of this made driving and walking very slippery. It was fun to get some muddin’ in the 4×4 even though the cement like mud would stick with us for thousands of miles on the rest of our trip.
Shana is a canned ham vintage travel trailer. She carried Bennett Burgess, Cannon Burgess, Kimber Burgess, Matt Burgess, Ruby Burgess, Teagan Burgess over 500 miles through 1 state to Makoshika State Park pulled by a 2006 Toyota Sequoia to camp near Glendive, Montana. On this RV glamping trip 4 admirers complimented our restored retro red 1958 Shasta Airflyte Deluxe travel trailer. She spent 2 nights at campsite #2 in Montana with temperatures ranging from 50℉-83℉ arriving Monday, June 29, 2020 and leaving Wednesday, July 1, 2020. For more information about this glamping camping destination at Makoshika State Park in Montana go to http://stateparks.mt.gov/makoshika/.
