Makoshika

Makoshika State Park is located only about a mile from the town of Glendive, Montana, the town to which I awakened this morning.  The name Makoshika is a Lakota (Native American) term for “badlands.”   The park encompasses over 11,400 acres, making it the largest state park in Montana.  Within the park, you enter ground where Tyrannosaurus rex once stomped about.  In fact, the first T. rex ever discovered was found in Montana and unearthed between 1902 and 1905 at a “badland” formation similar to Makoshika.  Fossils of T. rex have been found in Makoshika as well.

 

“Otherworldly,” is about the only word that adequately describes Makoshika.  Here the Yellowstone River and the elements of wind and rain have exposed sediments and stone dating back 65 million years—the Age of the Reptiles.  The varying layers of mudstones, sandstones, clays, and shale have allowed for some of the most beautiful natural sculpting in the entire world.

 

 

Both photos are from Wikipedia.

--Mitchell Hegman