Sunday, July 29, 2018

Makoshika State Park - Glendive, Montana

July 27

Makoshika State Park is Eastern Montana’s Badlands. This day turned out to be more about the scenery than birds or other critters, but what a great park.

We drove to the top for the lovely vistas. It was cloudy and I’m sure the colors of the Badlands would have been more vivid if the sun had been out. Then, we did the amphitheater hike. It started out easy and then turned into a “mountain goat” trail. Very interesting rock formations here.



 unknown












 amphitheater hike














I look like a dot and this is zoomed in







 the smell of Juniper was amazing


It started to sprinkle as we drove to the next trailhead. We waited in the car for it to subside and started the Cap Rock trail in a light sprinkle. This one definitely was a “mountain goat” trail. It had some rickety wooden stairs and some natural sandstone ones, but mostly it was clamoring up and over some steep narrow areas. It was a scenic hike and there was a natural bridge that we both stood on for photo ops.

 natural bridge

 yep, we walked down the steps at the top and then the rock steps and across the planks


 there were a lot of sinkholes

















I had just commented that this place was devoid of any kind of critters. Not even little lizards. Right on cue an adorable and very fast Chipmunk ran ahead of us.

 chipmunk
 Greg climbing to the top - I went up behind him
 chipmunk



It had started to rain harder by the time we got back to the car, so we stopped for lunch in hopes that it would end so we could resume hiking in the afternoon. We stopped in the closest town of Glendive at a popular pizza place called Monte Carlo. They had regular pizza and some “exotic” ones and we tried the Chicken Teriyaki Pizza. YUM!



It rained hard while we were in there, but stopped by the time we were ready to go. We made the short drive back to the State Park and hiked the Bluebird Trail. It started out easy as well and then turned into another “mountain goat” climb to the top and we circled the peak before "mountain goating" our way down. We caught a fleeting glance of a fox. Probably a Swift Fox.




 that's part of the trail




 Say's Phoebe
 Say's Phoebe
 Say's Phoebe

  the fox was down at the base
 me almost to the top







Back at the car we called it a day to go home and get ready for the move to Billings, Montana.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZugZKxPZYu9UsAHu8




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