Hike Location: Makoshika State Park
Geographic Location: south of Glendive, MT (47.06400, -104.68079)
Length: 3.4 miles
Difficulty: 6/10 (Moderate)
Date Hiked: July 2018
Overview: A hike through badlands topography, mostly
easy/moderate but with one steep section.
Park Information: https://fwp.mt.gov/stateparks/makoshika
Directions to the trailhead: In eastern Montana, take
I-94 to Glendive’s Merrill Avenue (exit 215).
Exit and go south on Merrill Ave.
Drive Merrill Ave. 1.9 miles to Douglas Street and turn left on Douglas
St. After passing under the railroad
tracks, turn left on Barry Street. Drive
Barry St. 0.3 miles to Taylor Avenue and turn right on Taylor Ave. Drive Taylor Ave. 0.4 miles to Snyder Street
and turn left on Snyder St. Snyder St.
becomes Makoshika State Park Road when it exits Glendive. All of these turns are marked, so a simpler
way to say what I just wrote is “follow signs to Makoshika State Park.” Enter the park, pay the entrance fee if
necessary (only required for out-of-state vehicles as of this writing), and
drive the main park road to the signed pull-off parking area for the Switchback
Trail on the left. This pull-off is
large enough to accommodate 3 or 4 vehicles.
The hike: As I drove
across the length of Montana on my summer 2018 hiking trip, I realized that Montana
is almost a microcosm of the American west due to its range of topography:
badlands, high plains, foothills, canyons, and “real” rocky mountains. Located in the eastern part of the state,
11,500-acre Makoshika State Park (accent goes on the second syllable) is the
largest state park in Montana. The
park’s name comes from the Lakota word that translates to “bad land,”
and it is a fitting name because the park preserves 20% of Montana’s contiguous
badlands.
Like the
badlands of nearby North Dakota and South Dakota, Makoshika’s badlands consist of soft clays and shales topped by a
harder layer of sandstone. Badlands do a
fantastic job of preserving prehistoric fossils, and fossils from 10 different
species of dinosaurs have been found within the park’s boundaries in addition
to some petrified wood. Some of these
fossils are on display at a dinosaur museum near I-94, exit 215 that you drove
past on your way to the park.
As is
common for state parks in this part of the country, Makoshika State Park has
limited amenities: a few picnic shelters, some rustic campsites, and a 15-site
developed campground. Thus, the park’s
main attraction is its trail system, which features trails for horses, mountain
bikers, and hikers. The route described
here climbs steeply out of a canyon to reach a grassy and pine-covered plateau,
which in turn offers excellent views down into the canyon and beyond. Thus, this hike gives a nice sample of the
park’s habitats and a nice sample of the park’s hiking and mountain biking
trails.
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| Switchback Trail trailhead |
From its roadside
trailhead, the Switchback Trail heads southeast parallel to the park road. The initial segment of trail was quite narrow
and overgrown with prairie grass on my visit, but the path was still
distinguishable. Also, park managers close
the Switchback Trail after substantial rains: the water makes the rocks you
will soon be climbing very slippery, and it turns the badlands’ dirt into a
thick, goopy mud, thus making for unpleasant or dangerous hiking.
 |
| Blue wire trail markers buried in ground |
The trail
dips to cross normally dry Cains Coulee without the aid of a bridge before
beginning the steep climb to the canyon rim.
The trail gains 300 feet of elevation is less than 0.3 miles, and it
offers a true rugged, rocky, sunny, hot badlands experience. The meandering route is marked by an
occasional brown carsonite post and some neon blue wires buried in the ground,
but you will have to be looking for the wires in order for them to help you
stay on the trail. The badlands rocks
feature interesting color bands and rock shapes, and I even passed what looked like
a petrified log in this area.
 |
| Petrified log |
The trail
starts to level out as you climb out of the badlands and onto the grassy
plateau, which is dotted with clusters of ponderosa pines. I also got attacked by swarms of flies once I
reached the plateau on the seasonally cool cloudy late-July morning that I
hiked here. Just past 0.5 miles, you
reach the Switchback Trail’s upper end at a junction with the McCarty Trail,
which goes right and left. We will
eventually go both directions, but for now turn left to head for the park’s
amphitheater.
In only a
few hundred feet you reach the park road and the parking area for the
amphitheater; vault toilets are also located here. Head straight ahead and downhill to reach the
park’s amphitheater, which occupies a pleasant spot in a grove of pine trees
with a nice north-facing badlands view behind the stage. Exit the left side of the concrete stage (as
you approach it from the front) to find the dirt trail that heads a short
distance into the badlands to reach Twin Sisters. Twin Sisters is a pair of balancing boulders
each of which is perched atop a narrow shaft of softer rock. Water and wind continue to erode the softer rock,
and if you look around this area you will see some other “sisters” that have
already fallen from their perches.
 |
| Twin Sisters |
The trail
ends at Twin Sisters, so you need to turn around and retrace your steps through
the amphitheater to the upper end of the Switchback Trail. Continue straight on the McCarty Trail to
explore the area south of the Switchback Trail.
The trail heads across the grassy plateau before crossing the driveway
for the McCarty Cabin, which you will visit in a few minutes. After dipping through a steep but shallow
ravine, you reach a fenced-in pond where the trail curves right to pass along
the north and west sides of the pond.
At 1.4
miles, you reach the signed south end of the McCarty Trail at its intersection
with the Ponderosa Trail, which forms a loop.
Turn right to begin a counterclockwise journey around the Ponderosa
Trail. Contrary to its name, the
Ponderosa Trail only passes a few ponderosa pine trees, and it spends most of
its distance in the plateau’s sunny grassland.
 |
| Hiking the Ponderosa Trail |
1.8 miles
into the hike, you reach the Cains Coulee Overlook. Perched at the end of one of the plateau’s
peninsulas, the overlook gives a great view northwest down the coulee. Many badlands rock formations and color bands
can be seen, and you may even be able to see your car at the trailhead more than
a mile away as the crow flies. Take a
few minutes to enjoy the best view on this hike.
 |
| Cains Coulee Overlook |
The trail
curves sharply left at the overlook to head back up the south side of the
peninsula. The dryness of the plateau
supports some desert plants including yuccas, but a light shower started to
fall on me as I hiked this trail. At 2.2
miles, where a spur trail exits right to another parking area, turn left to
finish the Ponderosa Trail’s loop.
 |
| McCarty Cabin |
At 2.4
miles, you close the loop. Rather than
retrace your steps to the Switchback Trail, after passing the pond take the
faint trail to the left that heads into a ravine. In only a couple hundred feet, this trail
comes out at the McCarty Cabin, a 20-foot by 20-foot log cabin restored in
2014. Take the narrow trail to the right
to climb away from the cabin and rejoin the main McCarty Trail, then turn left
to descend the Switchback Trail back to your car and complete the hike.
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