Fall 2026 - Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, 9.8.2026 - 10.5.2026, Part 2: Makoshika State Park, The Terry Badlands
Being of true lover of badlands geology, I was excited for the next leg of our journey. We left Antelope Creek Campground and drove up 191 to Malta along the Milk River. Malta is quite close to the Canadian border. There we took Hwy 2 east clear across the rest of the state to Makoshika State Park outside of Glendive, Montana. With a breakfast stop it took us six and a half hours. It felt like more as it was a fairly featureless drive.
One of the more exciting stretches on the way to Makoshika State Park
We pulled into Makoshika State Park and settled into site 11 and Cains Coulee Campground. Once again my research paid off and I believe we had the nicest site in the campground. Our site had a large grassy lawn with a picnic table and fire ring right out our door. Across from our site with no other sites in between was a great wall of badlands.
The view from our site
Makoshika State Park (accent on “ko”) is Montana’s largest state park with over 11,000 acres of rugged badlands. I discovered this place quite a few years ago so it was exciting to finally be here. In addition to the rock formations, the park is known for it’s abundance of dinosaur bones and petrified trees. This is where the big boys roamed and they have found numerous T-Rex and Triceratops fossils here. The visitor center even has a skull of each of the aforementioned critters on display.
It took us most of the day to get here but around three we drove further up into the park to do a short hike on the Cap Rock Trail. This is only a one mile loop but it packs a lot of scenery into that mile. The trail starts on the rim of a coulee and drops down to the bottom before looping back up and around to the trailhead. We hiked down a combination of hard-packed dried mud and a few stairs. We passed many small hoodoos or caprocks. There was lots of white fluted mudstone and this place reminded me a lot of the Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Badlands in northern New Mexico. We passed by a natural bridge and assorted petrified tree logs. It was a nice introduction to the park.
Map of Makoshika State Park. We were camped right next to the Diane Gabriel Trail.
Looking down into the coulee from the rim above the Cap Rock Trail
Caprocks along the Cap Rock Trail
Sculpted mudstone
Looking up toward the trailhead and the route down into the Cap Rock Coulee
Natural bridge along the Cap Rock Trail
Bridge and Bridgit
Lots of fluted mudstone
Hoodoos all over the hillsides
Since the Cap Rock Trail was a short hike, we still had time to drive through the park. First we drove out to the end of the road. A short trail led to the Twin Sisters, a double tall hoodoo feature next to a prominent pointy peak. On our way back to camp we stopped at several overlooks which were all great. By then the light was fading due to cloud cover so I think we caught the best light of the day on our hike.
Peak by the end of the park road
The Twin Sisters
Tree trunks?
Makoshika badlands
View from unnamed overlook
Another unnamed view. Notice the petrified tree trunks on the left side of the photo.
About fifty miles from Makoshika State Park is another area of badlands near the town of Terry, Montana. These also sounded very remote and intriguing so when we got up in the morning we drove down I-94 to Terry. There are two roads that access the Terry Badlands. We started by driving up along the eastern side of the badlands and turned onto a dirt road that headed west towards the badlands. I wouldn’t call it a well maintained road but it wasn’t very rough either. We drove in about six miles to the end of the dirt road to a spot called Terry Badlands Overlook. This was actually a great vantage point looking out into a huge area of rugged terrain.
Terry Badlands Overlook
Terry Badlands Overlook
We had left for Terry around noon because I thought that being on the western side of the Terry Badlands at sunset would be pretty epic. So the Terry Badlands Overlook which looks west would have been really nice right after sunrise for photos but we couldn’t do both. Some clouds were moving in and out and the winds were gusting pretty strong. We knew some weather was expected to move in but it was still pretty nice so we left and drove further through the town of Terry to the west side.
We drove Old Highway 10 through Terry and then turned right onto Old Milwaukee Road. Two miles down that road we came to the Yellowstone River. An old railroad bridge had been converted to an auto bridge. The deck was full of questionable boards but we slowly worked our way across with no issues.
The Old Milwaukee Bridge over the Yellowstone River
The Old Milwaukee Bridge
Just after crossing the bridge on the right was the beginning of an eight mile jeep road called the Calypso Trail. I had expected a very scenic drive to some killer views near the end. We planned to stick around and wait for the good light near sunset which is why we started our day so late. We were the only ones on the trail the entire time which added to the remote feeling. The road wound its way up and down and all around as it snaked up into the western side of the Terry Badlands. There was some pretty scenery but a lot of it was big expansive far views and it wasn’t quite as dramatic as I had expected. When we got to the end of the road we felt like there wasn’t really anywhere worth hanging out until sunset for. It was only two-thirty so we decided to drive back to Makoshika and try for a sunset hike there.
Terry Badlands
Terry Badlands
We got back around three-thirty. The wind was really gusting hard now and Bridgit wasn’t feeling a hike so at five I drove up to the Hungry Joe Trailhead. The light was great and it was sunny but it was really blustery! For this hike I had no guide. Gaia had no track for it and the park map I had didn’t even show the trails. Because most of the trails are on rock, typically you follow either rock cairns or at this park, posts with direction arrows on them. I dropped down off the top of the hill to a post but after that saw no other posts. I wandered around a bit, not even sure which direction the trail would go. After a frustrating bit of wandering, I gave up and decided to go back and do a different trail rather than get lost. But up right off the hill near the top I spotted some stairs dropping off to the north so I knew I had found the trail. Even there it was a a bit difficult to find and get from one post to the next. It was all rock so other than the posts there wasn’t really a trail to follow.
The trail became easier to follow the further I went. The scenery along the Hungry Joe Trail was outstanding. My route was crazy! I went down steep gullies, up the sides of rock faces, around blind curves and along gorgeous ridgelines. I only hiked out about a mile. The trail went much further but due to the hour and the fact that the trail descended from my stopping point it was an easy decision to turn around. If for any reason I had been out there by dark, it would have been impossible to find my way back.
The view of my route on the Hungry Joe Trail. I would drop off to the left, run the white ridge, climb up and over the pointy brown peak and over to the far mesa.
I dubbed this Clam Rock
One view from the Hungry Joe Trail
Beautiful colors along the Hungry Joe Trail
Looking back towards the trailhead up top
Artsy silhouette shot
Along the Hungry Joe Trail
One last look back at my route. Past the white hoodoos, up and back to the far mesa.
Almost back!
I thoroughly enjoyed my hike on the Hungry Joe Trail despite howling wind gusts. I still had a little light left before the sun set so I drove back on the road and took a side road up to a small campground called Pine On Rocks. The views from these campsites are incredible! If you ever get out to Makoshika State Park, I would highly recommend camping at this campground. It is basic with no hookups but there is a bathroom. The sites have picnic tables and every site has unbelievable views!
The view from one of the campsites at Pine On Rocks Campground
Last light on my way back to camp
The rain started at 4AM and it rained hard until after nine. All the trails were a slippery muddy mess which meant our adventures in Makoshika State Park were over. That was a bit disappointing as we left a lot on the table. I really had hoped for at least two more hikes, one called the Kinney Coulee Trail and the other up Gunner’s Ridge. I guess we will just have to come back! By ten we were getting forty-five mph gusts which lasted all day. It was a throwaway day made even worse when the Broncos got spanked by the Chiefs to open the season.
The next morning dawned clear and calm. It was time to head to the third leg of our trip - Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
One last sunrise from our camp at Makoshika State Park