Wait, how do you even say Makoshika?! Thought you’d never ask my friend. We are here at Makoshika State Park, Montana’s largest state park with 11,538 acres of amazing badlands to explore.
Makoshika, pronounced Ma-KO-shi-ka, is a variant of the Lakota Native American word “mako sica”, meaning “bad land”. Across much of eastern Montana, western North and South Dakota, are badlands, all abundant with fossils from the end of the Age of Dinosaurs. So come along and let’s explore!
Makoshika’s unique geology offers capped rocks, natural bridges, and all-shaped hoodoos, and so much more. But the park’s most unique feature is that it is part of the Hell Creek Formation, world famous for well-preserved dinosaur fossils.
Over 10 species of dinosaur have been found here including a complete Triceratops horridus skull, the fossil remains of Edmontosaurus and Tyrannosaurus rex, and a nearly complete skeleton of the rare Thescelosaurus.
Hell Creek Formation was the very last sedimentary layer of the Cretaceous Period, about 66 million years ago. At that time a 6 to 9 mile diameter asteroid traveling 27,000 mph struck the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico forming the Chicxulub crater which was found in 1980. Ultimately 75% of all species on earth were wiped out including every dinosaur except billed birds. This event also resulted in a global ecological crisis fundamentally changing the Earth’s climate and ecosystems. However, this was not the only calamity the earth was experiencing. To learn more, see here.
As we enter the Park, we travel along the bottom of Cains Coulee. So what’s a coulee? A coulee can be defined a bit differently in different locations, but it always has to do with water carving its way through an area, whether millions of years ago or today. Typically in eastern Montana a coulee is a steep-sided valley carved by intermittent flowing water. Above is a dry intermittent creek but will have fast-running water after heavy rain, severe thunderstorms, or intense snowmelt carving away surrounding rock and land.
Erosion is the key word here from both wind and water. Rocks making up the mountains, hills, and formations include sandstone, siltstone, mudstone, shale, and clay. The colors we see are thanks to the minerals found in the rock. Iron makes rocks red, but here it also makes them yellow. Usually the greens and blue grays are compressed plant or sea life from million of years ago. Geologists would love to tell you lots more, but let’s just enjoy since there is no geologist in sight.
See the holes in the hill straight ahead? There are many holes in the mountains/hills, so watch for them as we journey on. Are there bats in the caves? Oh yes there are!
There are often formations inside holes. Erosion will do its work both inside and out, expanding the size of the cave and slowly erasing the smaller formations.
The black horizontal lines, both wide and narrow, are coal. As we will see, they play an important role in revealing life-on-earth’s history over millions of years .
Each type of rock varies in hardness foretelling how quickly it erodes. The varying speed of erosion results in the unique formations we see at every turn.
We’ve traveled up narrow steep switchbacks (luckily paved) to reach this upper section of the Park.
Pretty spectacular views up here. Alright, let’s talk of the black coal lines.
This upper part of the Park has views of many mountains with black coal lines as I mentioned. The arrow points to the one making Makoshika famous–one of the few places on earth that we can see the K-Pg (Cretaceous-Paleogene) boundary—the geologic signature of the asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs. Below the boundary is the Hell Creek Formation containing many dinosaur fossils and other life-form fossils. Above the line is the Fort Union Formation and the beginning of the Paleocene epoch. Fossils found here are entirely different–no dinosaurs but mammals and plants that are quite different from those below the line. This is the line between the “Age of the Dinosaurs” and the “Age of the Mammals”.
With any number of black horizontal lines on these hills, how can we tell which is the K-Pg boundary? We can’t tell by observation, scientific analysis is required which found significant amounts of iridium in that particular coal line. Iridium is a very hard, brittle, silvery-white metal related to platinum. It is extremely rare on Earth, but is found abundantly on meteors and asteroids. That finding lead to the conclusion the mass extinction was caused by an asteroid.
We are at the trailhead of the Cap Rock Trail, but on this trip we’ll just view it from here. It isn’t the going DOWN the stairs and steep drops–it’s the coming back up. There are actually warning signs to be prepared for a demanding walk back up. I kind of like the pics from here, how about you?
So many capped rocks yet so many variations in the formations themselves.
Here is a natural bridge. Water flowing under this portion of rock typically creates bridges, but the high winds here helps.
The number of capped rocks–hoodoos–is amazing. I like what is toward the bottom though. Those bright white narrow caps edged in red. The geology? Well, ??? Much of what is formed in this area is through wind erosion. Rain helps, but primarily the wind does the magic.
All the roads are dirt/gravel for the rest our journey in this upper Park section. So glad they are well maintained.
This is the furthest west the road takes us as we look northwest. That smooth cap on the flat-top hill in the middle. The pointed small hills without caps and the hoodoos with caps. Very cool!
Looking southwest, the view is very different. See the top black horizontal line on the rocks in the back of the picture? The line between the white rock above and reddish rock below? That is the K-Pg boundary. That is the same rock we saw before but we are much closer at a very different angle. Hoodoos everywhere when we slow down and look around.
Continuing east to the end of the road we walk down to Hiatt Amphitheater where events are held such as Shakespeare in the Park, Night Sky Programs, and Bat Hikes–yup, really are bats in those caves. From the Amphitheater it is a short walk to the Twin Sisters. It is a short walk for this view, but the trail continues and requires climbing up and over rocks. Sorry friends, this will have to do. 😉
Have been hearing birds but this is the first I’ve seen. A Brown-headed Cowbird. I heard the strange gurgling sound (click Song) and there he was, right by me. What makes these birds unique–not really in a good way– is that Cowbirds do not build nests. The female saves her energy for producing up to three dozen eggs in a summer by laying eggs in other bird’s nests then abandoning the chicks to foster parents, many times at the expense of the hosts own little ones. Over 220 host species have been identified, but Cowbirds typically choose nests containing smaller eggs than their own. Yup, parasitic nesting–officially called brood parasitism. Gladly, the only North American bird that propagates this way.
A wider view of the Twin Sister’s “home’. Lots of capped rocks here.
Check out the new “mushrooms” eroding on the mountain’s edge.
Heading back down the road we take a short side road to see Kinney Coulee. There is a steep trail down to a loop trail around the formations. Reviews said there are some tough spots along the entire trail, but the fun thing? There is a shaded picnic table about half way around the loop trail. Might try this one on next trip to Makoshika–and there will be a next trip.
Here we are back down to the lower section of the Park.
I stopped to take a short walk and heard one of my favorite summer birds–and there he/she is! A Western Meadowlark. These birds do build their own nests, on the ground, in areas exactly like this. Perhaps the nest is nearby?
Makoshika Park Road is only a little over 4 miles long, but what an incredible 4 miles!
Until next time my friend . . . put down the news, cast aside never-ending BS–get out there, relax, and enjoy our stunning Mother Nature!
