8 – 10 August 2022

8 August 2022, Monday

Our breakfast of pastries from Wheat Montana is quite good! We are packed and ready for departure by 9:10 am, but first we drive back to the Market at Three Forks for an extra 6-pack of Jeremiah Johnson’s Scotch Ale. Today’s drive is uneventful and we arrive at Makoshika State Park by 4 pm. (Makoshika is from the Lakota language and can be interpreted as “bad land.”) Once again, the campground is small. There is very little shade. Our site, #9, has one tree that shades the road, not the campsite. There is no shade for the tent, and the temperature is about 96 degrees F. We park Vincent at an angle to provide shade for our picnic table. Neither O, nor I want to leave our tent and its contents baking in the sun all day. We will try setting up just the mesh body of the tent without the fly once the sun dips below the ridge behind our campground. It should be pretty easy to set it up at night and take it down in the morning. If that’s not working out we can always take refuge in Vincent once it cools off. 

Makoshika, in eastern Montana, is known for its dinosaur fossils. We are hoping to hike some of the short loops here in early morning or in the evening to avoid the heat. In any case, if it’s too hot to hike, we’ll be passing through again in October on our way home. 

9 August 2022, Tuesday

The tent with no fly worked well last night. We started the night with just our sleeping bag liners pulled to our knees. By morning we were sharing the blue fleece blanket. Lucy seemed content all night on her sleeping pad. I think she was happy to be away from the gnats. So was I!

The morning is pleasantly cool. O and I pack up the tent and its contents quickly. Then we drive to the end of the park road. The road is paved most of the way and turns to well-maintained gravel near the top. There are some sharp drop-offs along the edge, but nothing terribly scary. The drive is not recommended for cars with trailers. At the end of the road is a short trail to the Twin Sisters, a sight well worth the drive and the short walk.

After admiring the scenery O and I decide the best place for breakfast is at the group picnic pavilion where there is a huge shelter, lots of shade, many picnic tables, a spigot with potable water, and a very well-maintained pit toilet. We park Vincent, feed Lucy and make sure she has a very full water bowl and then cook our own breakfast. I discover that the water spigot is very forceful. It feels delightful when the cold water splashes onto my legs in the hot sun. Today breakfast is pan fried potatoes sprinkled with Penzey’s spices along with dehydrated vegan sausage sprinkles scrambled with silken tofu, also flavored with a Penzey spice mix. We’ve found that tofu is a good substitute for scrambled eggs. It’s all very tasty. We share the pavilion with a group of four older ladies who are “out for a walk.” I know, I know. . . O and I are not very far behind the “older” ladies in age. 

After breakfast we drive into nearby Glendive to do laundry. The laundromat, The Clothesline, is conveniently located next to a small restaurant called Re-Treat. O and I enjoy hot fudge sundaes with chocolate and mint chip ice cream while we wait for our laundry. Next task is to top off Vincent with Cenex Roadmaster fuel and then return to the picnic pavilion to enjoy its shade and the breeze for the afternoon. The sun won’t dip behind the ridge at camp until after 6 so we’ll relax here – it’s a good place to cook supper, too.

Despite the shade and nice breeze, Lucy is getting attacked by flies. We spray a towel with picardin insect repellant and drape it over her back. It seems to help a bit. O and I read for awhile and then cook dinner. Buy the time we are finished with clean-up the sun is below the ridge at camp. We return and set up the tent once more. 

10 August 2022, Wednesday 

Our morning routine (if 2 days makes a routine) is much the same as yesterday’s. Wake just before 6. Pack the tent and its contents. Walk Lucy. Today we drive up to the Cap Rock Trailhead. Yesterday afternoon an elderly gentleman with a shock of white hair stopped by the pavilion in his small red pick-up truck. He seemed to be a part of this land. His license plate said “Permanent Montana.” He noted it was too hot to hike then, but he recommended we hike the Cap Rock Trail. It’s his favorite. So today, we take him up on it. 

From the parking area we can see a formation that looks like Cap Rock, but as we walk the trail it seems there are many others that qualify – after all, that’s how erosion happens here – hard rock forms a cap as the softer rock below erodes into amazing shapes.

The trail is marked pretty well and has occasional bridges and wooden steps at some of the steep parts. At the first group of wooden steps we see small speckled gray-brown birds. Merlin Bird ID suggests they are rock wrens. They certainly look like the picture online!

On steep sections of the trail there may be shallow steps carved into the silt or sandstone. Some of these steps go up a sort of ridge with a fairly steep drop-off on either side. Lucy’s leash is attached to my belt. She doesn’t quite have the idea of staying on the steps. She wants to go down the sides. I have visions of sliding down the slick rock with her. . . but we make it up and down the trail safely. In two places I have to lift her up a particularly steep and large step. Along the trail we pass a natural bridge.

Views of the Natural Bridge closer up.

Near the end of the loop the trail goes right up to the edge of a steep drop off and then turns sharply uphill. I must admit, the drop off gives me a few palpitations. I think Lucy has some palpitations also. It takes a bit of persuading to get her to follow O up the very steep steps. I have to lift her onto the first step to give her the idea. We’re soon safely back at the van and more than ready for breakfast. 

We return to the shelter and cook up a blueberry pancake. It’s especially delicious after our hike! After breakfast we return to Glendive for a new laundry bag. Mine seems to have disappeared at the laundromat yesterday. While I’m at the supermarket I pick up an apple for tomorrow’s breakfast cereal. And while there, why not a pint of Ben and Jerry’s Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream? Very nutritious! After our ice cream lunch we while away the hours reading and fiddling. I am happy to finally get to practice again. It’s been too buggy over the past two days, but today the fly population seems to have decreased, maybe because it’s windier. While I am playing I can feel the wind pushing my bow. And when I put my fiddle down on the picnic table the wind makes the strings sing!

As we are considering preparing dinner, a young couple comes by with two young men, who seem to be advising them on arranging an upcoming wedding reception here at the pavilion. If the weather cooperates it could be a beautiful setting for a wedding. 

We prepare our final dinner at Makoshika. As we are finishing up and setting up our dish washing station, a large blue “Tail Gators” truck which we had seen in Glendive pulls up. It turns out this evening is Trivia Night at the park. The truck provides snacks: soda, popcorn, hot dogs, etc. I walk over to make sure we are not in the way. I’m assured there’s no rush. Tonight’s event doesn’t begin until 6 (and it’s only 5:30!) O and I get the dishes done and carry our kitchen paraphernalia to the van. Lots of people are showing up. They all know one another. It looks like a fun evening, but O and I are pretty tired, and we have to get up early tomorrow for our drive to North Dakota’s Fort Ransom State Park. Back at our campsite we watch as the nearly full moon rises over the ridge to the east.