August 7, 2008 - Glendive, Montana

When I got up in the morning, I noticed all the scenery around the hotel. This was beautiful. I also noticed some of the houses had gravel in place of lawns. See the photos.

Glendive is fairly small. They do not even have a Walmart. But, they do have a KMart. However, that KMart was all out of gallon jugs of water.

Yellowstone River
On the way, I turned down the wrong street and saw a small park with an overlook to the Yellowstone River. See the photos.

Makoshika Dinosaur Museum
I visited the Makoshika Dinosaur Museum in downtown Glendive. See the photos. Many dinosaurs have been found in Montana and North Dakota. The Tyrannosaurus Rex was discovered in Montana. One of the museum staff explained that there are several dinosaur museums along US 2 in the northern part of the state. Admission to most of the museums along the "Dinosaur Trail" could be purchased. I politely declined as my trip through Montana had already been developed. It focused more on the southern part of MT.

The staff person showed me a video about the T-Rex in Hollywood. It was quite interesting and humorous. I didn't see the whole thing due to lack of time.

I went to purchase gas. The gas station had an area which could be considered a small liquor store inside the convenience market.

Makoshika State Park - Montana's Badlands
Finally, I got to Makoshika State Park. It was brutally hot just like the day before. This is Montana's largest state park. In the visitor center, I purchased postcards. I noticed that sales tax was not charged and inquired about it. Apparently, Montana has NO SALES TAX! Legislators keep trying to add a sales tax but other legislators tack on ridiculous amendments just to stop the effort. Isn't it great how politics works? A simple up or down vote on something unpopular ought to do the trick. But, they make up for lack of sales tax with high property taxes. Of course, I know of a state where people get the "benefit" of both sales tax AND high property taxes...

Makoshika State Park is basically the Badlands of Montana. Like the Badlands in North Dakota, they have prickly pear cacti. It was about 96 degrees there. I spent hours at the park and left at dusk. They have so many beautiful spots. I took about 2,000 photographs and selected the best ones for my Flickr site. In this case, I really made creative use of the camera's options. Some of the rocks do not look this vibrant to the human eye. High shutter speeds provide these colors and the deep blue in the sky. See the 352 photos I selected (note there are six pages of Flickr photos).

For the most part, people were allowed to climb through the rocks. A trail leading down to one of the most interesting sections was closed. I went out through several sections and walked on several trails. There were a few places where creeks once flowed but were now dry. One still barely flowed. There was one area where lots of hawks were continuing to circle. Makoshika State Park was one of my favorite spots and really showed what this camera can do.

County Fair
After the park, I went to Glendive's fair. This was kind of small. They had a rodeo going on and a small number of rides. I tried an Indian taco. That was something new for me. It was basically vegetables, ground beef, and sour cream on a puffed up soft taco shell. It was very good.

Continuing on the journey
My next hotel was in Miles City, MT, which was only about 71 miles away. This was along I-94. Gas was again at $4/gallon.


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