Glendive, MT

My favorite neighbors, back when I still owned my sticks and bricks, were Shawn and Kelly.  They never failed to invite me to their backyard pool BBQ's and were/are just the friendliest folks you'd ever meet.  Both of them grew up in Glendive, Montana and had spoken highly of the town so I had to check it out given that it was on my route into North Dakota.  Glendive is a small town of just under 5000 folks in Dawson County in Eastern Montana tucked between the Yellowstone River and the Badlands.  I took I-94 into the town and spent my first night there at the Jaycee West Park which abuts the Yellowstone River.  The town permits overnight camping in the park although, unfortunately, the dump station had been permanently closed.

Really nice tennis complex at Glendive's Jaycee West Park.

Shawn had provided me with Glendive dining recommendations, Frosty's In and Out or Gust Hauf, I drove past Frosty's but settled on lunch at Gust Hauf located on West Bell St.

Gust Hauf...good burger and great onion rings!

One thing that you immediately notice about Glendive is a lot of references to dinosaurs around town.  I texted Shawn about it and he said there had been a lot of dinosaur fossil finds in the nearby Makoshika State Park and recommended I camp there and check out the park, which I took him up on.

Makoshika means "badlands" in Lakota Indian language.

The really nice state park is located just east of Glendive and I spent a night there.  Unfortunately, the temperature during the day was in the high nineties (the Tank's interior thermometer hit triple digits for the first time!) and the campsites at Makoshika don't have electric hookups so I limited my AC-free stay to the one day. 

The park is right on the edge of the Badlands.

Makoshika State Park encompasses 11,500 acres but since I only stayed one day there I didn't feel it was fair to review the park but the trails and area I did see were really beautiful.

Makoshika is the state's largest state park.

One of the park's hiking trails.

Beautiful weather--if a touch hot!

I really enjoyed my stay in Montana!  The state is huge and it takes forever to drive across.  Glendive is about on the North Dakota border and I pointed the tank east on I-94 with the AC blasting to alleviate the mid-90 degree heat.

Thanks for reading!