Travels with Twinkles: Culbertson to Glendive, Montana

August 26-27, 2020 :

I’m leave Culbertson and take route 16 south towards Sidney which crosses the Missouri River, Lewis and Clark again ! I pull off the road to a fishing access point under the highway bridge and appreciate the river here, it’s quite beautiful.

A nice view of the Missouri River

Beautiful wheat field, that fence post was probably one of the last trees here

There's nothing like a good dirt road

This is the way to go to church

I admire the symmetry of the hay roll

I'm now ready for the day

I arrive in Sidney and immediately see a couple of bar signs I must get photos of. This is becoming an obsession, I do recognize that, what am I to do with all these bar signs, if I had more ambition and energy, I would write a book. I then walk around town for a while exploring in close proximity to the train tracks. Most of these towns came into existence as railroad stops or shops and Sidney is no exception.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney,_Montana

I then look for the local library where they have the door locked, admission by appointment only and there is a password needed eliminating my usual workaround of parking in front and working in the van. I try the door a second time after seeing a mail delivery guy go to the door and someone opens the door asking me if I need help. The nice woman gives me the password and I am then able to get some blog work completed. This is a constant struggle on this trip, the libraries are incredibly strict with their usage policies, while everything else in the town is wide open ?

Court House in Sidney

The Club Tavern is nice

The Cattle-ac is sort of goofy-clever ?

Welcome to the Cheerio Lounge, that's a cool name

The Centre Theater is looking a little ragged

I find this automotive shop which appears closed, with a lot filled with original vintage cars and trucks, quite remarkable.

I need another project like this ?

That would be perfect

There is an attractive looking museum, the MonDak Heritage Center, in town which I visit, but I wasn’t awfully impressed, I must admit I’m now becoming kind of jaded since I’ve been to so many great ones.

I then decide to move on, continuing on route 16 south to Glendive, Montana. Uncharacteristic for me, I make no stops and drive straight there following the Yellowstone River all the way.

Glendive is another railroad town with a huge BNSF railroad rail operations building and yards.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glendive,_Montana

Huge BNSF operations center

The major attraction in Glendive is the Makoshika State Park which is a stop on the Montana Dinosaur Trail. It’s like a section of South Dakota’s Bad Lands that was picked up and deposited here. The parks name is a derivative of the Indian word for “Bad Land”. It is actually the largest state park in Montana at 11,000 acres. I visited the State Park and did a portion of the Buccaneer Trail and another whose name escapes me, both were great ! This area is renown for its good dinosaur fossil hunting. There is also another notable Dinosaur Museum in Glendive, but I passed on that one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makoshika_State_Park

I took this trail partway, it climbed way up into amazing terrain

Milkweed is beautiful

Very interesting rocks

Great wildflowers

A view near the trailhead

View near the top

Great geology !

This was another great loop hike into this maze of eroded hoodoos

It was out of this world

Glendale has a long iron bridge built in 1924-26 spanning the Yellowstone River that is now strictly a walking bridge but very scenic.

Nice view

The bridge is at least a quarter mile long

The downtown has several good historic buildings of note, a nice City Hall, but lacks much of anything artistic or culturally stimulating. In actuality, it’s kind of a divey looking downtown as the town name may imply ? There are nice residential areas and a beautiful old base ball field where the 1961 little league world series was played.