Prehistory is Humbling: Makoshika or “Bad Land”

The first four days after our day of departure from Minnesota were spent at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in Western North Dakota and Makoshika State Park in Eastern Montana.  Both areas we visited shared a common theme: maco sika, a Lakota phrase meaning “bad land,” or “bad earth”.  These bizarre lands are named such for their hot dry climate and lack of potable water.

What fascinated me most about the badlands was how much prehistoric evidence exists within them.  Their history is not hot and dry at all, but lush and subtropical.  Millions of years ago, these lands were inhabited by animals now extinct (an ancient reptile called Champsosaurus at Theodore Roosevelt and dinosaurs at Makoshika).