This Montana State Park Is a 12 months-round Vacation spot — However This is Why Winter Is Particularly Magical

Anybody tasked with describing Montana usually focuses on the sheer vastness of the state, from its expansive skies to its rugged landscapes. Most vacationers middle their journeys round visiting traditional locations comparable to Large Sky or Yellowstone Nationwide Park, however only a few enterprise eastward into the Nice Plains area.

Tucked on this wide-open sprawl is Medication Rocks State Park, a 330-acre parcel of land that often slips proper underneath most guests’ radars. Right here, the panorama is dominated by the Nice Plains Badlands and the environment is quiet, peaceable, and distant. As Teddy Roosevelt wrote in his 1885 e book “Searching Journeys of a Ranchman” after visiting the world, it’s “as fantastically lovely a spot as I’ve ever seen.”

Medication Rocks State Park is positioned between the town of Baker and the small city of Ekalaka — it is about 3.5 hours from the closest main airport, Billings-Logan Worldwide Airport (BIL). It is comparatively troublesome to get to, and in 2023, Medication Rocks welcomed slightly over 21,000 visitors. For comparability, round 2.9 million folks visited Glacier Nationwide Park throughout the identical 12 months. However the lack of tourists is a part of the state park’s allure.

Individuals come to Medication Rocks to get away from all of it and to camp beneath its distinctive, Swiss cheese-like sandstone pillar rock formations. The park was additionally designated as an Worldwide Darkish Sky Sanctuary in 2020, and lots of journey to Medication Rocks to see a number of the clearest views of the evening sky within the nation. And for folks keen on wildlife viewing, the park is a haven for mule deer, antelope, grouse, and turkey.

To get a good greater style of solitude, plan a visit in the course of the winter, which is taken into account to be the park’s offseason. Not solely are you able to camp year-round within the park, however as Common Supervisor Garrett Jericoff famous, while you go to within the winter, you’ll have it largely to your self — that’s quite a lot of land, stars, and wildlife all to your individual.

Vacationers who make the journey east to the Nice Plains of Montana can keep at one in all Medication Rocks State Park’s eight campsites, which can be found on a first-come, first-served foundation. Canines are allowed at Medication Rocks (so long as they’re on a leash that is now not than eight ft in size) and ingesting water is on the market year-round. 

Campsite charges at Medication Rocks vary from $4 to $34 per evening however are usually on the decrease finish in the course of the winter and spring. Equally, the park entry price is $8 for out-of-state guests and free for Montana residents who pay the $9 state parks price with their annual car registration.