During the last week of May, 2022, I had the chance to head south and east to Ekalaka, Montana. I was actually born in Ekalaka, so it was a bit of a homecoming for me. Well, technically I was born in Miles City, Montana which is over 100 miles away, because Eklaka did not have a hospital at the time, but Ekalaka was still my first home. Ironically, when I visited, I found out the house we lived in is no more. There was just a vacant lot with some remenits of a foundation and some debris laying around, but I guess I am getting a little ahead of myself. My family left Ekalaka when I was still very young, so the memories I had of the area were a bit murky and fragmented. So it was kind of interesting to see how those memories lined up to reality almost 40 years later.
One of the great looking signs coming into Ekalaka.
We had a good trip down, heading through Winnet, Jordan, Miles City, over to Baker and then down to Ekalaka. Despite the drought conditions closer to home, they have been having an abnormally wet spring down there, so we found it to be surprisingly green and lush, which was a contrast to the dry prairie of my memories. I had been as far as Miles City in my adult life, but I had not been any farther south or east than that since leaving Ekalaka as a young child.
In my memories, the only places I had any recollection of (besides our house, the swimming pool and the school) were Medicine Rocks and the forested hills outside of town. And even those memories were vague at best. Our dad was a teacher and coach for the school there and he worked at the pool in the summer. So that is why I think I still have memories of those. The pool was a lot smaller than I remembered though. The school had changed a lot too, I think portions of it might even be new since I was there. I could remember where our house was based on a few landmarks, most notably a tower that was practically in our backyard with a siren on it that was used to warn of approaching storms. The tower still stands, but as I already mentioned, the house was gone. I don’t know if it was torn down, or lost to a fire perhaps? Whatever the case, the house and its ugly shag carpet of my memories are gone.
A panorama of some formations at Medicine Rocks State Park.
On our way to Ekalaka we stopped at Medicine Rocks State Park. It was actually closer to town then I realized and there was more to the park than I remembered. There was a storm approaching, so we did not linger there too long, but we took a few minutes and walked around some of the formations. They were pretty cool to see again. If I ever get back to that area (hopefully it’s not another 40 years) I will make a point to take a little more time and look around. I think from a photography perspective it might have some real potential in either sunrise or sunset. I was there in the middle of the day, so except for a few storm clouds, there was not a lot to add any drama to the scene. I played around with some black and white photos, just to see if maybe that would make things a little more interesting. It would also be an interesting location for some astrophotography, as it is recognized as an International Darky Sky Sanctuary.
An information display at the entrance of Medicine Rocks State Park.
One of the rock formations with some small formations in the background.
There were some trees and various plant species mixed in amongst the formations.
A tall rock formation at Medicine Rocks. It is difficult to capture the scale, but many of the formations are very large.
It was amazing the shapes and holes that erosion has formed into the rocks.
As I mentioned, I tried playing around with some black and white due to the middle of the day conditions. I tried to work with the approaching thunderstorm to give a little drama.
I liked how the shape of the thunderstorm clouds kind of mimicked the shape of this rock formation. If you have a preference for the color vs. the black and white, leave a comment.
By the time we got into Ekalaka the storm had caught us. We decided to take refuge and visit the local museum while we waited for the storm to pass. The Carter County Museum was a fun little stop. Its focus was on the dinosaur discoveries in the area, but it also had a lot of Native American history and artifacts and items from the first settlers on the plains. The museum was free, but I still made a donation and we purchased a few items at the gift shop. The staff, just like everyone we met in Ekalaka, were very nice and happy to chat. Maybe it’s nostalgia, but I feel like Ekalaka still has that old, small town Montana charm and friendly atmosphere that I am afraid we are losing in most places. It’s been a long time since I have been somewhere as a complete stranger and had so many people strike up a conversation and greet you with a genuine hello.
A triceratops skull.
A Trex fossil at the Carter County Museum.
Duckbill fossil.
Saber toothed cat skull.
A panorama of Capital Rock Natural Landmark.
While in the area I had the chance to also visit the Ekalaka Hills and nearby Capital Rock Natural Landmark. I am not sure if we ever visited Capital Rock while we lived in Ekalaka or not. My hunch is that we probably did, but I just didn’t have any memory of it. It was very cool to see, and I highly recommend it if you are in the area. I don’t know if it was because it was the spring time or just the low population in general, but we were at the landmark for over an hour and never saw another person. It is not very often that you get that experience anymore. If you do plan to visit the landmark, I would recommend you approach it from the east side on Highway 323. We drove through the Forest Service land coming from the west and the road was very treacherous. We were in a high clearance 4x4 and looking for some adventure, but you would not make it in anything else. While in the Ekalaka Hills we also visited MacNab Pond, which is where I first fished as a child. Like the swimming pool back in town, in my memories the pond was a lot larger than it actually is. I kind of wished I had my fishing pole with me though, just for old time’s sake...
A view of the backside of Capital Rock as we were coming over the old Forest Service road.
For some sense of scale, my sister is sitting on a hill between myself and Capital Rock. There is whole low lying area between the hill she is on and the rock, so this still does not really do it justice.
A plaque at the site proclaiming it as a Registered Natural Landmark.
One the way to Capital Rock we found a pond with these painted turtles sunning themselves.
Some of the wild flowers with the “dome” of Capital Rock in the background. I was going to try and do some focus stacking to get a clear picture of both the rock and the flowers, but the wind was blowing hard enough that was impossible. So I settled for letting the rock fall into the background.
There were also a lot of frogs in the pond, including this one my sister was holding for the camera.