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Published: July 12th 2008
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Melrose, Twin Bridges Road
This is the better section of road. Billings, MT, Saturday, July 5, 2008
This morning’s breakfast at the Canyon Creek Ranch Lodge is a little sad for us since we are leaving soon. Karen has prepared another delicious meal and we relax and spend some time over coffee saying our goodbyes.
After our ride to Melrose over the Forest Service road we turn to another 17 mile long dirt washboard for Twin Bridges. It is really rough and going is slow all the way to “Unnecessary Hill”, appropriately named as far as I can tell. The last half of the trip is only moderately less rough but scenic. The road is laid over range land that is contoured but relatively flat. At times we can see the road ahead for a couple of miles or so. Cattle and game roam freely along this road although less frequently than we have seen before. This road is county maintained and wider, but; its remote placement opens a world of rolling hills and open range to our view.
Madison Valley opens before us as we cross a range of mountains. This valley is probably 30-40 miles wide from east to west and well over 60 miles long north
to south. It is a rich, green, flat plain filled with game, cattle, sweeping ranches and Ennis, MT. The Madison River runs through Madison Valley and it is a fly fisherman's dream. The river is smooth, cool, lazily drifting through the floor of the valley. The western town of Ennis is the center of activity in Madison Valley and it is a beautiful little town. We really liked Ennis.
Each day on the road has found us in a different topography. The common theme is wide open spaces, rolling hills, sharp mountains, and grassy plains. Each day brings its own variation on this theme and is equally hard to describe. We will do this trip again.
Nevada City and Virginia City, less than two miles apart, are historic cities born in the 1860’s. The two are, in addition to the road, connected by a steam rail line that now carries sightseers. Nevada City although smaller is probably the most rustic in appearance and structures. Consisting only of either original structures or period replacements, the towns are open to tourists and sport new businesses including gift shops and restaurants. Nevada City has a large collection of restored, 19th century,
coin operated music machines all of which actually work. The large hall was filled with music coming from calliopes, player pianos and, percussion machines. The saloon and hotel are original with some light restoration and are open for tours only.
Virginia City is the larger of the two with board sidewalks, livery stables (complete with original livery), saloon and, dry goods stores. Nevada City was the home of the Vigilantes and the Hanging House still stands in its original condition. The town is really popular and was full of people. We walked the streets from rail head to the top of the hill and shopped at all of the stores and gift shops. The Huckleberry Ice Cream is churned on site in ice cream churns driven by a gasoline engine powered device.
We left there for West Yellowstone across more of this vast, ever beautiful country. (Did I mention that we will do this trip again?) We lunched on pizza at West Yellowstone then crossed through Yellowstone to Cooke City then down the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway. East Yellowstone is our favorite part with its scenic mountain vistas and wildlife spotting opportunities. At Cooke City we worked our
Ennis Cafe
The Ennis Cafe is for sale at $450,000. A real bargain if the traffic there is an indication. Ennis was our favorite town so far. We'd consider living here!! way east on the Beartooth Highway to its intersection with the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway where we turn south on the Chief Joseph. As we neared the end of the Chief Joseph, it begins to get dark and we ride on to Billings after nightfall.
Again we are all tired and plan to sleep in a bit in the morning before Mike and Judy have to leave for the airport.
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j50r
jmragan
Jerry/Nell
The Canyon Creek Ranch Lodge sounds so great I know you hated to leave. But look on the bright side -- all the other areas you will now visit. I'm sure it was a trip of a lifetime for Mike and Judy. As always great blog and super photo layout.