Traveling Northern Montana

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The last two weeks have been busy. On June 28 David met our daughter Sarah in Billings for a week at a dinosaur dig north of Billings. They had a great time with lots of hard work, but they both found a bone. This is Sarah’s second time at a dig in Montana and David’s first (but probably not his last). While they were digging in the dirt I stayed in Great Falls to visit with high school friends and family. I also did a lot of knitting including making a pair of felted clog slippers.

This last week has been technologically challenging. We had one day with no cell phone or internet service in northern Montana for 12 hours due to a break (?) in the line. The rest of the week we have been in state park campgrounds with no wi-fi in areas with no Starbucks or other places that give computer access. We are in the wide open spaces of the west! So let me bring you up to date.

On July 7 we left Great Falls and went north to Fort Benton on the Missouri River for 2 days of kayaking. The river was higher and faster than normal due to much rainfall this spring and recent thunderstorms the weekend of the 4th. We were a little nervous the first day out since the river was running about 5 mph and the takeout point at our campground was not an easy access. We kayaked 12 miles that day and got off the river without any problems. We kayaked 19 miles the second day (not really hard because of the current) with an easy take-out. We saw several deer, a few raccoons and many birds. There were no other boats on the river so it was very peaceful as well as beautiful. Our last night in Fort Benton we had dinner at the Grand Union Hotel which was THE hotel there in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. It has been very nicely restored with a beautiful patio area overlooking the river. We had the best dinner of our trip there and I discovered the executive chef is from my home town and I know his parents. This was our second time to Fort Benton this trip and we really like that little town. We have it on our short list as a place to spend an entire summer when we get tired of the wanderings we do now each summer.

Since we were already fairly far north in Fort Benton we decided to take the northern route across the state. We headed north to Havre and Hwy 2 and drove east to Malta and then on to Fort Peck. This is a very straight road only 20 or 30 miles south of the Canadian border that runs straight across the state right next to the Great Northern (now the Burlington Northern Santa Fe) Railroad tracks. In addition to following the Lewis and Clark Trail through part of our journeys we have also now followed the Dinosaur Trail. Montana is a major area for dinosaur finds and any town in the northern part of the state that has a museum has a dinosaur component to it. We went to the dinosaur museum in Malta. Pretty small, but well done.

We spent two days in Fort Peck before turning south to Glendive and Makoshika State Park. Fort Peck Dam is the largest hydraulically built earthen dam in the world. It was built in the 1930’s as part of the New Deal projects and is 250 feet high and 3.5 miles long. To see the dam from down river it just looks like a long grass covered bluff. The reservoir behind it has 1600 miles of shoreline. The area of the reservoir is such that if each of the 860,000 residents of Montana had their own piece of land there, they would have a quarter acre each. Our campground was right below the dam which was a little scary when you think about it. There is a great interpretive center there with information on the building of the dam and dinosaurs. Although Fort Peck is very small - not even a gas station or grocery store in the town - they have a summer theater that does performances every weekend June-August. We saw Once Upon A Mattress and there were about 200 people attending so it is quite a draw.

As we headed south to Glendive we went through Circle in McCone County. The museum was closed, but they had quite a bit of interesting signage around the museum. To give you a feel for eastern Montana, McCone County has only 2000 residents although it covers a large geographic area. It is a big agricultural area and cattle outnumber the people by 20 to 1.

We continued on to Glendive near the North Dakota border and next to Makoshika State Park. Makoshika is the badlands of Montana. The word is a Sioux word meaning “Land of Bad Spirits.” Very interesting rock formations in the park and very desolate in appearance. I can see why the Sioux named it as they did. There are only a few designated trails in the park and one narrow road that runs through the park. One of the trails had some washed out areas and was closed. We hiked a short one that took us to a sandstone block that held some fossilized dinosaur vertebra and then drove through the park to get the full effect.

From here we head to Miles City which is near the end of the Chisholm Trail and then on to the Billings area to see a variety of sights.

I will stop for now with a photo showing how they stay “stop” in Montana.

David & Barb

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Photos

The Dinosaur Dig
About 18 people participated in this 1-week endeavor. This particular project has been ongoing for about 10 years.

Dinner in Fort Benton
Relaxing with a beautiful view of the Missouri River.

Makoshika State Park
These are the badlands of Montana.

The Attack Bird!
At a rest stop near Miles City a western meadowlark (the MT state bird) did a dive bomb attack on David. Didn't bother me at all. He must have known David wasn't a native Montanan.