Back to Bozeman

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With needing to be back by 8.30am to return the kayaks for the next rental booking, we were up bright and early and back along the slow bumpy dusty road.

With kayaks safely unloaded we all felt we deserved a hot coffee and cooked breakfast. Just what we needed after a few super days of high activity.

It was a long drive back to Bozeman so with that in mind we kept pushing on. Just like the drive up, it was beautiful and the best way to see Montana. There were a many small rivers and lakes on the drive but the biggest by far is Flathead Lake. Massive in size and by the look of some of the real estate with impressive houses and boat ramps, its beauty was not lost on many people.

With the sun beating down and Joe needing a break from the mammoth drive, we stopped for a welcomed and refreshing dip. This was obviously a smaller lake favoured by everything motorized, so we watched jet skiers, water skiers and boats zipping around. We didn't stop again until we were a few hours from Bozeman at a place called Butte (pronounced Beaut).
Although Joe was in desperate need of an espresso, he was not desperate to stop here as the fame of Butte shouldn't be anything to impress anyone.
You can see from the old buildings that there was once a lot of money here but this has long gone including any chance of Joe getting his espresso. Butte was and still is a mining town (mainly copper) and its fame now lies largely in the tragic mess left behind from these activities. We (Minus Joe) paid a small entrance fee and headed through the tunnel to the viewing site of a beautiful coloured toxic lake. It seems ironic that we had just paid to see one of the most polluted spots in Montana. Mining had been carried out here for over a century but in the 70's open cast mining was approved and over the next 20 years a mountain was removed and a gigantic hole left in its place. When the mining companies had finished with their dirty business they closed the mines and switched off the pumps. Naturally it wasn't long before nature repossessed its territory but this time not with earth but with water. This has caused huge leeching of toxins including arsenic and copper into the new lake which are responsible for the beautiful colours. A study was carried out that discovered the lake level was rising and critically close to the danger level where ground water would start to be contaminated. As the cost of draining the lake was too high Montana now has a lovely "tourist" attraction where water needs to be pumped out and cleaned for perpetuity to maintain the critical lake level.

We finally pulled into Bozeman after a marathon drive from Joe and he could take a well earned rest.

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Photos

Swimming
What a way to break up a drive