Blogs from Montana, United States, North America - page 9

28 August, 2017 We drove north into Montana, stopping at the visitor center at Hardin. The woman there told us the highway department recommended those pulling campers north use Hwy 3 to avoid steep climbs and 12% descents. That made sense to us, so at Billings we turned north on Hwy 3. After about 90 miles, which only took us about a third of the way up the state, we'd had enough of the smoke. There are wildfires burning in the western part of Montana and the smoke was getting heavier, blurring the views of the mountains. We knew it would get worse the closer we got to the fire areas, which were west of Glacier NP. At that point we gave up on Glacier and turned south, deciding instead to go to Yellowstone NP. We ... read more

QUAKE LAKE On August 17, 1959 an earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale rattled through the Madison River Gorge near Hebgen Dam. Twenty-eight people camped along the Shore of Hebgen Lake and along the river below the dam were killed when an 80 million ton landslide fetched loose from Sheep Mountain and came crashing down on top of them. The landslide blocked the river and Quake Lake formed behind it until the backed up water could form a new channel for the Madison River. Hebgen Dam was a stout structure built in 1917 and it was damaged but held. The new channel will continue to eat its way through the landslide I suppose until it reaches its original gradient and then Quake Lake will disappear. The new gorge it carves will continue to be unstable ... read more

We left the hotel this morning at 8 AM and 54 degrees. This is the last time we will be seeing these temperatures, I insist!!! I just packed my trail pants. It’s shorts the rest of the way home. We were headed for Great Falls, MT today and we had some time to spare, so we decided to make a stop (for the 4th time) at Glacier National Park. It was sort of on the way. We love this park. The vistas are incredible and we love the Road-to-the-Sun. So we headed south in Alberta toward the US border. The road took us though lots and lots of fertile farmland where they were farming grains…golden wheat, barley and oats, and interesting rice paddies. The skies were still hazy with smoke, though it was not as bad ... read more

JOHN COLTER France was broke in 1803 when President Thomas Jefferson swindled them out of their property in North America. In polite society it was called the Louisiana Purchase, but it was purely a land grab and nobody knew what was out there or where the new boundary with the Spanish Territory was. Before the ink was even dry on the paper Jefferson organized one of his lackeys to go find out. The man he chose was Meriwether Lewis, but Lewis had some sort of mental aberration and needed a steady man to help out. Who he got was a fellow named William Clark. A tough old boot named George Rogers Clark was his older brother. George was a hero in the Virginia Militia, who fought in Lord Dunmore’s War and then kicked the British out ... read more

July 29, 2017 Place: Bozeman, MT Weather: 91 and sunny Hours Driving: 8 hours States Drive Thru: North Dakota and Montana Miles: 433 Restaurants: Movies: Games: 20 questions (or 20 insults) Books: Dunkirk (Matt) Hotel: Marriott We had a nice sleep last night. We had our typical free Marriott breakfast which really isn't all that bad (unless you are gluten and dairy-free). They had omelettes, scrambled and hard boiled eggs, sausage, Canadian bacon, all kinds of sweet rolls and breads, oatmeal, make your own waffles, coffee, juices, yogurts, fruits and more. Not bad really. We had a funny breakfast conversation about movie choices. Elizabeth has a very limited genre library due to the fact that most things are too scary for her. For instance, someone getting a paper cut or a lost puppy might stress her ... read more