GREETINGS FROM BOZEMAN,
Montana (MT), USA
Today was really just a travelling day as we moved from the very north of Montana to the very south of Montana.
Glacier NP MT to Bozeman MT
Unfortunately the tantalizing glimpses of sun late yesterday had disappeared and this morning was probably the grayest we have had. The mist was very low on the mountains. We again managed a window table for our breakfast and took in the view one last time.
We packed up after breakfast and started our trip south. As we left the carpark, we managed to see another black bear high up the mountain – just a speck but you can see it moving around.
The mist was getting lower and lower and the temperature was falling as we left the park. We stopped for petrol at the nearby “one horse town” called Babb and I nearly froze filling the tank ! For about the next 30 or 40 miles, the fog was so thick you could not see more than a car length ahead and certainly none of the scenery. The temperature at its lowest got down below 3 degrees Celsius – certainly not temperatures we had really planned for ! Visibility gradually improved and the temperature gradually rose but there was plenty of drizzle/rain – this really continued most of the day.
Big Cloudy Sky
As the visibility improved, we found ourselves in real high plains cattle ranch country as we passed signs like “North Fork Cattle Ranch”. There were paddocks as far as the eye could see and cattle dotted amongst the paddocks. It was fairly flat interspersed with low rolling hills.
Eventually this changed somewhat to grain fields but still wide open spaces – you can see why Montana is known as “Big Sky Country”.
We then linked up with the interstate – I-15 – and headed south to a town called Great Falls. This was a major point for the Lewis & Clark expedition as it sits on the Missouri River which they had followed for some way. From here they headed more across country. We used it as a pit stop ourselves – for Starbucks coffee and restrooms at the mall.
We continued along I-15 then took a slight detour near a town called Cascade and into the Tower Rock State Park on Old US Highway 91. If you have seen the movie “The Untouchables” with Kevin Costner as Elliott Ness, there is a scene where Ness and his deputies intercept a shipment of bootleg whisky heading to the US form Canada.
The intercept is at a bridge which is actually on a river in this park. In the movie it is actually supposed to be the Canadian border and in the movie the bridge has a sign “bridge to Canada” – it was actually left on the bridge after filming for a while probably causing some tourists confusion for a while !
After our movie trivia stop, it was back onto I-15 and a bit further south we passed the state capital, Helena. Between Great Falls and Helena the scenery had been a bit more mountainous and with the different levels of low cloud it was quite a sight with the mountains peeking out through the clouds.
South of Helena it became more open again with more grain fields.
We arrived in Bozeman about 3.30 and we are staying at the Homewood Suites (Hilton). It’s amazing I know, but it is almost next door to a Walmart – like in Spokane – Imagine that coincidence happening twice in one trip ! So Adrienne thought it would be a good idea to buy some more cosmetics – still much cheaper I’m told even with the exchange rate diving further !
Dinner tonight was at the nearby “Applebees” a chain we have used before – a bit like Sizzler. The food is always excellent and very well priced. We have decided the “fast” food must be a Montana thing – again tonight we were sharing our Buffalo Chicken wings and were only half finished when our mains arrived ! So we just combined them. Adrienne had a steak and I had chicken and shrimp tonight.
With the weather still a bit dicey, we may change our plans a bit for the next 2 days. Tomorrow (Saturday) is supposed to be our Beartooth Highway drive but with the cloud and rain we would likely see nothing as the mountain is so high. The forecast for Sunday is much better so we think we will take the Interstate direct to Red Lodge (instead of west to east over the Beartooth) and then change the drive to Yellowstone by doing the Beartooth from east to west and doubling back a bit to take in Cody. It will mean a short drive tomorrow so with the late checkouts available (normally 11am but actually noon here) we will catch up on some washing (and shopping probably!) then make the short drive to Red Lodge. Let’s see tomorrow.