Kathleen's Window: Off to See Montana!

Friday, August 22, 2014

Plan A- Get up early on Tuesday, travel to Many Glaciers in Glacier National Park and luck into a campsite for two nights. I want to hike to Iceberg Lake, even if it kills me!

Driving along the Sawtooth Range to the turnoff for Many Glaciers

Heading into Many Glaciers along Sherburne Lake

Looking at a perfect glacial valley

Plan B- Start driving east...

After a detour to Many Glaciers, St. Mary's, and Rising Sun campgrounds, by 11 am, we were skunked. No room at the inn, so Plan B went into effect. We drove east out of Glacier Park. We quickly left the mountains of the Front Range of the Rockies and found ourselves on rolling prairie. The only plan we had was to see more of Montana and wind up at Yellowstone National Park after Labor Day when the crowds would be gone.

Leaving the Rockies behind us, the high plains lie ahead.

Espresso stand in Browning on the Blackfeet Reservation

We rolled along southeast toward Great Falls, keeping the mountains on our right. At Great Falls we would meet the might Missouri River. We had the idea that we could find some boondocking along it. Once we looked at the map we realized that no road follows it for long, and only a few bridges cross it. Without a way to float the river, there wasn't much to see. We drove northeast from Great Falls, after rejecting a night at the Walmart across from a refinery! A half hour later we drove into the small town of Fort Benton along the river, and pulled into the Benton RV Park for the night.

Grain elevators for all the wheat fields we drove past

Benton RV, no view but full hookups and great showers!

Fort Benton is considered the birthplace of Montana. When river travel was the norm, the rapids further west would keep boats from traveling past. The town became the point of commerce for western travel. There is also Lewis and Clark Trail history everywhere. We mostly wanted to stay in Fort Benton to get some internet and phone connections, regroup and plan, and get a shower. It was hot! We had gone from the cool mountain elevations, to the hot plains.

Wednesday we hatched a plan to travel south from Fort Benton, over the river, drive southeast then north back up to the river on Highway 191. It looked like we would be able to boondock along the Missouri in a remote area. We were tired of crowds after Glacier, and wanted some solitude. The drive was interesting as we traveled through a few small towns and passed remote ranches, Hutterite colonies, and decommissioned missile silos.

Crossing the Missouri at Fort Benton

Crossing a Coulee, or abandoned glacial river valley, along MT 80

The Chalk Cliffs east of MT 80 near Square Butte

Major rebuild of MT 80 through the Arrow Creek Hills. Thought we were done with this after the Alaska Highway!

The metropolis of Coffee Creek, or Denton, or Deerfield, or Brooks...More grain silos

Abandoned Missile Silo

Hutterite colony

Heading into the eastern Missouri Breaks

The muddy Missouri adjoining our BLM campground

Finally we descended down to the river, and... what's this? A campground in the wildlife refuge along the river? We pulled in and discovered a BLM campground with gravel sites, picnic tables and fire rings. There was even potable water, but no dump. There are times when we are really happy to see a campsite. This was not one of them. The upside was that it was almost empty. One other trailer was there, and two hosts. We finally found a mostly shaded site, since it was hot, and soon discovered it was buggy as well. The signs warning us of rattlesnakes weren't encouraging either. We walked through the brush towards the river. After the crystal clear mountain streams, the Missouri looked like chocolate milk. Greg said the early settlers complained that it was, “Too thick to drink, and too thin to plow!” For $3 a night with my discount, we thought we might stay two nights, since Greg wanted to get his bike off and explore. I figured I would be a bit bored, with no internet, phone, or view of the river. No one to people watch either, but the solitude would be good for writing. Still trying to get to my Alaska reflections.

It rained during the night, but stopped in time for Greg to take off on his bike. We had decided that he would ride in the morning and then we would head for a remote campsite in the Little Rocky Mountains nearby. I was just settling in to write when Greg returned looking annoyed. He had ridden down the dirt road across the highway that parallels the river. One of the original Lewis and Clark encampments was marked on our map, and he wanted to look for it. The geologist discovered that the level area along the river consisted of soggy, clay, mud, when his front tire abruptly stopped turning. It was so full of mud that he had to take it off to try to clean it up, and then carry his bike back to dry road.

This soil meets the definition of cohesive clay! This soil must have been miserable for horse-drawn wagons.

That was also when we realized that we were not going to be able to take a chance driving on any dirt back roads to boondock. And, it's all back roads in central Montana! Next problem? The weather forecast was calling for rain and thunderstorms the next several days. Change of plans. Time to head for an established RV campground to avoid getting stuck someplace. Even the properly crowned roads in the BLM campground were not paved and starting to get sticky.

We drove over the river and north past the Little Rocky Mountains (sigh...), and made our way to Malta on Highway 2, the Highline across the northern part of the state. Turning east we set our sights for Fort Peck Lake and Dam, an Army Corps of Engineers recreation area. We drove straight into the rain squalls that we had seen popping up around us all day. On the stretch from Glasgow to Fort Peck, we got pelted with rain, and a big chunk of flying gravel. It hit the center top of the windshield and looks like a bullet hit us. Small fragments of glass shot at us. I always thought that tempered, shatterproof glass would not shoot shards, but I was wrong! Luckily neither of us was cut. The windshield is now sporting a silver duct tape patch inside and out. Considering we have put over 50,000 miles on the rig since November 2012, and traveled some nasty stretches of highway, including our recent trip to Alaska, and through British Columbia and the Yukon, we have been fortunate to only have two dings. We had the first one patched in Durango, Colorado last Fall, and the windshield replaced last Spring. Looks like there will be another replacement this Fall.

Hayfields along US 191

Hay bales stacked for the winter

Lunch stop near Malta

Heading east into the weather along US 2

We drove into the Downstream Campground at Fort Peck Lake just after the gravel incident, and the rain stopped. Signing up for two nights with electricity, we have the option to stay longer. It rained last night and this morning. During a break in the rain we took a walk around the campground and along the Missouri River. We haven't seen the lake. It is on the other side of the third largest earth dam in the world. If it wasn't raining, we would be boondocking along the lake, but we don't want to risk the long drives in on the dirt and gravel roads. The rain is supposed to be worse the next few days, but if we can get farther southwest, we can get out of it sooner. Guess we'll look at the forecast and decide in the morning. We want to head to the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area before going to Yellowstone. And, I want to swing through the Crow Indian Reservation where I spent a week in 1979.