Missouri Headwaters to Butte
A lazy morning waiting for the sun to warm up the campground and the tent. Jeri did some tax work, I wrote the journal. We (Jeri) installed the new rear tire on my bike. Left CG at noon and drove further into the Missouri Headwaters State Park. Landscape was hot and dusty. Parked at the picnic area and did a two-mile hike back along a ridge with the Gallatin river to our left, then walked to the confluence of the Missouri, Jefferson and Madison rivers.
Had sausage sandwiches in the picnic area in front of Lewis rock. There were others enjoying the mild weather but all maintained their social distance. Oddly, the longer distance is mandated, the more people seem to strive for contact, nods and smiling eye contact.
The park didn’t quite look as expected partly because it was so dry. But the picnic area by the Gallatin was very pleasant. Very good displays highlighting the story of Lewis and Clark and how they camped here. After a couple of hours, we’d seen all we needed to see and so launched ourselves back on to I-90 heading northwest to Butte. Quality Inn did the trick and we had leftovers in the room after extensive bathing to get rid of the lingering smoky campground odor.
We both agreed that mid-September in this part of Montana looked a lot like Southern California; the occasional green, but mostly brown landscape, in contrast to the green we’d been driving through since leaving Newark over two weeks ago.
Also, this is our final week and we can feel the pull of home now. After Glacier NP we need to decide whether to head home directly on the interstates or to take our time to seek out landscape and sights.
Amazing pictures of an historical landscape. One gets the sense of what it must have been like for Lewis and Clark going into the unkown but without any of the facilities of modern day.
…and without use of an AWD Subaru…