The rest of Montana

Monday, October 21,2013

Let's still keep fingers crossed, second house showing, same couple, Friday afternoon....

Back into Montana....

After Lemhi Pass, we headed east on Rt. 324. Below are pictures of some pronghorn passing along the road, then Clark Canyon Reservoir.

















There were many areas to camp along the reservoir and river. We continued up Rt. 41 to 287 into the Tobacco Root Mountains. There is much dispersed camping spots and also a small no fee campground with a vault toilet. We opted for the campground, on a more secluded end spot.

Dewar stood guard.







There is usually a reason why we choose campgrounds, nothing particular this time. We normally would prefer to be alone in a quiet, secluded spot, however, it seemed we were destined to meet a really cool gentleman from Vermont. He comes out to Montana every year on a long trip to visit his sons in Bozeman. They usually hike, camp, fish, hunt, etc. Him and Pete hit it off right away, and after his son arrived with his dog we all piled into his camper, sat at his small, intimate table, and ate a steak dinner. Afterwards, we enjoyed their company around a fire.

After such a fun night, we again, got a bit of a late start.




Even Mandy was pooped....too late of a night!




We continued on down Rt. 287 to see some ghost towns.







On the way from Nevada City, the truck seemed to be shifting very hard into 3rd again. Oh no, here we go again....
We got to Ennis and stopped at two different quick oil change places. Pete wanted some transmission fluid taken out and wanted it replaced with some Lucas. Both places were super busy, but one, Ennis Garage, kindly fit us in between appointments and didn't charge us. Pete tipped the young fellow and we continued on, with the truck seeming to shift normally again.




Didn't take me long to figure out that we were headed the wrong direction on 287....we were headed south, towards Yellowstone. We stopped to turn around, looked at one another hard, contemplating whether or not we should really turn back north. Both of us longed to visit Yellowstone again, but knew we had to get to Michigan for a wedding. Another year....

Back on Rt. 287, we took that until we were back on the main drag, 90. Next thing we knew, we were driving through Bozeman. I'm here to say, after this trip, not even seeing much of Bozeman, nor having even taken one picture, this is where we decided we want to live. Well, at least try it out. It seemed great.....not too dry, not too wet, snow capped mountains to be seen, big enough to have certain luxuries (if you drove into town- we prefer to live in rural areas), plenty of nice restaurant, pubs, growing towns around there (for work), and probably best of all, about 2 hours from Yellowstone. Remember, this was a trip to pick out a destination to live. Not a vacation, an adventure. ;-)

Ok, so we continued on 90, next stop....Little Bighorn Battlefield. We both appreciate history, Pete really has a passion for it.

After visiting the visitors center, looking around the museum (had some really cool stuff in there), then listening to a park ranger tell the story of the battle, we walked the immediate area.

























We got back into the truck and drove over to Reno Benteen Battlefield. This part of the land is still privately owned, we had to stop to let a herd of horses cross the road, pretty neat to see.
































We hopped back on Rt. 90, then cut up on 47 to Rt. 94....again, we were sad to be heading even more east, and out of Montana.