SW Montana, July 25-26 2015

Saturday, July 25 and Sunday July 26

Southwest Montana

46 degrees at 7:00 this morning and patchy blue sky.  We decide to get off the highway and take a back road to another old mining ghost town called Garnet, in the Garnet Range of mountains.

What a back road!  The first little bit has piles of rock on both sides and we learn this is the debris left from dredge mining for gold.

Between 1939 and 1942 there were  nearly 14,000 ounces of gold removed from this area.  The dredge would eat up large chunks of the mountain and could dig 43’ beneath the creek bed!

The road twists and turns, sometimes a single lane, sometimes a bit more. Fortunately we only pass one vehicle early on.  There is still mining going on and we pass several quarry-like diggings – not sure what they are mining now.

Finally reach parking for the town of Garnet which is a short walk away. 

Garnet’s heyday was 1895- 1905 and it was noted as a more family-friendly town, with a school, candy shop, doctor’s office  in addition to the rowdy saloon, livery stable, hotels and barber shops,  surveyor’s office, etc.  It dropped from over 1,000 residents to less than 150 in that time and became a ghost town by 1920.

Teresa and two other friendly workers at the small visitor’s center chatted for a while and made some recommendations of things to do in Missoula.

We walked the Sierra Mine Trail which went by assorted mine pits, shafts and equipment, then took an alternative road out of the mountains to Route 200 toward Missoula.

We planned to see a famous carousel there and eat pizza at a spot Teresa recommended.  It looked like a very nice college (University of Montana)town, but there was a Celtic Festival going on and we could not find a parking spot!  So crowded that after searching for a while, Greg opted to “get out of town.”  We settled for a quick lunch at 5 Guys on the edge of town, gassed up and moved on.

Heading north to Flathead Lake, a beautiful huge lake with lots of development and recreation areas.  In the small town of Ravalli, we saw several signs for cherries so had to stop and buy a few – yum! 

Turns out the cherry festival was last week and cherries are BIG here.  More on that later….

We decided to re-visit the National Bison Range, which we had discovered on our Alaska trip.  Since we hadn’t stopped in Missoula, we arrived at the hottest part of the day (mid 80’s) so most of the animals were chillin’.  There were a few more down near the river.  We did see a herd of bighorn sheep having a picnic at the base of one mountain.

Lots of antelope (Pronghorn), bison and deer.  Every now and then you could see a cloud of dust where a bison was taking a dust bath.

We headed back east, through the Flathead Indian Reservation which looked much like the rest of Montana, with pastures, cattle, irrigation and hay - and lots of naked sheep.  Reminded us of an old John Wayne movie about the battle between cattle ranchers and sheep ranchers in Montana…

Decided to stop at the town of Polson and do laundry and some chores.  Bonus, the Wash’n’Go also offered showers and free wi-fi.  After chores we stopped at Betty’s Diner for some ice cream for dinner.  We both tried the huckleberry and vanilla – this is supposedly 2 scoops! 

Tasty!

We stopped this night at Walmart, along with 8 other rv’ers.  This Walmart had wonderful wi-fi in the parking lot (we found this in Canada too) so we were able to blog and catch up on emails etc. 

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Flathead Lake and south in Montana.

Stopped for coffee at McD’s this morning, 59 degrees and cloudy.  We went north toward Big Fork on the east side of Flathead Lake.  Many cherry orchards and road-side stands.  Had to stop for this shot of two deer we saw sneaking into an orchard.

Finley Point State Park looked interesting as it is on a bit of a peninsula into the lake.

Their camping sites were numbered parking lot spaces and all were filled!  Nice view of the lake with a small marina.

Heading down 83S through beautiful mountain and valley scenery.  At one point we decided to explore a “National Forest Access” road but had to turn around – verrryy carefully  -after a mile or so of wretched road.

Saw several deer and wild turkeys, multiple log home builders, and some interesting bars like Liquid Louie’s.

Many beautiful lakes.   Seeley Lake had lots of lovely white water lilies.

We have seen several sandhill cranes in Montana, like this pair.

Next stop was the Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site in Deer Lodge.  A fun, interesting stop.  It is a working ranch that has been preserved, with home, bunkhouse, blacksmith, chuckwagon, carriage house and multiple other structures.

One of the highlights was watching them use a beaver slide to build hay stacks. We had seen these slides in hayfields and wondered what they were. Many horses involved, as one pair pulled a rake that gathered the hay in the fields, another pair picked up the hay on long prongs and brought it to the slide, while yet another pair moved the carrier up and down on the slide. 

Interesting to watch.  Most farmers now use some sort of baler, but some still do haystacks and swear that the hay keeps much better that way.  Learned about timothy, alfalfa, clover and other components of hay.

Next highlight was a female blacksmith who made a “hoof pick” while we watched and talked about blacksmithing.

  She teaches the skill as well.  She asked a trivia question about one of the owners of the ranch and Greg was the only one to answer correctly, so he won the hoof pick…. That will make one interesting Christmas Tree Ornament, or, we could buy a horse!

There was a fully decked out Chuckwagon too.  Named because food back then was called “chuck”, not after Texan Charles Goodnight who supposedly created the first one.

  Ken, the park ranger, was very knowledgeable.  They typically carried a 30 day supply of food for 10-15 men, which included flour, rice, beans, jerky, coffee, and quite a bit of canned goods.

We toured the house, bunkhouse row and some nice gardens, then said our farewells.

We got onto I-90 towards Bozeman.  Found a good boondocking spot at Homestead Pass, of course on a dirt road in the National Forest. 

Greg grilled burgers and we had carrots and potatoe salad.  Greg noticed some hikers communicating with lights from the hilltops nearby after dark.  Rained during the night.