June 22 Goodbye Glacier/ Great Falls/Lewis & Clark NF

Saturday, June 22

We depart early and stop at St. Mary's to make sure the Going to the Sun Road is still closed - it is.  Guess we'll have to come back yet again one day! Goodbye to Blackfeet Nation.

We take a different route toward Great Falls.   A few wind turbines are spinning like crazy in today's wind.  Still signs of flooding in some areas.  Ranches, rolling hills and some farms with an occasional oil jack rig.

 We pass several gorgeous fields of pink flowers which we are told later is sainfoin, which is similar to alfalfa and used as cattle feed. A lady tells us her grandparents brought seeds from Switzerland.

We decide to find out what Great Falls was named for, and it turns out there are quite a few waterfalls along the Missouri River.  We head for Ryan Dam which is where the original "great falls" that Lewis and Clark had to portage around was located in 1805.  It is now harnessed for hydroelectric power, powering about 54,000 homes.

There is a nice little park here, just below the dam.

 In a tall cottonwood tree we spy a huge eagle's nest.  Two fledgling golden eagles sit near the nest.

 Goldens are larger than bald eagles and these two "babies"are huge! We wait for quite a while, but no parents return and the fledglings just sit and wait as well.  (Another photographer tells us they are fledglings.)

You can see the "cotton" from the cottonwood trees everywhere.

This pretty yellow bird stopped nearby.

On the drive in we saw a bald eagle soaring in the canyon below the falls, and we see it again as we leave,  with fish in talons, probably taking food back to it's nest.

 A storm blows in as we are leaving and the rain is intense for a few minutes.  With the flat terrain you can usually see the rain coming.

We head south from here, through prairie and into forest.  We stop at an old mansion in a town called Castle.  Originally built in 1892, by a man named Sherman.  He made his money by selling supplies to miners chasing gold and silver. Quite a house in its day, as it featured electricity and hot and cold running water.  It is built from granite quarried nearby.

One unique feature was a furniture passage at the bottom of the stairs so they didn't have to maneuver turns in the stairways.

 There was also an old time soccer game - precursor to foose ball - which still works today!  The outbuilding has this stagecoach and sleighs and wagons.  Our guide says there is a constant flow of donated items from residents and they try to display it all.

We check out a reservoir just north of town, thinking we might find a boon docking spot, but it is very expensive for non-residents, so we go a little further to Jumping Creek Campground in the Lewis & Clark National Forest.  A little spartan because they had to cut down many trees due to a fungus, but not bad for $5.  Only three campers here tonight.