Virginia City Montana

We saw some neat historic buildings and towns on the east coast last summer but our time in Virginia City, MT rivals any of that.  This was a mining boom town in 1863 and served as the territorial capital from 1865-1875. Over 150 original (yes, original) buildings still stand.

Street view

Street view

 What is really interesting about a lot of the buildings here is that many haven't been overly restored, they've just been maintained, so you get a true feel for the life and age of the building. Like most towns of that age, there have been many fires over the years. Some buildings show the black, burnt scars left from fires that didn't totally destroy them.

The sign says "hastily built". No kidding.
It's amazing it is still standing.

When the gold ran out people slowly left, but the town was never completely abandoned. There are a number of stores that were abandoned over time and when the proprietors left they just left the goods that were left on the shelf. These stores were preserved with goods intact creating fantastic, perfect little museums. On the flip side, the oldest continuously operated store in Montana still exists and thrives in town. 

As I review my pictures I see that, like scenic views, the pictures just don't do justice. They don't capture the charm and feel of the scene. If you are ever in the area and like history, I suggest you plan time for a stop and enjoy the experience first hand.

http://virginiacitymt.com/

Territorial Governor's Mansion (on left)
1865-1875.
That's a humble mansion.

Grand Tetons

View from Jackson Lake Lodge

We made a weekend trip down to the Grand Tetons National Park and Jackson Hole. Alex and Dana are near Jackson at Teton Village for a couple months working at the Grand Tetons Music Festival so we stayed with them for a couple nights.

Cascade Canyon

They call it Hidden Falls because people
are always standing in your picture
blocking the view.

We had a basic touristy weekend just seeing the sites, hiking to Hidden Falls and riding up the gondola.

We drove down through Yellowstone National Park and came back to West Yellowstone via the Idaho side of the Tetons. The Idaho side looks a lot different as it is open farmland versus the Wyoming side being more mountainous as more (smaller) mountains continue to the east of the Tetons.

The Tetons off in the distance across
potato fields in Idaho. This is zoomed some.
Taken just north of Ashton about 35-40
miles away as the crow flies.

Weekend Road Trip

View from Fire lookout tower

We love beautiful country and we love visiting historic places. We made a 3 day road trip this weekend (in the car) that satisfied both of these passions. We headed out early Friday crossing Yellowstone National Park from our home base in West Yellowstone to the northwest entrance (exit) to the park. This entrance is connected directly with the Beartooth Highway, a National Scenic Byway
(http://byways.org/stories/47549), (http://byways.org/explore/byways/2281/itinerary/70123). If you are not familiar with National Scenic Byways following this link for general information: http://byways.org/learn/.

View from Fire lookout tower

Numerous people recommended the Beartooth Mountains to us so we looked into it. As we were looking at the map we realized that the other end of the drive would put us near Billings which, in turn, put us near some things that were on our wishlist.  Next thing you know a plan was formed.

View from lookout at 10,954 feet

As you exit Yellowstone onto the Beartooth Highway it starts as a bit underwhelming. The drive across the north side of Yellowstone is so beautiful it is really hard to beat. That being said, the Beartooth Highway did not disappoint. After we got past Cooke City the drive slowly became more and more scenic. We took a side jaunt up to a fire lookout tower that provided almost a 360 degree view of the surrounding mountain ranges. As we continued on each mile took us higher than the last until we reached 10,954 feet. At this point we were above treeline so there were no issues with trees blocking our view.

View from another pullout. Can you
see the lake?

The slow decent down was a continuous, amazing view.  The switchbacks with many hairpin turns gave an excuse to go slow and enjoy. There are many turnouts that we utilized to stop and soak it in. By the time we got to Red Lodge the descent was complete and we had gone down about 8,000 feet.  We went on to Billings to a hotel, poised for some history the next day.

Last Stand hill with memorial on top

The next morning we headed out on a loop with the first stop being the Little Bighorn Battlefield about 60 miles from Billings right off of I-90. This battle is probably next only to Gettysburg in American History fame. It was interesting to see the location of the battle and hear (a version of) the story on why (historians think) Custer did what he did and why he never stood a chance. There are tons of books out there but that's not my kind of reading.  Doing the ranger led interpretive walk while on location is much preferred for us. Here is a link to more info: http://www.nps.gov/libi/index.htm

Battlefield in one direction 

Our next adventure for the day was to visit Pompey's Pillar. We first heard about this while visiting Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery sites and museums in Montana 2 years ago. It was too far out of our way on that trip but it went onto the future must-see list. We decided this weekend's road trip was the perfect time to make the visit. I can probably safely assume you have never heard of Pompey's Pillar so here is the story in a nutshell. On the return trip of the famous expedition Lewis and Clark had split up to explore two different areas of interest to them. William Clark's route took him down the Yellowstone River.

William Clark's engraving.
Protected under glass.

Pompey's Pillar

One day he climbed this big rock to get a view of the surrounding area and he saw some ancient Indian carvings on the rock.  He decided to carve his name and the date on the rock and noted that he had done such in his journal. He named the rock after Sacajawea's son who he had nicknamed Pomp. This is the only physical evidence that still exists on the entire Lewis and Clark expedition. It is the only place you can be absolutely certain that you stood where he stood.  One of those chill up your spine moments. Here are some links to info: http://www.nps.gov/libi/index.htm
, http://www.mbmg.mtech.edu/gmr/lewis_clark/lewis_clark-pompey.asp

We stayed at the same hotel and returned home the next day by driving west on I-90 to Bozeman and then south on Highway 191 back home. That section of I-90 runs next to the Yellowstone River so you can let your imagination go thinking about what Clark saw 210 years ago as he traveled that route. One thought I had was that he was only 60-100 miles from what is now called the Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park. I wonder what he would have written in his journal had he seen those formations.

Earthquake of 1959

Hilgard lodge fell into Hebgen Lake

About 35 miles northwest of West Yellowstone is the site of a huge landslide in Madison Canyon. The great earthquake of 1959, between 7.3 and 7.5 on the Richter scale, caused 80 million tons of rock and debris to break off one side and slide at a speed of 100 mph into, and across, the canyon in 20 seconds! The slide buried everything in its path and the hurricane force winds it caused tossed cars and campers around. The slide hit a campground burying 19 people and injuring many more. Further up the canyon other people were injured and killed from falling debris, collapsing roads, and literally being blown away by the wind.

Earthquake Lake natural dam
See slide area on left

The slide blocked the Madison River creating Earthquake Lake, or as they call it here, Quake Lake. The water backed up rapidly causing fear of what would happen to the Hebgen Lake dam upstream as well as what would happen to the slide area as pressure from the backed up water became greater. These fears forced one of the largest-ever mobilizations of the Army Corps of Engineers to quickly cut a spillway to release water in less than 3 weeks. 

Highway 287 fell into Hebgen Lake

Today, there are a number of interpretive signs and pullouts along highway 287 which runs along Hebgen Lake. There are still remains of buildings that fell into the lake and you can walk along the old highway to the point where sections of it also fell into the lake.  

Right on top of the slide that formed Quake Lake there is a visitor center, interpretive signs and lookouts where you can take in the magnitude of what happened.

From top of slide to other side where
it came from. Look in lower right corner
to see where the two large boulders in
the next picture came from

Quake lake from top of slide.
Two large boulders carried across at
100 mph now rest here

During our touring of Yellowstone National Park we have seen a number of references to thermal activity stopping or starting when this earthquake occurred.

Below are a couple of links that give a few more details.

See the right side of this sign for
a pictorial description of the slide

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1959_Yellowstone_earthquake

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quake_Lake

Headwaters of the Missouri River

Headwaters of the Missouri River -
Madison River on left merges with
Jefferson River on right to form the
Missouri

We decided to do something other than Yellowstone this weekend. Those that have followed our journey over the last few years may remember that we were in Montana two years ago when we went to Glacier National Park and did a lot of exploring in northwestern Montana. We were on the Missouri River in Fort Benton for a while where we explored and learned about the travels and discoveries of the Lewis and Clark Expedition in Montana. We didn't get much further south than the Great Falls area on that trip even though we really wanted to see the headwaters of the Missouri which was a primary objective of that expedition. It was just too far off our planned trip at the time.

Headwaters from a  higher viewpoint

 On this year's trip to Montana we are at the southern tip of Montana so now we are way south of some of the things we want to see. On Saturday we drove about 100 miles north to Three Forks Montana to see the headwaters of the Missouri River. This gave us a fulfillment both in meeting a goal from two years prior but also it was satisfying in that we used to live in St. Charles MO where the river completes it's journey and joins the mighty Mississippi. We've now seen both ends of the great river (including witnessing the huge floods of 1993 when we lived there).

Gallatin River - it joins in a mile
downstream in distance

The official headwaters is where the Madison and Jefferson Rivers join together and about a half mile downstream the Gallatin River also joins. All three of these rivers are fairly good size which gets the Missouri off to a substantial start from it's very beginning. Over the last month we have become familiar with the Madison and Gallatin Rivers because they both start from within Yellowstone at or near the Continental Divide and roads run along them for miles. It was interesting to learn that the end of those formed the Missouri. Seeing the size of both the Madison and Jefferson Rivers I immediately wondered why Lewis and Clark gave them new names rather than just saying one of them was the Missouri (probably the Jefferson because it heads more westerly which was their objective). It appears that question was debated by them and they decided to go with this being the start of the Missouri so they gave new names to the rivers they found. I had always imagined a small stream slowly growing larger and larger to form the Missouri River but that is not the case unless we consider the origins of the Madison and Jefferson Rivers. Here is a link to the Wikipedia write-up for this state park. It references the debate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri_Headwaters_State_Park

Remains of Gallatin City - hotel
on left

The entire area is part of Missouri Headwaters State Park. A little bonus to the state park was a few remaining buildings of a ghost town from the 1860's. The city was abandoned when the railroad bypassed it, a story shared with a lot of other towns.

Bonus picture for today. We saw some beautiful Cedar Waxwings while walking around the state park.

Cedar Waxwing

For the fun of it, below is a picture of the Madison River in Yellowstone National Park about one mile straight east of the town of West Yellowstone. It is not very deep here but it is quite wide. Elevation here is about 6600 feet versus around 4000 feet when it flows into the Missouri.

Madison River in Yellowstone
National Park

Links to more info

I'm finally getting around to posting a link to a map and explanation of The Grand Loop in Yellowstone National Park. This may help those that have been following along as I've described different sections of the park. The grand loop is a figure 8 of roads with fingers going to each of 5 entrances. I've been meaning to find something like this and post it for a while and am finally getting around to it.

Here are two links.  The first is the official Yellowstone National Park website and you can cruise around to all the other links for more information on things that I've mentioned over the last month. 

http://www.yellowstonenationalpark.com/maps.htm

http://www.gorp.com/parks-guide/travel-ta-yellowstone-national-park-scenic-drives-wyoming-sidwcmdev_067806.html

Northern Yellowstone

View from Dunraven Pass
Yellowstone Lake fogged in
Grand Tetons in the far distance

Fresh coat of snow on Dunraven Pass

We got up to a cold (32 degrees), foggy morning last Saturday. The forecast was for a great day so we headed into the park with confidence that the fog would burn off. We were headed to the northeast section of the park so we knew we had at least an hour drive (depending on buffalo slowdown time) and we were headed to higher elevation so it would be even colder and thus probably no fog. We entered the west gate about 7:15 and by the time we pulled into Canyon Village about 8:10 the sky was clear and, at over 7900 feet, there was about an inch of fresh snow that was very pretty (and melting fast).

North of Dunraven Pass looking north

Black bear

We headed north from Canyon Village toward Tower-Roosevelt crossing. It's not too far to Dunraven Pass (at about 8900 ft) where there are great views. After going over the pass it was a long slow descent with long views to the north and east. As we got down toward the bottom the road was going along a stream and we saw a black bear lumbering along. The first wildlife of the day other than the buffalo that are everywhere.

Tower Falls

A few miles further was Tower Falls. It's a short walk to the viewpoint where Tower Creek tumbles 132 feet out of interesting rock formations.

Lamar Valley

When we got to the Tower-Roosevelt crossing we decided to go east on the road to the northeast entrance. It is 29 miles to the entrance with the road following Lamar Valley and then into a beautiful narrow canyon. We went about 25 miles of it before turning around. Compared to other parts of the park there aren't as many people and there is more wildlife. The drive on this road was the most beautiful that we've seen in the park.

Lamar Valley

We saw wildlife that we expected (antelope, osprey, eagle) and we also saw something that we were not expecting - a badger. It was just off the road and digging furiously sending a very impressive amount of dirt flying. It would dig a little and then come out and look around. Then, back to digging.

Badger

When we got into the narrow canyon, about 5 miles from the entrance, we saw some mountain goats way, way up on a cliff. The cliff was quite a ways away plus the sheep were way up so pictures aren't exactly impressive. We would not have seen them but there were a number of cars stopped so we stopped and asked what they were looking at.

Mountain Sheep - baby is behind mommy

When we got back to Tower-Roosevelt we had lunch in the Roosevelt Lodge that was built in 1906. It is a fairly small log structure and it is really neat inside with all of the support structure being log with bark intact. It kind of felt like we were dining in the woods. Sorry, I forgot to take a picture when we left.

Petrified redwood tree

Next, we headed west on the road to Mammoth Hot Springs. This, I would say, is the second prettiest drive in the park as the road winds around in the mountains. We stopped to see a standing, petrified redwood tree. This was neat compared to the petrified trees in Arizona because it is standing and much larger.

View from pullout

Other than stops at pullouts to enjoy the view we made two stops for waterfalls. Once we got into the village of Mammoth Hot Springs we headed south on the route that we took the previous weekend.

Undine Falls

Coyote having a road-kill lunch

We put on over 150 miles in the park on this day and it goes down in memory as one of the best drives we've ever had. That section of the park is magnificently beautiful. A Rocky Mountain classic.