We settled in for a few glorious days in southwest Montana at Spring Hill Campground just west of Anaconda, MT. It is a National Forest campground so there are no showers or anything like that. Today, Friday August 14 was supposed to be a really stormy day but the morning proved pretty nice. We jumped on the bike and headed a little west on MT 1 and stopped in Philipsburg, MT, home of Gem Mountain. If you’ve never heard of it, Gem Mountain is one of a few emerald mines in western Montana. I stumbled upon it 30 or so years ago and Cynthia really wanted to try it out. So we did! This time though, we went to the store they operate in Philipsburg (a destination in itself too!). You buy buckets of gravel, they wash it for you and shake it down so the heavier emeralds (that included rubies and sapphires too) go to the bottom of the pan just like gold does. They flip the screen over on your table and there the gems are glistening in the light! All you have to do is pick them out! It was great fun and the process is VERY addictive (like gold panning is). Once you find them, you can’t stop. But we did after finding 8 gem quality stones and numerous ones with flaws. We headed back to camp before the storms arrived but they proved to disappoint. We didn’t get much rain or wind as they had called for. Just a couple of intermittent showers.
By morning Saturday morning August 15 though, it was WAY cooler and really smoky. We think a fire was started by the lightning from the night before. The whole valley we were in was cloudy with it and we decided to just keep to our plan for the day by going to 3 Forks of the Missouri River National Historical Landmark (about 80 miles east) and then swing south a ways to Virginia City National Historical Landmark. It remained fairly smoky all the way to 3 Forks but it took us no time to get there since I unhooked the trailer and we buzzed along at 80+. Only thing is that at those speeds it really calms your gas mileage down! The 3 Forks is actually in the Missouri Headwaters State Park. Nice place too. It is where the Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin Rivers all meet to create the Missouri River. All three of those rivers were named by Lewis and Clark after the President Jefferson (who commissioned the Corps of Discovery), his Vice President, James Madison and the Secretary of the Treasury at the time, Albert Gallatin (the same guy who lived at Friendship Hill NHS in Pennsylvania we visited June 23). It is pretty cool to bring it all together like this when you visit these historical places. This was probably the second big disappointment to the Corps of Discovery after the five falls outside Great Falls (knowing you can’t navigate those!). Here they learned the Missouri did not connect to the Columbia at all. We left there and headed south on US 287 to Ennis, MT and then west right into Virginia City. Virginia City is a pretty cool place too. Once a boom town from gold discovered in the area, it was also the territorial capital. We walked around town, peering into the stores stocked with period merchandise from the mid to late 1800’s. All of these are registered national historic places (we aren’t counting even though we could). They have a boatload of really interesting stuff in these stores. You can’t buy any of it though, it is all of what makes up the walking museum of Virginia City. We had lunch at one of the cafes and since it was getting late, we bugged out and made a beeline to our camp after a brief stop in Anaconda. It really turned out to be a great day. The smoke was gone when we arrived and the evening was very pleasant!
Sunday, August 16 was a REALLY chilly morning! It almost feels like the weather is changing for these parts to fall from winter. The high was only 70 but the sun was shining! We fooled around the campsite for a little while waiting for it to warm a bit from the low of 48 (according to the GTL’s thermometer). Besides, our first stop at Grant-Kohrs Ranch NHS is only about 50 miles up I-90. We decided to hit that first then backtrack to Butte to see the World Mining Museum. And was it chilly! We broke out the gloves for the first time since Texas! After a quick blast up I-90 to Deer Lodge we were at Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historical Site. What a great history! The ranch was established in 1865 by Johnny Grant and by the time Conrad Kohrs became involved, the cattle grazing on open range belonging to this ranch spread from Colorado and into Canada encompassed over 10 million acres! Unbelievable! The ranch today is still a working ranch albeit a lot smaller. The house Grant built and Kohrs added to were open for tours and the grounds (bunkhouses, storage sheds and barn with a fantastic collection of buggies) are open for tours also. They had a blacksmith demonstration and a chuck wagon cook on site to tell you about the history of those two ‘professions’ at the ranch. By the way, the campfire coffee was EXCELLENT!! Definitely worth a visit because there is so much to learn about ranch life. For instance, I always thought the cowboys on the round-ups ate the cows (since they were right there and all…). Well, nope. They usually ate a salted pork and rice mixture with dried fruit also. Seems the cowboys in them days made about $30 a month and the cows were worth about $45. No eating them! We left Grant-Kohrs and blew back down I-90 to Butte and the visitor center for the city. We wanted to go to the World Mining Museum but it turned out to be a disappointment. Though they had a lot of mining equipment, the museum seemed to be geared towards children. We didn’t stay long and went back to our base camp to pack up and get ready to leave this wonderful part of Montana for further adventures (if I can figure out where the fires AREN’T burning…). On the way….just when you think you’ve seen it all! I observed a cube truck entering onto I-90 at a fairly high rate of speed and that’s what caught my attention since he was going to merge around when I would be next to him. As I always do, I changed lanes to let him on the highway and as I look over, he’s playing the trumpet! Yes, you read right, playing the trumpet! Never saw anyone playing an instrument and driving?!
Monday August 17 started out REALLY cold! The temperature gauge on the GTL read 44 degrees when we left the campground at 9:30. Our plan was to get to Missoula the long way by heading south to Big Hole National Battlefield and then zip up US 93 straight to our hotel (after all, it’s been four days out camping at a National Forest campground…). It never really got above 50 degrees till we got to Big Hole. By then the sun was out pretty good and it hit 65. Big Hole National battlefield was the site of a pretty terrible battle between the US Government and the Nez Perce. The visitor center is first rate and the film is really emotionally moving. The events in the Big Hole August 9 & 10 of 1877 was really tragic. It was the fifth battle with the Nez Perce as the US Government chased them across Idaho and Montana to force them back onto the reservation. The whole story of the Nez Perce is well worth investigating. After our visit, we mounted up and took a short run to the junction of US 93 and turned north. WOW, what a great road! It follows the Bitterroot River through the valley of the same name as you parallel the Bitterroot Mountains. It is beautiful! In a short 70 miles, we were in Missoula. Funny how those extra special roads go so fast even when you take your time!
We’re not sure where we are headed now since so many fires are burning out this way. Smoke is all around us so we need to speak to the forest service folks to see what’s what. So, the next chapter will be a complete surprise, even to us! Lots more to see! Greg & Cynthia.