Monday 24 August 2015
Today started more auspiciously, the Internet was working. Despite this, we still couldn't make our minds up about the next few days plans, time for that later! Our plan for the day was to drive about 300 miles from Kalispell to Bozeman avoiding the interstate as much as possible.
We ate the rather minimalist breakfast of juice, coffee and bagel and were out of the hotel before nine. We briefly drove south down the Route 93 before heading east at Somers on the route 82. We had one brief moment of excitement when spotted an owl sitting on a telegraph post. We hurriedly stopped, turned around, drove back to the post and then fell about laughing! We have now added the Dark Brown Horned Plastic Owl to our bird list.
At the town of of Bigfork, we turned south on the route 83. This road follows the western edge of the Rocky Mountains for about 90 miles. For the first 20 miles, we had Swan Lake alongside us, but no sign of the Royal Ballet Company. Shortly after this, we came across the Swan Valley Wildlife Conservation Area and a narrow, gravel road leading to a small car park and Boardwalk. Before we got to the car park, we were inundated by American Robin, a Blackbird sized bid with a red breast, there were dozens of them. We also saw a very pretty Yellowthroat. At least these birds were real!
Back on the road, travelling with the locals at nearly 70mph, we passed through the communities of Salmon Prairie and Condon, only making one abortive effort to increase our wildlife viewing by driving a couple of miles up a dirt road. We turned back when we caught up with the fire watchers somewhere in a forest in Montana.
At Sealy Lake, we stopped at an interesting shop selling quite expensive artisan goods, bought some hot drinks and sat in the garden watching Bluebirds and Black Squirrels.
Eventually, we reached the junction of the 83 and the 200 and turned East onto the 200 heading towards Lincoln, Montana. Once again traffic was fairly sparse, but fast! East of Ovando we turned off onto the 141 heading for Helena, the State Capitol of Montana (remember this for Pointless). Whilst passing Lake Nevada we caught a glimpse of what we thought were swans. We stopped for a closer look and were amazed to see dozens of White Pelicans. There were also Loon and Cormorant there too.
Near the town of Avon, we joined the U.S. Route 12 for the last 40 miles into Helena. Helena is quite a large city, compared with other places we recently visited. It is the home of the State Legislature housed in an impressive building with a huge domed roof. We stopped briefly for a drink before continuing at a pace down the U.S. 12. We drove at a steady 70mph on a two-lane highway across huge prairie lands with the faint outline of mountains in the distance.
Agriculture is king here, either extensive cattle ranching or huge fields of cereal. When I say huge, I mean enormous, massive expanses of open fields, I'd guess some fields are miles wide. The cattle are mostly on open range and it is easy to imagine the herds of Buffalo that used to roam here.
The road took us past Townsend and Toston to the junction with our old friend the I - 90. We joined at junction 278 and drove at a steady 75mph to junction 309. I must admit I have found that it is rather exillerating to drive at speed on nearly empty roads that are built for this purpose.
The turn-off led us into Bozeman in South Central Montana, once again a decent sized town. We drove right through the middle to our hotel, the Western Heritage Inn. This has proved to be a good choice, we have a good room and the hot tub and steam room are next to our room (and have been tested by yours truly).
After a brief bit of research (read, check Tripadvisor), we headed to The Garage Soup and Mesquite. This restaurant is housed in an old gas station and we sat on the forecourt at a metal work bench. Menus came enclosed in metal licence plates! The service and food was excellent. We turned down deserts as usual, but did go into town to see if we might find a desert. No such luck, instead we returned to the hotel and a session on the Internet to find accommodation for the next three nights. Finally, we settled on a hotel in Cody, Wyoming. We will stay there three nights. The attraction? Yellowstone and Teton National Parks!
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