Choteau Montana and Nearby

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The museum was built like an old airplane hanger, and made noise in the wind. 

 We didn't get up early this morning, in fact, I got up at 9. I had slept 10 glorious hours. Ru actually stayed up later than I did. And he slept later. I went downstairs for the "hot" breakfast, and made some oatmeal, they had eggs and bacon as well, and the usual sugar with carbs stuff. After a coffee we grabbed a few bars from the stash of bars and set off on some sightseeing/hiking. I wasn't sure if we would find a hiking trail nearby, but there were some poorly marked ones on a map so it was an option.

We backtracked 10 miles to the Two Medicine Dinosaur Center.  We saw dinosaur bones, fossils of various types, and learned about the history of dinosaurs in the area. A quick summary: Until some people found a fossilized dinosaur nest with both eggs and juveniles, it was not known that dinosaurs cared for their young. This was a big deal. We saw some fossils of dino eggs, dino parts, and whole dinos. Also mammoth and mastodon.

Just next door is the Agate Shop where we spent at least as much time looking at the variety of cool rocks and gifts. Ruben and I each got ourselves a pocket rock.

It was windy and nobody was around in the parking lot so we unrolled the tent and held in int he wind for a minute. It was almost instantly dry. It also almost instantly took off on us. It was still very windy.

On the way to Choteau we had passed a sign for a ski resort, and the map I had showed several campgrounds and hiking trails in that direction, so we followed Teton Canyon Road past the lovely Eureka Resovoir back into the mountains. We drove about 17 miles down another beautiful country lane when it suddently turned to gravel. I guess in Montana gravel roads are no big deal. More than half the vehicles on the road are big red or black trucks. We continued on the road for three miles, but eventually turned back due to ruts, potholes, and huge pointy rocks. The ski slopes were another 10 miles up the gravel road. We passed one hiking trail, that went up a mountain, and I tried to rally Ruben, but he wasn't interested.

We stopped for a snack by a pretty stream, (I'm guessing it was a fork of the Teton) and we enjoyed sitting in the sun watching the clouds make shadows on the cliffs beside us.

Lewis and Clark National Forest

On our drive back to Choteau we stopped at the lovely Eureka Reservoir.

When we got back to Choteau we did the other touristy things in town, we went to the museum, which was half dinosaur museum, and half old timey stuff. The most interesting thing we found was the log from the jail in 1944.

Somebody didn't like this guy. His skeleton had 4 arrows embedded in it from different directions. Also some bullet holes. 

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The jail log. The book was over 4 inches thick, with three people per page. We read it for quite a while. 

No caption needed. 

This is a selfie with the replica of the dinosaur that was originally found in the area. It's a somethingosaurus.

Details about the somethingosaurus

Ruben found this old typewriter very cool. 

A 50 year old 2 year old Grizzly. The museum was pretty weird. 

You can check out the Old Trail Museum at this link. Check out the little slideshow. 

Still needed some exercise Ru drove us to the local park where we walked on the Choteau Sorpopmists Walking Path. It was a fine path, except that in intercepted a disk golf course at many points which made it hard to follow. We got lost a lot, but managed to walk a mile or two.

Montana disk golfers are practical. Beer holder at the tee off area!

This little guy was fun to watch. He ran from hole to hole. 

They really don't want you to lean on this phone pole. 

We went to the Log Cabin Cafe which had pretty good food, and EXCELLENT pie. I had the apple blackberry pie, warm, with ice cream. I'm writing this two hours later, and I wish I had another piece. Or the whole pie. 

Oh I didn't write about the pool last night. Ru and I were the only ones in it. Not too chloriny, warm, and the hot tub was excellent as well. 

We check out tomorrow at 11. 

Our route tomorrow, from the Shrek head, to the red marker (Standing Stones B&B). See the green roads? We aren't driving on any of those. Back in February I borrowed a book on scenic byways of Montana from the library. Choteau was recommended (and now I see why) as well as the next part of our drive. The green dots on the map are places mentioned in the book that might be worth stopping at. So although I didn't plan much for the Glacier part of the trip (and what I did plan was usurped by the weather), The next two days should be more driving and sightseeing. Ruben will be so bored... but he's up to 30 hours of driving. 

Down Hwy 89 to Choteau

I let Ruben sleep for a while, I knew he had had a very restless night. When he was mostly up around 8:30, and there was a lull in the storm, we hastily packed all our belongings into the car. There were many wet sleeping bags, and clothes, and of course the tent and tarps, but the electronics were fine, and the suitcases were dry. 

Ruben drove through the campground and we watched the other suffering campers in their rain gear either packing up or trying to make food. We parked in front of the restroom, and ate some of my provisions from the food box. We scavenged seeds, bars, and the last banana, and felt full enough to get on the road. I cleaned the garbage out of the car, and after we brushed our teeth we left Glacier. 

A word on food for the trip: Bars: boxes of granola bars, protein bars, many varieties of each, and some fig newtons. Breakfast: Instant oatmeal packets, and nuts and seeds to go in the oatmeal. Cans of soup, cup of noodles, beans and weenies, and just before we left Spokane I bought some eggs and bacon, which I sadly don't think we will finish. Ruben shared he'd rather stay in crummier places and eat in restaurants than have to eat groceries and stay in nicer rooms. I kept that in mind, but it didn't really work out that way. 

Ruben was ready to drive.  We left St. Mary and it's wind and rain, and headed for the sunshine. We took highway 89 south. This road is amazing. Speed limit is 70, and it winds through vast stretches of farmland with few side roads and fewer intersections. It has 60 mph curves and rolling hills. Always off to our right was the view of the mountains, with their dark clouds and rain covering them, but to our left was sunshine, puffy clouds, and rolling hills. 

The meadows were full of blowing grasses or wildflowers. The fields that had animals all had plenty of green grass and I imagined the cows would be pretty happy till they were dinner. Little streams flowed through each valley, and their were ponds with lush plants around them frequently. 

We put on the A-Z roadtrip playlist, and made good time. 

The song playing when I took the picture below.

The view of Glacier National Park from the outside. 

The song playing when I took the picture below.

The blue sky! 

 At just after noon we were starved, and I searched the route to find a good restaurant. Thanks to Google we ended up at Buffalo Joe's in Dupuyer, about an hour north of Choteau. It was a modern place made to look old, and kind of tourist gimmicky, but it was fantastic.

Ruben ate the entire Montana sized burger. I ate most of mine. The rest of the drive was uneventful. We arrived in Choteau and drove through town, then back through town to the Stage Stop Inn. Their room for us wasn't ready yet, so we went to the tourist info center, ate some huckleberry ice cream (huckleberries are a big deal here) and then went to the laundromat to dry our sleeping bags and wash our clothes. 

For some reason there is a dinosaur in the background of this picture. We will have to investigate why tomorrow. 

This is my "I just had ice cream" face. Giddy. 

While we waited for the clothes to wash and dry, I played some guitar, and Ruben read some Christian propaganda that had been left on the table. We had some interesting discussions about it. Choteau is windy, but warm and sunny. It's supposed to get hotter as the weekend comes. No rain! At some point we need to air out the tent so it can dry, but our tenting time for this trip is over. 

We went back to the Stage Stop Inn, got to our room and were very impressed. The whole facility seems brand new, and the room was modern, clean, comfortable, and fresh. After a break we are planning on heading down to the pool. 

Ruben commented that he liked the frame. 

A real comfortable bed...mmmm

East Glacier - St. Mary

East Glacier – St. Mary July 17

So I chickened out on the GTSR… I’ll rephrase. Ruben needed the driving experience and GTSR was a little too intense so we decided to take highway 2 around the southern part of the park. It was a spectacular drive, and although it wound around the sides of mountains and through valleys with lakes and streams, it managed to have a line down the middle and a shoulder on both sides the entire way. Ruben drove, he’s up to 28 hours and he needs to get to 50 by the time we get back so he can get his license. We had some road construction along the way, but nothing too frustrating.

At one point we saw a large black animal bottom moving into the brush on the side of the road and thought it was a bear, until I looked back and saw a herd of angus right next to the road. There were so many amazing views that we stopped pulling over to take pictures. We just enjoyed the drive.

Because this song belongs in every roadtrip playlist

When we arrived at St. Mary campground we were disappointed. Our site was roomy, but there was no tree cover, and it was windy. The forecast calls for high wind and 40% chance of rain for the next two days, and we immediately set up the tent, put on the rain cover, and covered the entire thing with my giant blue tarp. I only had 6 stakes, so I got creative with the rope again, and me moved the picnic table to weigh down one side of the tarp. 40Mph gusts may just rip it all down anyway. We will find out. Probably at 3am…

We have better cell reception here, so I found us a spot to go for a lunch/dinner at Two Dog Flats on the GTSR about 15minutes away from our campsite.

The next morning…

Dinner in two dog flats was really good. Ru and I had burgers, and he kicked my butt at a game of chess while we ate. When we came back to camp, it was still blowing and drizzly so we braved a couple games of yahtzee and then headed to the car for a movie. It wasn’t cold really, 60 degrees or so, just windy and damp. We watched Pirate Radio then headed to the St. Mary center for a show of Native American Dancers.

Two Dog Flats Grill

We are pretty evenly matched

Watching Pirate Radio on the small screen, in the warm car

The show was sold out, so we walked the beautiful path, through the flowery meadow, over a wooden bridge, and back to camp. I brought my umbrella, but we didn’t need it. When I saw the tent again I realized that the way I had done the tarp would never hold up to wind, so Ruben and I re staked and tied everything and went to bed. It was so windy, and the tarp so noisy, that we put earplugs in. When the wind blew in the big gusts it pushed the tent walls down on hour heads, which were at least a foot and a half from the side of the tent. We ended up sleeping in a huddle in the middle of the tent.

The trail to the show was so pretty. All the wildflowers in every meadow are in bloom. 

We could have joined the group watching through the back door standing by the
porto potties, but um no. 

The wild roses were so prevalent you could smell them all over the campsite. 

At about 3 am (my prophecy came true) the tarp worked out of its stakes and blew off. I re-staked it, but couldn’t fall back to sleep. It blew off entirely an hour later. It wasn’t raining then, in fact, when I got up to put the stakes back in I stood a moment in the wind taking in the beautiful view. Wispy clouds were racing across the sky, sometimes covering a nearly full moon that shone so brightly I didn’t need a flashlight at all. The moon on the mountains was surreal.

Ruben had to get up and help me, and we untied the wet knots and shoved the useless tarp into the car. The rain fly was on the tent already, and I used the stakes I had to stake down its lines. Like all tent rain flys though, it was basically useless, and we woke up with a puddle of water inside the southeast corner of the tent. Fortunately Ruben has a plastic suitcase so it wasn’t the worst thing.

The first thing I did when I woke up was to check the weather. It has called for light wind and sprinkles yesterday. I saw a high wind warning for morning and for Thursday night so I called the hotel we are staying at on Friday, and asked if they also had a room for Thursday. They did and I booked it immediately.

As I write this the rain is falling harder, pushed through my leaky tent seams by the strong SE wind. Oh, actually it just started hailing. As soon as it stops I’m packing like a crazy woman ;).