Miles: 100
Hours: 10
States: Montana
Lessons learned: Arch support is critical for heel comfort. Don't judge a book by it's cover. When someone from Montana tells you something is twenty minutes away they're probably assuming you're traveling about 90 miles an hour.
Memories:
Danny: Watching the Black Hole Video; in the really small parts of the Lewis and Clark Caves where Dad could barely fit through when we took our pictures in front of the T-Rex skeleton (Montana Mike), the chocolate exhibit at the museum
Grace: When we were in the Lewis and Clarke Caves and I saw the bats, the Beaver Slide in Lewis and Clarke Caves, the rock formation in the caves that looks like an ice cream sundae, the rock formation in the caves that toppled over
Therese: The drive from our hotel to Bozeman, the scenery on the walk to the cave
Gordon: Watching the restaurant umbrella fly above the roof,
After seeing the small coffee/tea area at our hotel last night I was bracing myself for cold cereal and white flour muffins for breakfast. But surprise, surprise, breakfast was served in the restaurant on real plates. Many good hot choices and actual whole grain cereal.
On the way back to our room I struck up a conversation with the hotel manager and told her we were planning to go to Chico Hot Springs and the Dinosaur Museum in Bozeman. She said Chico Hot Springs is a resort with a pool fed by the hot springs. It's a regular concrete swimming pool. It's quite spectacular in the winter and really nice in the evenings but she didn't think our kids would find it terribly interesting. She suggested we go about 20 minutes past Bozeman to the Lewis and Clarke Caverns. They are in a state park and include a two hour guided tour of the caves. It turned out to be about 40 minutes outside of Bozeman but worth every minute of the journey.
I'll let the pictures tell the story of the beautiful cave formations.
We hiked up a paved but very steep trail for about 20 minutes to get to the entrance of the cave. We then walked down about 500 feet as we toured the cave. At one point we were 250 feet under ground and a mile above sea level: pretty cool - - actually a consistent 48 degrees cool. There were many areas where we had to waddle under low ceilings which made the experience all the more exciting. Our guide had great stories and we learned a lot. Many thanks to the "CCC Boys" as our guide referred to them, for developing such a beautiful natural resource.
After we left the cave we drove down the mountain a bit and picnicked on a beautiful overlook.
Just before the turn off back to Bozeman was a huge flour mill and bakery. Naturally we couldn't resist and came out of there with bread, pancake mix and pastries for later.
Across the parking lot from the bakery was a small farmstand selling "Flathead" cherries which are not flat but come from a place in Montana called Flathead. They were delicious. Of course we bought some.
Our next stop, after an hour's drive was Bozeman and the Museum of the Rockies. This museum is actually part of the University of Montana and many of the exhibits are also research projects in progress. The Museum included a Planetarium with a cool movie about black holes. Lucky for us, the museum stayed open until 8:00 pm because our day in the caves was long and we made it to Bozeman at about 4:30.
While at the museum we ran into a couple who was also on the cave tour with us. They live about 100 miles from Bozeman and had many tips for camping in Yellowstone. They also pointed us in the direction of a nice grocery store for our camping shopping.
We had dinner at "Roost", a restaurant the hotel manager had recommended. I've been eating healthy food for the most part, but the fried chicken on a stick with a biscuit stuck on one end was too tempting!
After a grocery shopping expedition we made the half-hour drive back to our hotel. Gordon and the kids played pool in the bar downstairs and I pulled together groceries.
Grace and I bought Danny birthday cake, candles, etc. on the QT and we plan to surprise him at breakfast by bringing it into the dining room and singing to him.
Time for me to sign off. We are getting up around 5:45 tomorrow morning and packing up. We hope to be on the road to Yellowstone by 6:30. We will secure a campsite and then see some sights before we can set up camp after the previous occupants leave.
I believe cell service and wifi is pretty much nonexistent in the park so you may not hear from us for a few days. We will emerge with many tales to tell on Friday.
It should be interesting as rain is expected on Wednesday and Thursday: the only two days of rain in the forecast for the foreseeable future.
But the weather is supposed to be unpredictable in Yellowstone so maybe we'll be pleasantly surprised.
The last photo is from our drive home from Bozeman. As we got close to Livingston we could see the rain over the mountains. After the rain came a beautiful, wide rainbow. It appeared to end right in Yellowstone or so we'd like to think.
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