State of Montana

Montana has the largest migratory elk herd in the nation. 

The state boasts the largest breeding population of trumpeter swans in the lower United States.

North of Missoula is the largest population of nesting common loons in the western United States.

The average square mile of land contains 1.4 elk, 1.4 pronghorn antelope, and 3.3 deer.

The Freezeout Lake Wildlife Management Area contains as many as 300,000 snow geese and 10,000 tundra swans during migration.

At Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge it is possible to see up to 1,700 nesting pelicans.

The Montana Yogo Sapphire is the only North American gem to be included in the Crown Jewels of England.

In 1888 Helena had more millionaires per capita than any other city in the world.

46 out of Montana's 56 counties are considered "frontier counties" with an average population of 6 or fewer people per square mile.

At Egg Mountain near Choteau dinosaur eggs have been discovered supporting the theory some dinosaurs were more like mammals and birds than like reptiles.

Montana is the only state with a triple divide allowing water to flow into the Pacific, Atlantic, and Hudson Bay. This phenomenon occurs at Triple Divide Peak in Glacier National Park.

No state has as many different species of mammals as Montana.

The moose, now numbering over 8,000 in Montana, was thought to be extinct in the Rockies south of Canada in the 1900s.

Flathead Lake in northwest Montana contains over 200 square miles of water and 185 miles of shoreline. It is considered the largest natural freshwater lake in the west.

Miles City is known as the Cowboy Capitol.

Yellowstone National Park in southern Montana and northern Wyoming was the first national park in the nation.

Montana has the largest grizzly bear population in the lower 48 states.

Virginia City was founded in 1863 and is considered to be the most complete original town of its kind in the United States.

Montana is nicknamed the Treasure State.


The Bitterroot is the official state flower.

The highest point in the state is Granite Peak at 12,799 feet

Montana's rivers and streams provide water for three oceans and three of the North American continent's major river basins.

The western meadowlark is the official state bird.

The first inhabitants of Montana were the Plains Indians.

Montana is home to seven Indian reservations.

Every spring nearly 10,000 white pelicans with a wingspan of nine feet migrate from the Gulf of
Mexico to Medicine Lake in northeastern Montana.

The Going to the Sun Road in Glacier Park is considered one of the most scenic drives in America.

The state's official animal is the grizzly bear.

The state's motto Oro y Plata means gold and silver.

Montana's name comes from the Spanish word mountain.

In Montana, the elk, deer and antelope populations outnumber the humans.

Hill County has the largest county park in the United States. Beaver Creek Park measures 10 miles long and 1 mile wide.

Competing with the D River in Lincoln City, Oregon for the title of the world's shortest river, the Roe River flows near Great Falls. Both rivers lengths vary from 58 feet to 200 feet. The source for this small river is Giant Springs, the largest freshwater spring in the United States.

Montana

Flathead Lake

NASA's Apollo Astronauts learned basic volcanic geology here in 1969 as they prepared for their moon missions

 Montana has trees, cattle, mountains, lakes .... and a lot more casinos than I would have expected.  Also, badly maintained roads - about what I expected to find in Alaska, so it must be a combination of weather and budget for infrastructure like more states.

The Berkeley Pit is a former open pit copper mine located in Butte, Montana. It is one mile long by half a mile wide with an approximate depth of 1,780 feet. It is filled to a depth of about 900 feet with water that is heavily acidic, about the acidity of cola or lemon juice.

While the Granite Mountain / Speculator Mine Fire was the worst disaster in metal mining history, the rescue mission was a remarkable accomplishment. Rescue crews succeeded in searching over 30 miles of drifts and crosscuts, and at least 15 miles of stopes, raises, and manways. Townspeople turned out in droves to help in whatever way possible. This was done in just over 7 days, in an environment saturated with carbon monoxide and dense, tar-laden smoke. 155 bodies were recovered and removed, all without the loss of a single rescue worker.

Museum of the Rockies at Montana State University is a Smithsonian Affiliate, recognized as one of the world's finest research and history museums. It is renowned for displaying an extensive collection of dinosaur fossils, including a T. rex skeleton!

The Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman gained fame through the work of its chief paleontologist, Jack Horner. Horner was the prototype for the character Dr. Alan Grant in the best selling novel/movie, "Jurassic Park."

Malad Gorge

Balanced Rock

Great Northern Carousel

The Great Northern Carousel is a modern hand built menagerie carousel reminiscent of the splendid, turn-of-the-century carousels.  Unfortunately, it was closed for repairs and there was only one window that was uncovered.

Most of the 37 animals and one chariot were hand-carved by Ed Roth of Long Beach, California, and hand painted by Bette Largent of Spokane, Washington.  And, local artist Mary Harris created the original glass artwork depicting Helena area landmarks and scenery on the Carousel rounding boards.

Besides the traditional horses, frogs, and rabbits, there is native Montana wildlife such as an antelope, a grizzly bear, a bobcat, and even a cutthroat trout!

An estimated 50 million bison roamed the American prairies, but hunters reduced their numbers so drastically that by 1900 fewer than 100 were known to exist in the wild.

With a population maintained at around 370 head, bison roam the 18,541 acres of this national wildlife refuge in a landscape of steeply rolling hills and riparian areas along the Jocko River and Mission Creek, an area reminiscent of their habitat more than a hundred years ago.

Grant-Kohrs Ranch

In the 1850s a Canadian fur trapper named Johnny Grant abandoned his trap lines and started raising cattle in Montana.  By 1866, when he sold his ranch to Conrad Kohrs, he had 2,000 cattle and the finest house in the state.  Kohrs became one of the great cattle barons of the American West.

Big Hole National Battlefield

The Cathedral of Helena is in the same block as two other denomination churches.  I image that causes quite the traffic jam on Sundays and Holy days.

The town of Libby has a "thing" for eagles; there are murals, carvings, statues, etc. everywhere you look.

Travelers' Rest

This campsite, used by Native Americans over thousands of years, was also the campsite of Lewis and Clark in 1805 and 1806.  They called a nearby creek Travelers' Rest.  It is the only site on the Lewis & Clark Trail with enough physical evidence to prove the location of the explorers' encampments.

Leaving Nevada

Berlin-Ichthyosaurus State Park - This 1,153-acre park is an unusual combination ghost town and fossil exhibit, located just outside of Gabbs.  Thirteen buildings make up the ghost town of Berlin (occupied from 1864-1911).  Fossil remains of the prehistoric ichthyosaurus, 40-ton "fish lizards," which became extinct 70 million years ago, are on display.

I wish I had taken this trip in the Jeep because the road was very narrow and the trees scraped my coach.  I finally had to turn around and unhook to continue in the Jeep.

I also had a chance to "finish" my drive on Highway 50.  Although it is named the "Loneliest Road in America," I drove on some highways here in Nevada that I felt deserved the name as well.

Hawthorne, NV - most of this area is owned by the Army and used for demo and dismantling firepower from previous wars.  It is the largest deposit of ammunition in the world.

Hawthorne and Mina sounded a really loud siren at 12:30pm each day.  I was told it was to remind people it was lunchtime. They also "blow" it in case of fire.

Delightful stop at the California Trail Interpretive Center.  They have done a good job of interactive exhibits and historic demonstrations.  The displays start in Missouri and end, of course, in California.  Traveling around in my "covered wagon" I'm sure I've mentioned how fascinated I am with the wagon trains and what a journey that must have been!

Some of the "boots" in Elko and the saddest Polar Bear I've ever seen

There have been several days of high wind warnings in the area so I tried to stay "put" as much as possible, although I don't seem to have as much trouble driving my coach in the wind as others report on the FB groups.  I try to be sensible, however.  Today, a combination of rain and snow was predicted, but what I got was hail most of the day, which I suppose is a combination of the two.

Since snow was in the forecast and the Ruby Valley involved crossing the Ruby Mountains, I decided to wait for better weather .... which was today.  This was the road -


The highest peak of the Ruby Mountains, Ruby Dome is 11,387 ft.  There are 10 peaks above 10,000 ft. and dozens of alpine lakes.

- so I turned around and drove around the mountains to do the Lamoille Canyon Scenic Byway, which also was closed (8,784 ft)

Lamoille Canyon is nestled within the Ruby Mountains (yes, they were named for the rubies that were found there) and was carved during the Ice Age.  It is often referred to as the Yosemite of Nevada.



Here in Elko, I am close to the Geographic Center of Nevada.

The highest elevation in Nevada at 13,142 ft.

Nevada has been beautiful and surprising; surprising in that I didn't realize how mountainous it is.  I don't think I ever got lower than 3,000 feet, although I probably did in the southern part of the state. Every time I felt like I was in the "bowl" and at sea level, I actually wasn't.  I am not exaggerating when I say this is the most frequent road sign in the state (along with a cow on it because of the open ranges).

I have been snowed upon with temperatures in the low 20s; I have had sun and 85 degrees, hail, rain, dust storms, and high wind warnings.

Unfortunately, I did not track my mileage, but I have definitely earned my state sticker!

and now I'm in Idaho

I'm trying to visit all the National Parks I can as I head north, hence the round-about route.

The Perrine Bridge over the Snake River

Shoshone Falls - cascading 212 feet from the rim of the canyon; the falls are actually taller than Niagara Falls

 The Stricker Rock Creek Station was "the first trading post on the Oregon Trail, west of Fort Hall". The station served many purposes for settlers traveling west, such as trading post, dance hall, post office, and a meeting place.

 After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor ushered the United States into World War II, more than 120,000 Japanese Americans living on the West Coast were forcibly relocated to isolated internment camps like Minidoka in the hinterlands of the western states. Internees from Alaska, Oregon, and Washington approximately 13,000 of them - were assigned to the Minidoka camp in southern Idaho. Although little remains of the camp today, save for the ruins of the entry guard station and waiting room and the remains of a rock garden once tended by residents, the site stands as a monument to the sacrifices and spirit of the Japanese Americans who were held there for the duration of the war

 The largest concentration of Hagerman Horse (Equus simplicidens) fossils in North America - 30 complete horse fossils and portions of 200 individual horses. Internationally significant Monument protects the world's richest late Pliocene epoch (3 - 4 mya) fossil deposits: over 220 species of plants and animals!

I always get a little excited when I'm on the actual Oregon and California Trails.  History isn't usually "my thing," but what fascinates me about this history is the people and their stories and the work it took to make this six-month journey; the stamina and determination.  I drive the trail in my covered wagon with my diesel engine and I can't imagine walking or driving oxen pulling a wagon over some of the terrains I cover with minimum effort.  They actually had to pull the wagons up a mountain by a rope by hand or put logs or chains in the wheels to slow them down on the decline, not to even touch upon the hardships they suffered.

Another thing that hits home while I explore these monuments .... today society is appalled with any "hard work" as being inhumane ... but the work by the Irish and Chinese to build that railroad, or the immigrants heading West, or even the slaves of the South ... begs the question of how any human could endure such physical labor.  It is just unimaginable.

Entering and leaving Utah (I just "hit" a corner of the state)

Bad picture of the Utah/Nevada border crossing

 Bonneville Salt Flats International Speedway

 The Wendover Will sign was created in 1952, as a welcoming sign for the Stateline Casino. It was given to the city of West Wendover around the late 1900s and became the "World's Largest Mechanical Cowboy" at 63 ft. tall.

Because of all the rain, the Salt Flats were flooded; the water came to within inches of clearing the highway in places.

 ATK Thiokol Rocket Garden

Golden Spike National Historic Site -  May 10, 1869 the Union and Central Pacific Railroads joined their rails at Promontory Summit. Golden Spike National Historic Site commemorates this incredible accomplishment of this nation's first transcontinental railroad.








Over 200,000 emigrants followed the California Tail through City of Rocks, a name coined by James F. Wilkins.  Weary by the time they arrived, they rested, grazed stocks and left their names and messages on the rocks.

City of Rocks is internationally renowned for rock climbing