Miles City, Bozeman, & Missoula, MT

Miles City/Makoshika State Park

(Sat July 20 – Sun July 21)

We chose Miles City because it was a good halfway point between Bismark, ND and Bozeman, MT. In--or near--Miles City, we stayed at Makoshika State Park, pictured above. Just like in Bismark, we only stayed one night. In Bismark, we stayed at a nice but otherwise uninteresting KOA. Makoshika State Park, on the other hand, is pretty amazing and we regretted not being able to spend more time there in our westward rush to Glacier National Park.

It should be noted that, on the way to Miles City from Bismarck, North Dakota we saw Salem Sue on a distant hill to our left. The picture below is linked from http://wwwbjtravels.blogspot.com/2011/07/mt-to-bismarck-nd-roadside-scenery.html because we felt we didn't have time to stop.

And we also saw...something. Something disturbing...

That's just what it looks like, a Giant Baby chasing a life-size rhino, bison, and velociraptor. There's more information here: https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/49316

Makoshika State Park was badland, “bad earth” in the local Native American language. Dorian and I were simultaneously struck that there weren’t flash flood warnings in the Cap Rock trail canyon – must be the highest ground around and therefore not an issue—or so we comforted ourselves. What appeared to be sedimentary rock contained hardened human shoe prints. This is quite a discovery! Early hominids had hiking boots! Or it was just really hard, really dry mud. We favor the former theory.

The metal-printed exhibit showing the geological layers of earth along with a timeline was unusual in that it was actually easy to match up the picture with the landscape in front of us. That may be a personal first for one of these interpretive exhibits. Usually, one is left looking at the picture and straining to pick out the actual object from the scene. For example, after viewing the picture and the hillside itself, we can now identify coal seams with some confidence. Speaking of coal, an exhibit in the Teddy Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota said that the orange patches of earth there were due to coal burning underground and baking the clay. The coal fires start with lightening, so sayeth the National Park Elders, or whoever writ those wisdomy words.

Consider the lilies of the field, my dear Pippi...

This scene is Cap Rock Trail, at the top of Makoshika State Park and up a very steep road. Tent camping was possible up there, but I don't think trailers were allowed in that area.

It is likely not obvious here, but the layers in the park's exhibit were easy to match against the layers what we were able to see.

Billings, Montana

(Sunday July 21 – Tues July 23)

We stayed at a KOA—the very first KOA ever, in fact. It ran alongside the Yellowstone River (picture of Dorian & Pippi). A note on KOAs – we initially began our travels kinda looking down our noses at KOAs, but we have come to appreciate a standardization that helps us gauge our expectations – yes we’ll be crowded in a sardine line-up, but there will be laundry facilities and sometimes fantastic washrooms/showers and decent landscaping, as was the case with this one.

At nearby Pictograph Cave State Park, we pretended to see cave wall drawings that the Crow believed were produced by spirits (giving the site the Crow name “Where There is Ghost Writing”). The pictures were so faded as to be the true ghosts, at this point. The exhibit blamed air pollution without actually admitting that they were no longer visible. A helpful ranger there directed us to his favorite local watering hole, the Last Chance Pub & Cider Mill (https://lastchancecider.com), where we enjoyed his recommendation – Bent Nail IPA brewed in nearby Red Lodge, MT.

Pippi chases the Yellowstone River in Billings, Montana (and she almost caught it, too)

BOZEMAN MT

(Tues July 23 – Thurs July 25)

In Bozeman, we stayed at what used to be a KOA but, perhaps yearning for the freedom from franchise constraints, was under new management. Ramona was working a lot during this period, so our big outing was to the headwaters of the Missouri River, which at 2341 miles is arguably the longest river in the US (debated hotly by Mississippi River riparian advocates) followed by a visit to the Bozeman Taproom, where Pippi was welcomed on patio.

MISSOULA MT

(Thursday July 25 – Sat July 27)

Ramona was working and doesn’t remember anything about Missoula itself. However en route from Missoula to Kalispell, we stopped at the National Bison Range in Charlo, MT where we hiked a bit, saw bison, and took photos of this accommodating tiger swallowtail butterfly.

Montana is fabulously beautiful, and any of the places we stayed (and those we didn’t!) deserve a closer, longer look …. But we were moving through Montana at a good clip to Kalispell, where we joined our friend Lisa at the Glacier National Park International Airport and set out to explore the park.

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