Great Falls to Livingston

I awoke in Great Falls to the sounds of the city and the campground stirring. I struck camp and in the process got to know my neighbor Wayne some more. As I posted in "I'm back" he and his wife gave me good recommendations for places to check out in town and on my way south.

I cleaned up in the campground showers, which were decent enough. I decided to check out the Interpretive Center first. Located on the Missouri between two of the "falls" that have since been dammed, the Center has some really interesting exhibits and presentations. I sat in on a talk about the diplomacy of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and how we as a country mucked it up afterward. I then walked through the exhibit hall and educated myself in all things Lewis and Clark. Turns out I would be traversing many of the paths they took during their travels.

After the Center I struck out to find these Great Falls that the city is named after. Ours here in Virginia are pretty easy to find and pretty "great". Apparently, there are five falls that once were located in the vicinity of the town that grew up around them. Many of them have been dammed which is, thanks to the hydroelectric power generated by the dams, Great Falls, Montana is known as Electric City.

I did find three of the sets of falls, two of which had been dammed.

One necessity on a road trip like this is a bottle of Windex. My windshield was almost opaque at the end of the day.

Pretty sweet set up in the RV park.

Ashley and I could start our own University of Great Falls, Va.

This is Rainbow Falls. Downstream around the bend to the left of the picture is Crooked Falls. Somewhere way, way downstream is The Great Falls apparently. I didn't get to them.

You can see the falls or the rock face that creates the falls just downstream of the dam.

Just visible is the flexible rubber bladder that tops the dam and regulates the water surges over the dam's top. It was pretty cool to watch as there would be pour overs every couple of seconds.

This is Black Eagle Falls closer to down town Great Falls.

Along the River Trail there was this caboose and a box car that looked like they had been renovated in to a bathroom. Pretty cool idea. They should do this on the WO&D.

After checking out the Falls, I found Great Falls Fire Department's Fire Station 1. Capt. Joe Russell and BC Steve Gonser gave me a grand tour. Pretty cool department.

Remember, this is out West so it's a Tender.

Nice monitor mounted on a pick up for use at large industrial type fires.

Their jet boat. Similarly the western Great Falls has issues with incidents along the River.

The BC's buggy.

This is looking back at Dick's RV park, which is behind the trees in the center of the picture. The hill in the background is the Great Falls International Airport which also houses the Montana Air National Guard's Air Wing. Their jet takeoffs were pretty loud, and close by.

After being OnManeuvers in the western Great Falls, I chose to follow Wayne and his wife's advice and headed south on I15 towards Gates of the Mountains. About 45 minutes north of Helena, it's a nice area for boating up the Missouri, seeing the rock formations that Lewis and Clark found formidable as well as Mann Gulch, the site of a wildland firefighting tragedy in 1949. When I got there though, I found out that the boat returning to the dock was the last tour for the day. After overhearing some of the passengers complaining about the heat on the tour, it sounds like saving this for a later trip is the better idea.

I turned southwest and headed towards Livingston. My attempt to take a back road nearly backfired when my odometer/speedometer crapped out (VSS for you Rover peeps) and I got low on gas. I passed through some really cool towns like Wilsall and Clyde Park, MT. I really want to go back and check out the Bank Bar in Wilsall. Luckily I did find a gas station in Clyde Park and made it back in to Livingston just fine.

An interesting modern house on Rt. 12 east of Canyon Ferry Lake in the mountains.

So, I did a little research on this mega load and you should read this article. Hard to believe it was on Rt. 12 going over the mountain, eventually to Billings.

Church near Ringling, MT.

Old, still active?, school house near Ringling, MT.

Rt. 89 down the valley towards Wilsall and Clyde Park is very scenic but I was a little focused on not running out of gas. Luckily it worked out, so I'll have to get back there and check the area out. I got in to Livingston before dark and met up with the BCDS ranch crew for dinner at the Rib and Chop House. I had a pretty good cedar plank salmon with their awesome baked potato, although the cedar plank was still flaming, yes visible flames, when they brought it out on the tray. Appropriate for the firefighter though.

Over dinner, Andreas suggested we go on a mountain bike ride the next day. Stay tuned for pics from that epic ride.