We started the day in Montana. We ended the day in Montana. Montana is a big state. Kind of like Texas, but without the big hats.
This morning we did some exploring of the unknown spot we camped overnight in. It turns out to be a nice little park just off I-94 and right next to the Yellowstone River. During our walk we discovered that there seem to be a number of people who camp out right on the water’s edge. Two minivans were parked within a couple feet of the water and there was additional space on either side of the boat launch where people had obviously stayed. A sign on the boat launch warned people not to park in the boat launch but said nothing of the areas on the river on either side of the boat launch. What a cool place to camp. For future reference, if we are ever by this way again, the GPS coordinates are 40*30’13”N, 105*44’7”W.
It turns out that the place where we had parked for the night was the parking lot for the picnic area, the camping area was a large grassy field on the other side of the access road. Not that anyone knew or cared. We were the only ones there.
That's me in the lower right corner
Today was going to be mostly a travel day, but since I have traveled this route a few times before, we decided to do something a little different . We left I-94 at Forsyth, taking US-12 instead. This route is listed as scenic in the atlas for the entire distance until it rejoins with I-90, nearly 300 miles west. We topped up with fuel in Forsyth, not knowing when the next station would be and fully expecting it to be more expensive.
US-12 also has special significance as I grew up on US-12. I think it would be cool to take a road trip along its entire length, from Detroit, Michigan to Aberdeen, Washington. On this trip, we’ll take this section, and then we’ll take the section that goes over Lolo Pass into Idaho tomorrow. That section is a favorite for motorcyclists as it has 99 miles of curves.
And so on US-12 we went. I’m sure that different people have different ideas of what ‘scenic’ means. The editors of the Rand McNally Atlas probably never drove this section of road. It was scenic, in a brown, dusty, dry, desolate, empty sort of way. Nevada Highway 50 is known as the loneliest road in America. I think the eastern portion of this road could be some serious competition for that title.
On two-lane roads, there’s always the frustration of a slower vehicle in front of you. Driving an RV, I was that vehicle many times. The speed limit on this road is 70 miles per hour, and I was struggling to do 65 or even 60 because of a severe headwind which made driving challenging. It buffeted the RV wildly at times, threatening to push me off the narrow road. That would have made for a bad day, as there is no cell service out here and very little traffic. We could probably sit by the side of the road for hours.
And that's about all that happens around here. Cattle ranching. Any human habitation is usually marked by a couple buildings, several big piles of hay bales, and fences. The only exception to this was the Martinsdale Colony, a Huttterite communal living community near Martinsdale. It was marked by s surprisingly large collection of buildings, several wind turbines on a nearby ridge, and a small sign by the road that advertised Produce for Sale.
We stopped in the very desolate little town of Melstone for lunch, parking by the side of one of their gravel streets. All the streets were gravel. The only paved area in this town besides the highway was the parking lot of the post office.
US-12 follows the Musselshell River for quite a ways and that provided the only breakup of the landscape, as there were large cottonwood trees along the river. The cottonwood trees were displaying their finest fall yellow color, which made for a beautiful relief to an otherwise desolate area.
My dad and mom used to drive to Michigan in the fall after the farm work was all done. They would load up in his pickup truck and drive for hours without stopping. They could be at our house in three days.
We’re not that way. We enjoy taking in the sights, stopping at whatever interests us, and doing what some call “slow travel”. In this area, there’s not that much to see, but the constant battling of the wind on a narrow road does make one tired so we stopped in the town of Harlowtown, which has a city park, parked the RV under a shade tree in the park, and took a nap. We also took a short walk to help clear the head before hitting the road again.
We stopped in White Sulphur Springs for dinner and to fuel up. Fuel mileage was terrible due to the headwind and we didn’t make it to Helena as I had estimated. We discovered the little gas grill that we had along wasn’t working right, so we fried the burgers in a pan for dinner. I’ll have to figure out the grill thing fairly soon. Several meals depend on it.
The section of US-12 between White Sulphur Springs and Helena is drop-dead gorgeous. Snaking through a narrow canyon alongside a small stream, it goes up an over a mountain pass through the Little Belt Mountains. We enjoyed this section in the increasing twilight, arriving in Helena just as it got dark.
Deb spotted a US Forest Service dispersed camping area about 30 miles west of Helena and that became our target for the evening. So we did MacDonald Pass in the darkness, climbing to 6312 feet and then coming back down to our present elevation of 5292 feet. (Aren’t smartphones great? They even can tell you your elevation!). The forest service road was extremely difficult to find in the dark, and the instructions that Deb found said it was between the tavern and the gas station in Elliston. Indeed, a little gravel drive between the two buildings, barely wide enough for our RV, showed up as soon as we pointed the headlights in that direction. We found a campsite beside the one-lane forest service road and stopped for the night, not really knowing what’s around us. May be worth a drone flight in the morning, just to find out.
356 miles covered today.
No comments:
Post a Comment