Travel Day #2

We didn’t really get much farther East today, but that’s because of a couple of sights that I had put on the itinerary hoping they’d be pretty interesting.  It ended up being a fantastic day, ending with some unexpected surprises.

We’re all certainly much more in the groove of being on the road and stuck in close quarters with each other, too.  We were all less tired, less stressed, less cranky with each other today – and even happy to help with routine tasks.  Best of all: everyone was well prepared this morning, which gave us plenty of time to make our stops at the sights and still arrive at the campground at an early enough hour to cook some delicious food on our new grill.

The unexpected surprises were a bunch of wildlife treats at/near Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park.  The mule dear on the train tracks, the pelicans, the sand hill cranes (no picture), and the bald eagle were all spotted within the first of the 7-mile side road from the highway to the Lewis & Clark Caverns campground.  The big treat came when Sean asked me to take an after-dinner walk with him on a trail he could see winding up a hillside from our campground.  We let it take us about a mile and a half, and we were rewarded with not only some great sights & photos, but also sounds of what we believed to be elk calling each other (based on the elk calls we’d heard at the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation in Missoula first thing in the morning – what a great little stop that proved to be)!

Otherwise, we did skip The Smokejumpers’ museum this morning, and it was well worth the extra time at the abandoned mining town of Garnet (circa 1890s – 1920s).  I knew Garnet would be a 50 mile detour, but what I didn’t know was that it included 15 miles of dusty, dry, washboard dirt road, and an ascent to an altitude of more than 6,000 feet!  We did fine on the rough road, and really enjoyed the views at a couple of overlooks.

  1. Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation
  2. Smoke Jumpers Visitor Center (skipped)
  3. Garnet Ghost Town
  4. Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park Campground
snow covered mountain near Missoula, MTsnow covered mountain near Missoula, MTbridge near Missoula, MTView from access road to Garnet Ghost Town at approximately 6,000 feetGarnet Ghost Town, MTGarnet Ghost Town, MTGarnet Ghost Town, MTthe road to Lewis and Clark Caverns State Campground; this valley is actual path of their expeditionmule deer near Clark Caverns State Campgroundpelican near Clark Caverns State Campgroundbald eagle near Clark Caverns State Campgroundmule deer near Clark Caverns State Campgrounddoe and fawn mule deer near Clark Caverns State Campgrounddoe and fawn mule deer near Clark Caverns State Campgroundcomplete mule deer family near Clark Caverns State Campgroundmoon disappearing behind the hill - good night!

Published by

Dad (Primary Planner & Driver)

Dad Sides. I might be crazy to buy an RV, take a 5-week vacation, and travel 5,500 miles... but very seldom does great reward come without at least SOME risk... so "here goes nothing!"

2 thoughts on “Travel Day #2”

  1. Very fun to read this. Looking forward to a similar trip in the next few years. We will have to trade notes on your RV buying experience.

  2. I am so excited for all of you and thrilled that you are willing to share your adventure. The pictures are beautiful!

Comments are closed.