We decided to take the steam train for it’s 20 mile round trip journey between Hill City to Keystone and back. The train was built to service the small mines between the two towns, bringing people and supplies and removing ore, taking it back to the main line in Hill City for transport out. We lucked out and happened to buy tickets on a pretty cool day. There are 3 steam engines in use in the USA that are similar, 2x6x6x2 (2 pony wheels, 6 drivers, 6 drivers, 2 pony wheels) with some other technical terms 🙂 This company has two of them and this was the first time they’ve ever run them together. The passenger cars came from all over, but were refurbished using period colors, stained glass, and 14 different kinds of woods, to keep them as period-correct as they could. There were train enthusiasts everywhere with special photo ops, people following the train and setting up at all of the 20 road crossings, buzz about the editor of Trains magazine being there, and a special event following the trip (we skipped the event). Because of the extra activities, the normal one hour, one way trip took us 2 hours on the way to Keystone, limiting our “layover”, so we were glad that we spent some time in the town the day before. I can’t figure out how to make video compatible with this site, so I can’t share the whistle sound, which was very cool. Also, we learned about the signal, the whistle sounds 2 long – 1 short – 1 long when signaling right-of-way as they come to a road crossing. This is Morse code for “Q”, taken from when the Queen of England traveled by steamship, the steamship blew the same code to signal that the Queen was on board and they have the right-of-way. Along the rails we saw old Morse code poles, that carried the wires, some deer, and old mining buildings. We ended the day with a burger at the Bumping Buffalo. Britt had a good day too, she got a hair cut/color.

We got settled in Custer’s Gulch Campground then took a drive. We found a couple more of the tunnels in Custer State Park then headed to the nearby town of Keystone, where we found Dahl’s chain saw art. Pretty chill day, just wandered around a bit and headed home.

First, Happy Birthday to Jim! He sacrificed his birthday to travel to our next destination, SD. On the way we stopped at Devil’s Tower, a huge … rock, for lack of a better word. It’s cool and massive, but my favorite part was the info plaque that gave 3 explanations for how it came to exist and said that we’ll never know. I thought that was pretty awesome. I have to add that the pics are not adjusted in any way – they look fake to me, but I took them and I didn’t adjust them at all. We did the ~2.5 mile trail (the pics below are from the walk around the tower) before finishing our trip to Custer’s Gulch RV park in Custer, SD. On 10/1, we did a little exploring in Custer State Park, driving the Needles Highway and the Wildlife Loop. Again, our luck held true, the approximately 1,400 head of bison who call this place home, were rounded up LAST weekend for their annual health check up. We found them, penned, on a hill on Wildlife Loop, but we were lucky enough to find a couple fugitives who escaped captivity. We were able to see a couple bison, some pronghorns, burros and some deer – along with some amazing scenery. I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t this. The rock mix is quartz, feldspar and mica in granite….everything shimmers. Also, I’ve quickly come to love the combo of quakies and pines. Gorgeous.

We headed for Red Lodge, MT to drive the Beartooth Highway in south central Montana, a couple hours past Bozeman. As we have come to expect, things didn’t go the way we planned, for one, road construction in Montana is an interesting thing. They completely tear the road out for miles… you’re on dirt/gravel/potholes, on a highway. I’ve never seen highway construction done like this, we encountered it on the way to get the truck, and again for about 20 miles on this trip. When we go there, the Hwy was closed at the Wyoming border (Wy. didn’t feel like plowing the roads after last weekend’s snow). From the campground (Perry’s RV and campground – who does NOT have full hookups, regardless of what they say on the phone, but we did enjoy the site right on Rock Creek), we spent a little time in Custer-Gallatin National Forest, then were able to travel about 20 miles of the Beartooth before hitting the roadblock. We parked there and walked 3 miles in, far enough to hit some switchbacks and get to an amazing vantage point. It was pretty cool, being able to walk up the middle of the road, hearing the groan of the snow measuring sticks against the railings, and enjoying the fresh (COLD) wind. We then headed to the Absorka-Beartooth Wilderness area, right off the highway and drove about 20 miles of dirt roads, with stunning views around every bend. Dinner at a couple local places, LaPalmita and Bogarts (highly recommend the margaritas), was awesome. I’m really going to miss Montana – we’re going to have to come back. We could easily spend a summer in this part of the state and never get bored.

Last couple weeks were spent saying see-ya to Workampers, enrolling Tiffin in AA, getting the rig ready to move after 5 months of sitting still, and seeing Britt graduate from the Air Force Basic Military Training (virtually). Once she got her phone back, we were able to video conference with her, Ash, and M – and have a little fun w/ the filters.

The Avalanche Lake trail has been closed due to bear activity, so we were really excited when it was opened again! We got there early enough that we had to wait in the car until it was light enough to see the trail. It’s about 6 miles round trip and well worth it. A family of deer wandered around us for a little while, until the fawns went up the hill and the mom went down. We waited while they called to each other and the fawns finally crossed the path to follow the mom. It was another gorgeous area of GNP, next time we come, we’ll try to get there earlier in the year when the waterfalls would be more full. Smoke from wildfires moved in, in the afternoon, so we were very lucky we got to go when we did.

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We wanted to hike to Avalanche Lake, but the road was closed just before the Trailhead and there was no parking. We turned around and decided to hike the St. Johns Lake loop, which takes you around McDonald Falls. It was a flat easy hike, so we went back, got the dog, and took her for a hike up Lion Mountain. Though we’d been there before, it’s a couple miles with slight elevation gain. The difference in the lake was significant vs. the last time we saw it.

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Both trails have been closed for about a month due to bear activity. We got up at 5 am, layered up and headed out. We totally overdid it, we hiked about 11 miles and Jim hurt his knee again. We felt so good after the ~4 miles at Hidden Lake that we figured we’d go a couple miles on the Highline. The Highline is about 11.5 mile each way from Logan Pass to the Loop. People often go from Logan to the Loop and take the bus back up, but busses aren’t running this year, so we hiked just past the Haystack and then headed back. The pic where Jim is pointing up, is him showing me where the truck is parked 🙂

The hike was great and took us to an overview of Whitefish and Whitefish Lake (Nickel was not very impressed with the view). The fair was slimmed down from the usual version and was made up entirely of 4-H animal and plant entries. It was really cool to see the young girls out there pushing cows around and sitting in the corrals with their animals making sure they were eating their dinners. We watched a teenage boy milking a cow and talked to another who was in with the miniature horses. The rodeo was awesome and started with kids riding sheep. The 6 year old who rode his sheep backwards ended up winning. This is the kind of rodeo I miss, cow roping, bronc riding and bull riding. Halftime was a 12 year old Blackfeet Fancy Dancer who has won world champions.

We took a full day horseback ride through Swan Mountain Outfitters and went up to the Sperry Chalet. Starting in Glacier, it was about 12 miles round trip with a 3,500 foot elevation gain. Jim’s horse was “Sledge” and I rode with “Maybe”. The views from the top were stunning, we could see rows upon rows of mountains, McDonald Lake, and some very friendly chipmunks. We do not have many pictures because the safety conscious guide forbade it and was very, very vigilant in ensuring we kept the rules. A couple days later we took Nickel on a hike in Whitefish.

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