Leaving Glacier and Visiting Missoula and Beyond

Yesterday we drove the entire length of the Going to the Sun Road and it was so beautiful.  Because we traveled at 8:00 in the morning there was very little traffic.  The morning light on the mountains was wonderful and we watched the mist rise up and drift away as the sun warmed the mountain valleys.

We stopped to photograph Lake Macdonald and drove by Macdonald Lodge – we didn’t think it was quite as nice or elegant as the Glacier Park Lodge, but there seemed to be a nice campground on the lakeshore.

We drove on to see Whitefish and Kallispell admiring the charm and vitality of both towns, but we headed on toward Missoula so we would have a good starting point for visiting a ghost town.  Missoula is a college town with an awesome Old Town area and lots of friendly people.  We ate dinner at the Iron Horse Brew Pub and our waitress, Amanda, told us that her family was from Michigan in the Gaylord area.  She has lived in Montana for many years now and finds it odd when they come back to visit family in Michigan to find herself surrounded (actually she said closed in) by trees.  The “Big Sky” concept gets into people and they feel too closed in when they are in the heavily treed areas of Michigan.  I love the open spaces and blue sky that we have found here, but I would miss the lush green-ness of my home state.

When we left Missoula this morning we headed out on state highway 200 for about 30 miles.  We turned into an “experimental forest” (It looked just like a real forest but there were lots of people working on different projects.) and drove down a road that became a gravel road for another 12 miles to get to Garnet, Montana’s best preserved ghost town.  Garnet was settled in 1898 and the population ballooned to over a thousand.  By 1905 the gold was gone and the population had shrunk to 150!

It was so interesting to see that a whole, small town had been built to accommodate the miners.  This town prided itself on having a family atmosphere instead of having a lawless-men-and-brothels culture.  They even built a school.  Mining tried to come back twice to Garnet but was unsuccessful both times.  Now the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management are working to preserve, but not improve, the buildings that remain.  It was a snapshot of history – interesting, sad, and telling of our history.

 Garnet Hotel

 Hotel Kitchen

 General Store - origin of DSW?

 Jail

We left Garnet and I asked Dennis which way he wanted to go back to I-90 – back the way we came or onto 200 east.  He opted for 200 east.  We drove and drove through cattle ranges and open country.  There were no towns, no stop signs, and, worst of all, no gas stations.  We had passed a gas station on 200 on the way to Garnet and Dennis said, “We still have a quarter of a tank.  We’ll get gas later.”  We had agreed at the beginning of the trip that we would fill the tank whenever it reached a quarter, but there is no arguing with someone who knows what he wants.

Dennis asked when we would get to a town and I said that Avon was a few miles away.  He said we would get gas there, but there was nothing there but a few houses.  He asked when we would get to the next town.  I asked how low we were and how many miles we had on the current tank.  We usually fill up around 400 miles.  We were below  a quarter tank and had more than 430 miles on this tank!  But Dennis noted that the empty tank light had not yet come on.

The nearest town was 11 miles (no gas station) and then we had another 14 miles on I-90 before we reached a town of any size.  The town was Deer Lodge.  Fortunately, there were gas stations at the first exit.  We filled up with 17.3 gallons at 473 miles on the tank and Dennis promised that we would fill up at the quarter tank mark for the rest of our journey (which will often take us through empty land).

We arrived in Butte around 3:00 and found the bed and breakfast that we are staying at tonight.  It is a large brick house on the outskirts of town operated by a nice couple that really enjoy company.  The room is beautiful and we have access to a sitting room and a small private patio.  Our host recommended a restaurant called Casagranda Steakhouse in the old section of downtown Butte and it was excellent!  We feel fortunate in our travels and our lodging and our restaurant choices.  Sometimes the unexpected is delightful.