After the train ride and Historical Society yesterday, we pulled into the new KOA north of Helena, Montana.
This is a typical cabin you can rent at most KOA’s.But at this KOA, look at this cute little grain silo you can rent. In the background, you can see the mountains surrounding Helena, and that big Montana sky.
Last night we had dinner at the Last Chance Ranch in the Moose Mountain Lodge. It look an hour ride in a school bus to get there, half of that time was on narrow gravel roads. When we arrived, we loaded up into wagons pulled by Bruce’s draft horses and pulled further up the mountain to the Lodge.
Snapper and Velcro.Minnie and Pearl?Bruce, to the right, is introducing his staff and explaining the lodge. He set up a sawmill close by, used his draft horses to pull the lumber to it, and cut all the wood for this lodge and it’s furniture.And as if that wasn’t enough, he sang to us between salad and entree. He told jokes like Mark Twain saying the coldest winter he ever spend was a summer in Montana.My good friends, Larry and Pat, from Louisville.Dinner was all-you-can-eat prime rib, seasoned potatoes and their version of succotash with cheesecake for dessert.After dinner, they served cowboy coffee out on the deck and Bruce sang more. Bruce Anfinson. He’s really good, and writes most of his own songs.
We arrived back at camp at 10pm last night, full and exhausted.
Today we went on a boat ride through the Gates of the Mountains. On July 19, 1805, Lewis wrote, “this evening we entered much the most remarkable clifts that we have yet seen. these clifts rise from the waters edge on either side perpendicularly to the hight of 1200 feet.”
Imagine approaching this, where the gates are “closed” and thinking that you’ve finally found the source of the Missouri.Then getting a little closer to find the gates “open” to these beautiful cliffs.They had us use our imagination to find images in the rocks. They called this Elephant Rock. Between the 2 outer ridges is an inner ridge which is the elephant’s trunk with the 2 caves either side as it’s eyes.There was even Indian pictographs in the canyon. There is a red buffalo drawn with a North Star over it’s head and 5 notches above.
Here is a close up of the drawing. The boat driver theorized, after consulting with a local Indian, that it meant that you would find the buffalo jump by heading towards the North Star for 5 days walk, which would put you in present day Ulm, MT, another buffalo jump site.There’s a monster face dead-center of this photo.Gates to the Mountains has the largest bat population in Montana. They live in these caves. A few times a year they run special bat tours when they boat up to these caves, turn off the engine and watch the bats come out for the night.We’re back to the marina, in the lake formed by another dam. Lots of people use this lake and canyon for boating, fishing, and camping along the cliffs.
What a neat lodge & dinner!