HEAVEN IS IN MONTANA

Townsend, Montana

The best thing I brought on this trip is a tiny voice recorder.  I keep it on the console, along with my phone and camera.  Because I have no memory, the recorder is perfect for recording things I see and impressions I have as I drive and provides a means for documenting the photos I take along the way.  Of course it helps if the memory card is in the camera when I am taking pictures -- but that's another story.

I spent most of my day driving across Montana.  Even at 75 mph I didn't make it all the way across.  It could be done, but it would be a marathon drive and that was never my intention.  As I saw markers for the Lewis and Clark Trail I couldn't help but think of them walking and traveling by river through these very same places. When you look at the terrain here it's clear why they stuck to the flat valleys and rivers, rather than traversing the higher hills. It's a wonder they made it. I have a new appreciation for their exploration and mapping of so much of the West. It's been 200 years since they trekked here -- which doesn't seem all that long ago.

In Eastern Montana the corn fields have already been harvested so you only see the golden stubble in the fields.  The day is overcast but it's not raining.  I am wearing my jacket because the temperature is in the low 60s.  Much of the landscape is grey, partly because of the weather, but also because of the drought.  The hills are dotted with sage brush, light bluish-greenish-grey scrubby bushes low to the ground.  It's so familiar from Eastern Washington and Idaho in this almost desert-like country but clumps of trees provide green all across the landscape.  I saw three black cows grazing in a harvested wheat field.  The contrast of those black cows and yellow stubble was really kind of neat. I wish I could have stopped to get a photo, but these scenes happen so quickly at at 75 mph, which is the speed limit here.  By the time I come to a stop, the scene has changed.

Some fields look like alfalfa just beginning to grow; they've probably already been cut and baled a couple of times this summer.  Or the plants could be potatoes -- it's difficult to tell from a distance. Some of the bigger trees here are bluish grey like sage brush but obviously they're trees so I'm not sure of their variety. I go from driving to the tops of plateaus where you can see for a long distance to dropping back down in the valley where the fields are very flat. There are huge long sprinkler systems on wheels that irrigate the fields.  Without the irrigation there is not be enough water to support the agriculture.

The Yellowstone River near Pompey's Pillar

Pompey's Pillar

I stopped to visit Pompey's Pillar, a large outcropping of rock, where Lewis and Clark stopped to view the landscape ahead.  The Yellowstone River, which was their main means of transportation in this area, flows nearby.  Cottonwood trees stand in groves along the banks on one side; tall badlands-type cliffs border the other side.

The Crazy Mountains

The Absaroka Range and the Yellowstone River

I had been watching new mountains in the distance, then I came around a curve and the mountain range filled my view across the horizon near Big Timber.  They are called the Crazy Mountains.  Yellowstone National Park is just south of where I am. The mountains are fabulous and nearly impossible to photograph.  The camera loses the three-dimensional quality and some of the color.  I tried to etch the image in my brain -- I don't ever want to forget this view.  The mountains are a very dark bluish purple with light wheat fields at their base.  The clouds sit on top of the highest peaks. Not far down the road, I see the Absaroka Range on my left. It's difficult to watch the road with mountains like these.

I leave the interstate to drive towards Townsend, my Dad's childhood town.  Even on the two-lane highway, the speed limit is 70.  The road is flat and straight and there is little traffic.  For the first time today I begin to see fields with large herds of cattle.  I am sure there are cattle all across Montana but these are the first ones I've seen from the highway. There are mountains on every side of me -- what a wonderful distraction!!  It's rained a bit, the sun is out, the clouds come and go, sometimes it's windy.  So far no snow.  However, a road sign says there is an area ahead to put on tire chains -- a good reality check.  Snow fences sit just off the highway to catch drifting snow as I head into the mountains. I am grateful I'm not making this drive in the snow.

As I cross the mountains into Townsend I am in almost total evergreen forest.  Up until now, most of the trees have been cottonwoods and other deciduous, some with leaves beginning to turn.

The highlight of the day was meeting 95-year-old Louise, Dad's childhood neighbor in Toston, Montana.  Her niece, Terey, and Terey's sister-in-law Nora came as well.  Louise initially said she didn't remember much of Dad's family, then she told me about Dad, his sister Frances, his brother Jim, and his dad Will. Pretty amazing since she is five years younger than Dad, they lived a mile away, and they weren't neighbors for very many years. We talked about the work horses, the house and  barn.  My stories fit with some of the remembrances of Terey's brothers who had met my parents back in the 1960's.

My only regret is I didn't bring early pictures of Dad's family and farmstead with me.  I was so concerned with getting all of Mother's things in the car, that I simply didn't think of bringing his archives for purposes of connection and conversation.  And I wish I had looked up some of the pertinent dates before I left which would have helped us put the pieces together.  I will know better for the next trip -- which I am hoping will be next year.

I am meeting Louise in the morning for more conversation.  What a sharp, delightful lady!!