Deer Lodge, Montana (24 June)


The trip from West Glacier to Deer Lodge this morning was pretty but unspectacular. We saw deer crossing the road again and, unfortunately, one that had been hit earlier. We also saw a skunk that hadn’t quite made it.  As the journey progressed we gradually moved away from mountains to hills and from dense forests to open land with some widely spaced trees. Further on the trees became sparser and the hills more distant. We had reached cattle country. The land all about us has cattle grazing on grass. 

There were lots of churches and, as we were travelling on a Sunday, we noticed lots of cars around the churches. About half of the churches were built in log cabin style, some of them quite recently. We often see “Adopt a highway” signs stating who or which business has adopted a section of the highway, we think the keep it clear of rubbish. As we got near one town we could see that the local Lutheran church had adopted a section of highway on which we also saw catholic, episcopal and baptist churches!!

Our park at Deer Lodge (Indian Creek Campground) is ordinary and within 50 meters of the interstate highway. However, it is clean and tidy and the services work. After a late lunch we visited the town where Merryn found a quilt shop unexpectedly (yeah right). Next we visited the Grant-Kohrs Ranch which is owned by the National Park Service. We saw lots of buildings and implements dating from around the 1860s when the property was established, initially as a trading post for the Hudson Bay Company. The style identified the building as a Hudson Bay trading post, much as golden arches identifies McDonalds today. The house through which we were shown was built in the Hudson Bay style with white walls and green shutters. The second owner added to the house and established a huge ranch with cattle grazing on the open of over 10 million acres across Montana, Idaho and Wyoming as well as into Alberta and British Columbia. No individuals owned the land; cattle were identified by their brands.






Tomorrow we get up early and head to Yellowstone Park.

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