Day 12 – Driving through Montana

We begin our day, Sunday 6/11/2017, leaving the hotel at about 8:00 am to get a head start on our long drive.  Our destination today is Cut Bank which we will use as our starting out point for the Going-To-The-Sun-Road in Glacier National Park in Montana.  It is about an 8 hour drive to Cut Bank where we will stay overnight.  On our way we again pass the Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

We follow I-94 and route 200S which are basically Farm Land with lots of cattle and cows.  We pass beautiful scenery, bluffs, valleys all of which you have to see to believe.  Additionally, you can see forever.  The area we are driving through is called National Grass Lands.  Oh, by the way the speed limit on I-94 is 80 miles an hour.

I always wondered where “Home on the Range” was from the song.  Well apparently it is in North Dakota and we passed it before entering Montana.

Just in case you missed the sign and to be sure you didn’t miss the town, they wrote the name on the side of a hill.  Where are you, well I’m Home on the Range.  Ha, ha.

We reach Montana and the flat plains have given way to more rolling hills, but there are still many miles of grasslands, punctuated now and then with a stoned hill or two. 

At Glendive in Montana, we switch to 200S heading to Circle where we will then get on route 13.  Along the way we continue to pass a number of ranches where we see horses, cattle and hay fields.

Reaching Route 13 we turn north and come across this old house and barn.  This sight brings up cattle barons and cowboys driving the cattle to market. 

It wasn’t very long after seeing the barn that we see a deer in one of the pastures.  Apparently we either scared it as we drove by or it had somewhere to go. 

As we continue along route 13 we have come back into the wide open prairies returning to the miles of fairly flat grasslands and farmlands.  With many miles between towns, you want to make sure you have everything you need.

But wait, we also see a pronghorn along the way.  How great is this.  So far today we have seen horses, cattle, deer and pronghorn.  Fantastic!  Besides, the scenery has not changed much, vast farmlands of hay and alfalfa (we think) and we can still see for miles.

Now we are heading west on US 2 and one ranch we see indicates it was established 1882.  But guess what, we see four deer feeding in the pasture by the road.  I can’t believe it, we have seen more wild life today then most of the rest of the trip.

What a wonderful drive today.  Wild animals and now we pass this place that is a showplace for created metal sculptures in the guise of dinosaurs and other animals.  How about one for the front yard?

Driving through the surrounding area there are many huge hay fields like this one.  We are also following part of the Lewis and Clark Trail.  

We stopped for lunch in Malta where this was the center of cattle country in the late 1880s.  We have seen many freight trains and the road has been rolling hills.  But wait, after leaving Malta and driving a few miles later we saw a couple more pronghorn.  

Mind you we have seen corn, wheat, alfalfa, soy beans, and hay, but we have no idea what this field is growing.  Not only that, but Cell phones service has been spotty at best so we cannot look up what it might be. 

We have no idea what they keep in these silos, but there are quite a few of them.  They continued on for almost as many more that we can see here. 

Now this is an operation!  These massive silos and grain elevators are loading these train cars.  We have seen many trains loaded with grain cars and by the number of cars here, these silos hold quite a large haul.

Speaking of farms and the crops, here a farmer is spraying something which we have no idea what, on the crop that is just coming up. 

Just outside of Chester, Montana we can see miles of flat land up to the mountains in the background which are at least 8 miles away.

So we are almost in Shelby, Montana when we come upon these pronghorn lying in the field.  I slowed down and came to a stop, there were no cars behind me, and Carmen got this picture.  They were fairly close to the road.

All of a sudden, they get up and begin running, so off I go with the car paralleling their run; it’s a drag race and they were running about 35-40 mph before they turned to the right and moved off into the taller grasses in the background. 

We are nearing Cut Bank, Montana and see more oil and gas pumps along with many different barns.  This one in the field was rather in good shape and was near a pond. 

We reach Cut Bank and discover a billboard just outside of town that names itself as North Oil Center with millions of barrels of oil and billions of cubic feet of natural gas.  But, the amazing thing is when we get into town and we see this penguin at the Glacier Gateway Inn claiming Cut Bank, MT as being the “coldest spot in the nation”.  Love it. 

We are here for the night and tomorrow we will drive the Going-To-The-Sun-Road in Glacier National Park east to west and staying on the other side of the Park; so we’ll be leaving early.