We left Glacier on Friday morning heading back south. The drive to Kalispell was not too bad but then we got stuck in road construction. They had a large section of the road around Flathead lake being resurfaced and had traffic down to one lane so we just had to sit and wait. The traffic was backed up for miles, so glad we were leaving and not trying to get some place in a big hurry.
Once we got around the lake the smoke became heavier and heavier. Finally discovered there was a fire off to our right side some place back close to the mountains. They had signs on the road about the fire trucks coming out and had set up an incident command center at one point. We never saw flames but you could see the smoke plumes coming up back in that direction.
This area is back in the Indian Reservation and they have signs at different spots that are in their language then translated to English.
It was hard to catch a good view of the signs as we were driving but some were very interesting translations. They were very descriptive, one was something like “the place where the plains touch the mountain”. Other were more simple like Spring Creek.
One of the things we enjoyed on our last visit here was the fall decorations. They are just now starting to put them up in front of the businesses. They use big round hale bales and decorate them and some of them were very elaborate. They only had few started when we went through this now, one looked like it was going to be a minion.
They also have a bridge built across the road for animals.
We finally got back to I90 and stopped for a quick lunch and headed down to the Bearmouth area where we are staying two nights. Nothing planned for this area, really not much in this area but a river for fishing and a Ghost town. Our RV park is right on the river, not too far off the interstate. As you cross the bridge to get on the frontage road to the RV park there is a sign saying the river is closed. The water sure looked like it was flowing to us.
Right after crossing the bridge you have the sign pointing to Garnet Ghost Town. We turned off into the RV park in about a mile but Bruce checked the map later and apparently it becomes a one lane road shortly after our turn off. I looked up the Ghost Town but we decided not to go, it is a bad dirt and gravel road and is closed in the winter, you have to use skis or a snow mobile to get to the Ghost Town. Since we had lots of rain over night we decided to not try the road, Bruce had just had the truck washed.
We relaxed most of Saturday but in the afternoon we drove to the small town of Drummond. We found something we had never seen before — a used cow lot.
We stopped in little restaurant (only two in town) to eat an early dinner and made the waitress day. She was born and raised in Marble Falls, Texas. When she saw the tag on the truck she was excited to see someone from Texas. We got to hear all about how she got up here, discussed the Blue Bonnet Cafe in Marble Falls and other places we had seen when we have made trips to Marble Falls. She explained the Used Cow Lot, basically a stock yard for selling cows. She said they used to have cattle drives right down the main street which is not really that big a road.
This will wrap up our time in Montana. It is interesting. They are very fond of gambling, drinking and drugs. It was amazing how many casinos we have seen in the towns we have gone through. Almost every non chain restaurant was called restaurant and casino. We like to try small local restaurants when we have the opportunity and I think every one we tried had a small casino in part of it. Usually they were at the back of the restaurant and normally had a separate entrance you could use if you did not want to walk through the dinning area.
The more moderate size areas had breweries, distilleries and wineries. Not just one or two breweries but a dozen. Most RV parks will give you a list of places in there area and usually it includes grocery stores, restaurants, churches and RV related places. Since about Colorado we have not seen any churches listed and the further north we got it has turned into list of breweries and distilleries and maybe one two other business. The more touristiy the town the more breweries we noticed while driving around.
Dispensaries for Cannabis are very popular in Montana, you see them everywhere. They have all looked fairly small and very discreet looking, no big signs.
The one really nice thing I have liked is the identification of fishing areas. While at Glacier you spend a lot of time driving around rivers and they have access points marked for all the areas you can pull off and fish. The are very noticeable signs. We are staying in a very small area that is on the Clark Fork River and they also have the fishing spots marked.
