Jane Reporting for 20th September
As today (20th September) had a relatively short drive of 185 miles we decided to look around some of the attractions in Great Falls.
We drove out to see Rainbow and Black Eagle Falls. The falls themselves weren't hugely spectacular and, having seen other photos, that may have been an issue of water flow. The river is the Missouri, the longest in the US and the 'great falls' are a series of five waterfalls which drop the river 187 feet.
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| Rainbow Falls and dam |
Despite the water over the falls being a bit meagre, just being out in the countryside was amazing. The weather was perfect and the sky incredibly blue and cloudless.
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| Looking downriver at Rainbow Falls |
We heard a bird talking away in the grass and then he started singing. When Gary started whistling back at him he relocated to a fence rail and I (naturally) stalked him for a photo or two (hundred).
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| The bird in the grass |
Out of the many photos I took I liked the one on the right the best as the whole time I was taking photos of him he was grooming himself.
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| The bird on the fence |
Next we visited the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail Interpretive Center which was very impressive. I have a book at home about the Lewis and Clark explorations and was quite keen to visit the centre. We all went to a short movie about the portage around the falls and I stayed on for a talk about the origins of the names of the Montana tribes. Because the others had looked around the rest of the centre while I was in the talk, they then went off to see the Giant Springs nearby.
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| One of the displays - crossing the Rockies |
All of the displays were interesting and covered not only the journeys of Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery but the peoples they met and the wildlife they saw. This is how I discovered that my bird from Rainbow Falls is a meadowlark.
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| The two-story window overlooking the river |
One of the best features of the center is the diorama of the expedition undertaking the portage around the falls which starts on a lower story and rises up to the lobby, all backed by huge windows which look out over the river. That was certainly well worth the stop.
We had spent so much time at the centre we had lunch in Great Falls before heading out for Bozeman. We only had a few stops along the way, and took a lot of drive-by photos of the Missouri River and the landscape as we travelled on.
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| Lyn and Gary at a photo stop |
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| Missouri River |
I am struggling a bit with the names for these flat-topped hills but found a blog post entitled 'The Difference Between a Butte, Mesa and Plateau' which is making me lean towards butte. This, then, is one of those:
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| Butte? |
And finally for this entry here's a vehicle we passed on the road. Pretty impressive, whatever it is. (There were two, the other was red.)
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| Interesting vehicle |
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