First stop today was the Charles M Russell Museum in Great Falls.  Neither of us realized it would take as long to go through it as it did to go through.  The Museum in on the site of Russell's first home in Great Falls; his workshop is there as well.  

C M Russell -- looks a little like Will Rogers who was his friend

Russell's workshop

one of his sayings in the entrance hall to museum

The Museum is actually an art museum filled with Russell's oils and watercolors (his earliest to his last) as well as those of other artists whose pictures depict similar scenes--old west, cowboys, indians, primarily.  There are also copies (or perhaps originals) of letters sent to friends and a few poems tht he wrote.  Even in his writings, he included sketches.  He also illustrated a book or two.  There was a lot to see (no camera pictures allowed) and read so we didn't leave until about 1:30 p.m.  We got there when it opened at 10 a.m.

We stopped for gas and headed for Glacier National Park.  Arrived in Shelby, MT (which is fairly close to the Park) around 3:30 p.m. and tried to get camping accommodations (with showers) but found that the campsites in the area are all filled.  So, we are in a Comfort Inn for the night.  Hopefully we will be able to find a camp tomorrow.   We hope to stay locally for two or three days and do some hiking as well as sightseeing and then we will go on to Idaho to cross the border and enter Canada.  We are due at August Camp a week from today.

July  20

Today we got off to a late start--didn't leave the motel till about 11.  We headed north again looking for the "great falls" which we did not find with the directions given us by the hotel desk clerk.  So, we made our way first to the local triple A office and then on to the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center, both in the city of Great Falls.  On the way to the Center, we stopped at Rainbow Falls which had only a trickle of water going over them. 

Rainbow Falls

At the Interpretive Center, we went back in time to the 1805 and 1806 when L & C made their Corps of Discovery expedition from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean.  

Lewis & Clark Kite Exhibition kite

Perhaps the toughest part of their journey was the Portage portion which occurred through this area.  What are now five dams (hydroelectric power plants today) in the Great Falls, MT environs were, in their time, natural waterfalls along the Missouri River.  Hard to imagine not only hauling boats over land but all of their supplies and goods too.  Lewis must have been a genius.  The maps he drew (one of Jefferson's requirements for funding the journey) are very close to the maps of today.

The Great Falls, also known as Ryan's Falls

We spent nearly 4 hours at the Interpretive Center before going on to Giant Springs, which feeds thousands of gallons of spring water into the Missouri daily and whose source is still not definitely known.  We then drove north out of GF itself and were successful in finding Ryan's Falls (the 'great falls') and then Morony Falls which turned out to be only a trickle.

Giant Springs

See the rain?

On the way back to town, we encounter a thunderstorm.  The lightning displays in the sky were spectacular--all the more so, I think, because of the vastness of the sky and surrounding plains.  I can understand why Montana is sometimes called the Big Sky Country.

Can you see why they call this Big Sky Country?

 July 19

After leaving Fort Peck this morning, we drove about 250 miles to Great Falls, Montana, stopping in the town of Malta to visit the Great Plains Dinosaur Museum & Field Station.  A lot of dinosaur bones and skeletons (which this museum has given names) were on display as well as a lot of information to read as we viewed the displays.  The woman 'manning' the museum showed us some of the "works in progress" and gave both Jack & me a piece of Hadrosaur (duck billed dinosaurs) bone.  The bones/skeletons all come from areas not too distant from Malta.  In order to preserve the bones for shipment to the places where the bones are studied, a type of plaster is poured around the dirt that encases the bone(s) and the plaster is then covered with a gauze that is treated and hardens around the dirt block.  There were several of these blocks at this museum waiting to be worked on.   We spent a little over two hours at this museum before pushing on to Great Falls, arriving around 6 p.m.  After we did laundry and got some dinner, I was just too tired to do the blog.

July 18

Today we went to the Interpretive Center at Fort Peck State Park which has some wonderful dinosaur skeletons and fossils from the area on display.  

Triceratops being attacked by a T-Rex (dinosaur display)

Triceratops skull

Fossilized tree

There have been a lot of dinosaur bones, skeletons, and fossils from that time found in the area.  In fact they have what they call the Montana Dinosaur Trail which extends through a lot of the state.  Included at the Interpretive Center is the history of how Fort Peck Dam was created.  This Dam is the largest earthen dam in the US.  It was a CCC project designed to create employment  and to relieve the Missouri River flooding experienced almost yearly in the area.  The dam was started in 1933 and took seven years to complete.  Today it provides a tremendous source of power (provides electricity to five or six nearby states), second only in Montana to the power generated by the 5 Great Falls dams.  We were able to tour the Fort Peck Power Station (could take nothing in with us: no cameras, purse, etc.) that was built in 1934-1940, giving work to thousands (10,567 at its peak) in the immediate post-depression era - part of FDR's New Deal program.

Jack relaxing at our campsite

 After touring the power plant, we returned to the campsite and just relaxed (I wrote postcards and read; Jack read and slept--on the ground-- as it was too hot to sleep in the back of the truck; he's lucky enough to be able to sleep anywhere it seems).  I'm still trying to adjust to sleeping in the truck when we camp.

July 17

Arrived at Fort Peck campground shortly before noon.  The campsite overlooks Fort Peck Lake, a lake with over 1,500 miles of shoreline.  A beautiful breeze was blowing off the Lake.  Fort Peck was never a military fort.  It served as a trading post and Indian agency back in the early days.  The area is crisscrossed by what they call a dinosaur trail.  There are many museums in the area (large and small) filled with dinosaur bones, skeletons and information.

Shortly after we got our dinner things cleaned up, a thunderstorm erupted which was preceded by voluminous dark clouds coming from the west.  Jack & I retreated to the back of the truck to play Scrabble by lantern as the storm raged outside with lightening and heavy rain that lasted for a couple of hours and cooled things down nicely.  Another new experience.