"900 miles to Sturgis, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark... and we're wearing sunglasses.. Hit it!"
- Spencer
- 34 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Next destination on our journey: Sturgis, South Dakota. Home of the World's Largest Motorcycle Rally. We calculate that it will take us over two weeks to get from here to there. Although our planned route is rather circuitous, it will allow us to catch the corner of North Dakota, adding two more states to our travel map. As of June, 2019, we have camped to 32 states with only 16 to go.
After camping in SD, our travel map will look like this:
We've seen a lot since leaving Delaware in 2017, and loved it all!!
As mentioned in my previous post, our current campground is near Glacier NP and our travel map looks like this:
Although some RVers travel without making reservations, we always book at least 3 or 4 campgrounds ahead. We try to minimize the number of surprises we will encounter along our route. We have broken this 900 mile stretch in four stops: Great Falls, Billings, Miles City, and Dickinson ND. I will talk about our experiences in Great Falls and Billings in this b log post.
GREAT FALLS, MONTANA:
And we're off. Our next campground was a 3 hour drive through rolling green hills covered with grazing cattle or sheep behind rows of rustic fences.
What's not to love about Montana (except perhaps for the brutally cold months of September, October November December January February, and March)!? Locals say there are only two seasons in Montana, winter and road construction!
Our campground was named Dicks RV Park (it has since been renamed Great Falls RV Park).
It was a very nice RV park, just a few miles from downtown. Now, the city of Great Falls was in itself unimpressive but the nearby waterfalls were just beautiful.
There is not just one "Great" Falls but actually 5 distinct falls that drop the Missouri river 500 feet.
The Lewis and Clark expedition discovered these on June 25,1805 and wrote in their journals:
"the greatest sight I’ve ever beheld…when my ears were saluted with the agreeable sound of a fall of water and advancing a little further; I saw the spray arise above the plain like a column of smoke . . . which soon began to make a roaring too tremendous to be mistaken for any cause short of the great falls of the Missouri… "
Here are the falls named the Great Falls.
I can only imagine the dread Lewis and Clark must have felt realizing the only way to travel upstream (on their way to the Pacific Ocean) around the 5 falls, was by going around them.
It doesn't look like fun! It took them 32 grueling days to portage their boats and equipment the18 mile stretch.
If you are ever in this area, make sure to also check out the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center which is located on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River. The Center provides information and exhibits about Lewis and Clark's famous journey and the historical significance of the United States' westward expansion. It is well worth checking out.
One exhibit I found particularly interesting was how L&C used wind power to help drive their boats across the many open fields of Montana:
Here is another quote from their journal:
it may be here worthy of remark that the [sails] were hoisted in the Canoes as the men were drawing them and the wind was great relief to them being Sufficently Strong to move the Canoes on the Trucks, this is [sailing] on Dry land in every Sence of the word.
If you want to "wet your whistle" while here, check out the "most Montana bar in Montana":
COWBOYS BAR & MUSEUM:
If you're looking for a unique watering hole, check out the Cowboys Bar. It's an interesting place to grab a cold drink and shoot some pool.
And there are many beautiful hiking trails throughout the region. We chose a flat trail that paralleled the Missouri River:
HIKING: River's Edge Trail
A beautiful trail that extends for almost 60 miles paralleling the Missouri River. About 20 0f those miles are paved making for an easy hop-on-hop-off hike.
Most people start at Giant Springs State Park which is a peaceful park with a natural hot spring as its center piece.
“the largest fountain or Spring I ever Saw, and doubt if it is not the largest in America Known, this water boils up from under the rocks near the edge of the river and falls immediately into the river 8 feet and keeps its Colour for ½ a mile which is immensely Clear and of a bluish Cast.” -- Lewis and Clark.
After a four day stay, we packed up and headed onto Billings, Montana.
BILLINGS, MONTANA!
I have a question for you: When was the last time you heard the name of Billings, Montana in the news? Hmmm??
Even though Billings is Montana's largest city, it has a "Shhh.. don't tell anybody we're here" feel. Life here feels steady and grounded—coffee shops without long lines, streets that quiet down early, and a rhythm shaped more by the rooster than by deadlines.
There’s not much else to say about this place. Not much excitement, no breathtaking architecture, and very few bright lights. It’s a “just the facts” type of place. The type of place that fades from memory as quickly as it recedes in your rearview mirror.
But, if you seek a quiet, clean, friendly city where herds of cattle out number the hurried, and with lots of hiking trails, then Billings might be the place for you [as long as you don't mind snow]. It is nestled against the dramatic Beartooth Mountain range and domed by wide-open Montana "Big Sky", giving this place a rugged yet welcoming feel. It also has surprisingly good art museums, coffee shops and breweries.
Oh, if you do happen to visit here, the city asks that you don't tell anybody about it!
PLACES TO GO, PEOPLE TO SEE:
While here, we stayed at Billings Village RV Park and would recommend it to anyone passing through this area.
Our friends, and fellow RVers, Jeannette and Larry, drove their RV up from Helena to spend a few days with us.
--Watch out liver, things are about to get dicey! (Just kidding!) --
We decided to go visit wild horses and one of the coolest places in Montana:
PRYOR MOUNTAIN:
I had mentioned visiting the Pryor Mountains in an earlier post, so I won't talk much about it here, but the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range, was established in 1968 as one of the first federally protected wild horse areas in the United States. People from the world over follow the drama of the herd-life of these wild horses. Bands are usually made up of a dominant stallion, several mares, and their foals.
Winters are harsh up here and water sources are scarce yet somehow these magnificent creatures manage to survive.
BIG ICE CAVE:
Located roughly 50 miles south of Billings in the rugged Pryor Mountains lies a single chamber carved by nature into the limestone and sandstone walls that acts like a natural “icebox.” Year round, the temperature of this cave hovers around 32 degrees. There's a short 0.2-mile path that leads to a wooden viewing platform where you can stand and look at the ice covering the floor of the cave.
As always, our time with Jeannette and Larry was filled with laughter, stories, and craft beers! Amazing people.
I'm going to end this blog post here because in my next post I want to write about the most haunting battlefield we have come across. It would be a disservice to those that perished there to hide their history at the bottom of this page. But more on this in my next post.
See you on down the road!
[Just a quick shout-out to our good friend, Vivian. We are praying for a speedy recovery for you!]
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