June 9, Tuesday: White Sulphur Springs to Great Falls, MT

Woke to a clear, cool morning.  I was considering staying here another day to do laundry, computer stuff and to take a break from touristic (is that a word?) scenery and history, but spent some time in the morning figuring it all out and found a campground with phone, internet and laundry northeast of here which would be closer to my destination of Glacier National Park.  So, packed me and the RV up and headed northwest to Great Falls, Montana.

Driving through the Lewis and Clark National Forest, Little Belt Mountains

You may remember from previous blogs that we have visited a couple of the Lewis and Clark centers that document and illustrate their incredible adventure across the continent in 1804.  President Thomas Jefferson gave them explicit instructions to follow the Missouri River and collect information about plants, animals, native peoples, including differences in language among the Indian tribes they met to distinguish their origins.

This Lewis and Clark interpretive center was excellent, and it focused on the local geography where Lewis and Clark came to a fork in the river and had to choose which was the continuation of the Missouri River.  Indians told them that the Missouri had a major waterfall they would have to navigate, so they sent a group ahead to look for which one had the waterfall.  That provided them the correct information for the Missouri, but they also found that there were four additional falls they would have to navigate in addition to the Great Falls.  It ended up that they had to portage very heavy dugout canoes and tons of supplies over 18 miles to avoid the five waterfalls.  It cost them weeks in traveling time, but they managed to transport everything and continue on their journey only to find out that there was no easy waterway passage to the Pacific because of the huge Bitteroot Mountains in Idaho. Hopes dashed for an easy cross-continental waterway route, they continued on with their mission.

Portage around the Great Falls

The canine friend that accompanied them on the trip.

Missouri River just south of Great Falls. Note the dry conditions on the sunny side of the river.

The other bank has lots of vegetation.

Great Falls has it looks today

All of the waterfalls have dams for energy and river control today.  The expedition's description of the Great Falls said it was massive with spray rising 20 feet into the air.  Hard to imagine what the country looked like then.

I found a campground a a half hour north of Great Falls in a small town called Fort Benton then on to Glacier National Park tomorrow.  I will be there several days and do not expect to have internet access, so this blog will probably not be updated for a while.