Northern Rockies Road Trip Pics

View the photo album with captions here

I think I see an opportunity for a second career after the road trip. Barbed wire. We went over 2000 miles and I swear 1900 of the miles were lined by some kind of barbed wire. They must need replacing sometime. The picture above is in Montana, just east of Glacier National Park, going south on highway 287. If you ever have a chance to drive it- do it. It’s just open plains for miles and miles- it feels so very remote. I loved it.

Out of all we saw and shot photos of, two things really stand out- and they are almost impossible to capture with a photo. One is the silence. Camping in Grand Teton National Park, we went out on a dry lake bed and just enjoyed the silence- it was truly deafening.

Second were the stars. The moon was no where to be seen and the stars blanketed the sky like I had never seen. You hardly see stars in Seattle because of clouds and reflecting light so it was incredible to see so many so clearly. Mars was huge.

Lastly, I’ve been telling a story about our visit to Choteau, Montana, which is on 287 north of Helena. It’s in the middle of no where. We stopped in Choteau to use the bathroom. The rest area was also an “Information Center” for the town.

We walked into the “Information Center” and there was a nice old lady there to greet us. After using the facilities, I came out and she asked me to sign a guest book- I did. To make some small talk and learn a little, I asked the lady, “So, how long has Choteau been around?” She said “Oh, a long time, it’s an old town.” Hmm, I thought, the information center lady doesn’t know when the town was founded, strange.

So, I took another shot. “How many people live in Choteau?” thinking this would be a sure fire learning experience. Her reply was “You know, I don’t really know, but people have asked me that before.”

I didn’t say it, but I thought to myself, “What kind of freakin Information Center is this? The person here doesn’t know when the town was founded or how many people live there? And she’s been asked these questions before and still doesn’t know? What do you know? Worst information center ever.”

But she was a nice old lady and her job was to get people to sign the guest book- which she did well. I doubt she knew the sign outside said “Information Center” anyway. So we just smiled and walked away, knowing, perhaps less, about Choteau.

View the photo album with captions here