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Fort Benton, Mt
Yesterday’s progress: 41 miles (net), from Great Falls, MT to Fort Benton, MT (left 8 am, arrived 6:30 pm).
Route: Rainbow Dam Road (with backtrack) to US-87 to Morony Dam Road to Ryan Dam Road (with backtrack) to Portage Coulee Road and then Portage Road back to US-87, to MT-80 into Fort Benton.
Current location: Pioneer Lodge, Fort Benton, MT, satellite photo.
Yesterday’s trip notes: Many more miles covered than our net mileage. We stopped at Rainbow Dam, which had some stunningly beautiful cliffs. I was very surprised to see pelicans on the Missouri, but a check of Peterson’s Birds of North America proved western Montana was in their summer range. Saw cormorants, Canada geese and a number of other birds. Had to backtrack from Rainbow Dam (despite what the map said), and headed over to Ryan Dam which is on the eponymous Great Falls of the Missouri. That was a much larger dam, which a fairly elaborate park for visitors, including an electric stove test kitchen originally built to demonstrate how to cook with the new devices.
After Ryan Dam we headed on to Fort Benton. On the way we drove through Portage Coulee, and got a very close view of a golden eagle, thanks to
Oh wow. A full post of that later, replete with photography, but it was amazing. We saw lots of Montana high country, some abandoned one-room school houses (including our guide’s first grade school), and eventually the white cliffs of the Missouri from a vantage point which would have made an eagle jealous. I took a lot of photos and gather a lot of sensory and historical information which will help drive the critical opening scenes of Original Destiny, Manifest Sin. After that five-hour tour, we went back to Fort Benton for dinner, a walking tour and crashing out at the Pioneer Lodge.
Today’s trip goals: Big Sandy, where
We’re off shortly.
Posted: 6:46 am Sun July 02 2006 |
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