Wood's Prairie Travels

As we traveled Western Montana, from  the southern border to the northern one, we encountered many different scenes and landscapes along the way. We also traveled on many types and sizes of  roadways.  Here are just a sampling of them: South of Drummond on Hwy 1 on our way to Phillipsburg, looking at the Anaconda Range. Heading southwest towards the Gem Mountain mine on Skahalko Pass road 38. We were looking at the Sapphire Mountains. Heading east on Hwy 1 climbing the gorge up to Anaconda. Driving through the Anaconda Range. Almost up to the top of  Homestake Pass out of Butte which is on the Continental Divide. Driving south on Hwy 41 toward Twin Bridges. The Pioneer Mountains were to the right. Almost to the Ruby Reservoir on Hwy 287, near the town of Alder. Here we were either looking at the Snowcrest Range or the Ruby Range. Almost to Badger Pass on County Road 278. Driving through the Pioneer Mountains. Some road west of Big Hole Pass on County Road 278. Looking at the Pioneer Mo

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, our original summer plan was to drive to the east coast through the upper states. Maine is a place both of us have always wanted to see. Then we were going to drive back through Canada, stopping at Lake Louise before heading home. Well, the Coronavirus changed those plans! Hopefully you and your family have not been affected by the disease, other than the whole "stay at home" order, mask wearing, panic toilet paper and flour buying, stock market crash, and riots. It is pretty obvious that this virus is more contagious than some and definitely affects our elders far worse. However, they closed our school back in March when there were only 16 people in the whole county that were sick with the Coronavirus. I am not convinced that we havn't as a society overreacted a bit. This virus will definitely go down as a historic event that has affected pretty much the whole world. It has been interesting on our travels to see the differences from pla

When we were leaving Dicky Lake, we stopped for a picture at the boat ramp and saw a loon swimming just off the boat dock. Pat had heard the loon calling earlier, so it was fun to see it too. We'd had a leisurely start to our day with a pancake breakfast, but were still on the road by 8:30. Fifteen miles up the road, Hwy 93, was the town of Eureka. It was a cute little town that seemed to be just waking up as we drove through. If we had continued north, we would have reached the Canadian border in another six miles. Of course, due to the Coronavirus, the border crossing would entail a fourteen day quarantine, so south and west we went instead.   Our aim for the day was to check out the Libby area of northwestern Montana. About six miles after turning west onto Hwy 37, we glimpsed the Koocanusa Reservoir. This is a large reservoir on the Kootenai River which extends up into Canada. On the map it appears to be at least 70 miles long and was a pretty teal blue color. I had read that w

One thing we have noticed on this trip are the striking differences between the different locales in western Montana. For example, while Phillipsburg is a touristy type of town, we never felt like we were in big crowds, or congested areas. Even when we traveled down to the Ruby Reservoir and Virginia City area. There were other people, other campers, but no huge crowds traveling through this sagebrush valley.  And the road to Chief Joseph Pass had very few other travelers. We were glad there were few other vehicles on the road as we drove north from the pass, through seven miles of curvy downhill roads with steep rocky dropoffs. The southern portion of the Bitteroot Valley, also, continued the trend of sparce populations. The shallow Bitteroot river meandered through the valley giving us glimpses of fly fishermen  The change occured as we approached Missoula. There were more cars, more people, more stores, and more stoplights. Of course that should be expected as one of the main cities

Sometimes people ask us how we know where to camp. The answer is that we don't always know. So far on this trip from prior trips we knew of some camps that we enjoyed, like that on the Clark Fork River and the one at Gem Mountain. However, other times we don't have a clue where we will end up! When traveling we ALWAYS have a map. Yes, the good old fashioned paper map that gets folded and unfolded so many times holes get worn on the folds... of course Murphy's Law dictates that frequently those worn out places are just where we need to go.  You might say, "But what about your truck's nav system or your phone's map app?" Well, we use those as well, but sometimes they really don't help or send us the wrong way. When in doubt, we go with what the paper map shows. One example of the phone app sending us the wrong way occurred this trip when we were heading to Ruby Reservoir. Coming over the Continental Divide out of Butte, my phone said to stay on I-9

Today we decided to take in some of the local history... do I dare say history? With today's cancel culture wanting to re-write American history, will they also take a stab at the American old west? I hope not, those early explorers, woodsmen, miners, and pioneers were made of sterner stuff it seems than today's society. We could all learn something from their determination, perseverance, and grit. However, there were even then the outlaws and road agents, but not typically wanton destruction we are seeing in Seattle and Portland currently. Anyway, we enjoyed taking a trip back through Montana's past. We started our exploration in Alder Gulch which in its heyday boasted a population in the tens of thousands. There were numerous settlements and the whole area was sometimes called Fourteen -mile City.  As you drive you can still see miles and miles of gravel tailings (piles of gravel). Our first stop was Virginia City. Prospectors found gold in  nearby Alder Gulch in 1863