Across the country- Day 5 traveling

Day 5

We are off at 7:30  traveling through Blackfoot Tribe "lords of the Plains" Reservation.  They grow wheat, barley and hay. They have cows, sheep and bison. And even golf on the reservation. It has 8 major lakes, 175 miles of fishing and Browning has the best schools on the reservations . We will pass through many more Indian Reservation such as Crow, Apache and others.

Our guide told us about Montana. It is 147,000 square miles, has 1 million people and has logging, tourism, mining and a few other industries.  It is a great place for discovering dinosaur fossils . The soil and rocks were able to preserve these for many years.

We pass through the town of Brady where George Montgomery came from. Only 150 people live here.  Then onto Helena the capital of Montana.  The town of the sleeping giant on the mountains. If you look carefully, his face is on the right and his chest expands on the left. 
Then passing by Great Falls which is the 3rd largest in the state. It has 5 waterfalls on the Missouri River used for hydro electric power. 

In Wheat, Montana there are 15,000 people here at an elevation of 5,000 feet.  This little town has a 3rd generation wheat farm which won the Guinness Book of Records for having wheat to Bread  on the table in 7 or 8 minutes.

We are going along the highway and pass a sight that we were supposed to stop at, called Earthquake Lake 190 feet deep.  Here on August 17, 1959, 28 people lost their lives.  The 7.5 earthquake triggered a massive landslide of over 80 million tons of rock crashing down the into the canyon and blocking the Madison River. In a matter of seconds with the land dropping and tilting it caused sections of the highway to fall into the lake. the water then crested over the Hebgen Dam causing the dam to crack but it still held. Hundreds of vacationers were trapped. When it was all done a new body of water was formed 5 miles long.

The town of fly fishing!

We are passing through Ennis where three rivers coming together: the Jefferson, which is the longest on the left, Gallatin, on the right  and the Madison in the middle.  These three form the Missouri, the longest river in the country.  

Next stop is the West Yellowstone- population 1300 and elevation 6600 feet.  The kids have had enough of the bus.  Our stop is a welcome rest. We head  to the visitors center to check out our options. The boys look at the Junior ranger and bought it to complete on the trip as we go.

(next time tell me when you are taking the picture!)

Rogers is not too happy about the bear getting him!

We decide on the Grizzly and Wolf live exhibit, The wolves are close to us as we walk by. They had long slim legs and are white. It was awesome to be so close. We watched a film about the habitat of the wolves and how they survive.
Onto the big Grizzly

Our place in Yellowstone was new and had just opened this week.

So we are here two days and tomorrow we are off to Yellowstone National Park
See you tomorrow.....