We are definitely playing tourist here in Missoula. Saturday we went up Lolo Pass (Highway 12). It is a gorgeous road, and there is an informative Visitor Center at the border between Montana and Idaho. It was the wrong time of the day for a good picture, but you get the idea.
We were lucky to see a special guest they had talking about the fur trade. He was dressed in traditional Voyageur gear, and had some good skins with him. We talked a bit about how our trip had really started at Grand Portage.
We then drove part of the CCC road known as the “Lolo Motorway”, an old term for road. Of course we wouldn’t call it a road today! It is basically a rough rocky one lane track dug with a bull dozer and willing hands that follows closely the track Lewis and Clark took through the Bigroot Mountains westward in 1805 and eastwards in 1806. It was fascinating to know we were driving on the same rocks that the Corps of Discovery had ridden their horses across! It was slow going though; we probably averaged only 10 mph. We drove about an hour and a half, then turned around since it was getting late.
These mountains are rough! The journals talked about how disappointed the Corps of Discovery members were when they encountered ridge after ridge of mountains when they had been hoping for an easy path down from the Missouri headwaters to the Pacific. It took them 9 days to cross the mountains heading west, but only five days coming east. They were intelligent enough to use Indian guides, or they would never had found their way across before starving. As it was, they had major malnutrition when they encountered friendly Nez Perce on the westward journey. The skies were filled with a haze from forest fires somewhere, so the pictures really don’t do it justice. It was amazing.
Today we went to the Garnet ghost town. It is advertised as the most complete ghost town in Montana, and I believe it. The town was part of the gold rush in 1898, and it participated in some of the waves of mining off and on until the 1940s.
Fun facts about the hotel: The first floor had a ladies parlor, office, and very fancy dining room. Second floor had guest rooms, and the third floor rented floor space to the miners! There were lines marked on the floor, and a miner could layout his bedroll there. Rather a different view of housing.
We have our anniversary tomorrow, and we have reservations for a boat tour on Flathead Reservoir followed by dinner. Tuesday we head west again. No posts until then.