To read part 9 click here.
Today was amazing, the Gates of Montana boat tour was 2 hours I hope I’ll remember for a very long time. We travelled down the river all the while listening to of the most knowledgeable, funny, and magnetic tour guides I’ve come across in ages. He could tell you about the rocks, the trees, the animals we did, and did not, see, and the history in a super engaging fashion – and even managed to keep his cool when some know-it-all tried contradicting him about things.
While we didn’t see many animals, we did get to see some old Native American art, and a bald eagle that was kind enough to swoop down from his/her tree and catch a fish right out of the river for us! Along the route you also pass the site of the Mann Gulch fire that claimed the life of 13 firefighters (12 of them smokejumpers) in 1949.
For lunch we ended up in a very interesting spot called “Pizza Ranch” where they serve a pizza, as well as fried chicken, mashed potato, chips, biscuits and gravy, desert, and softdrink buffet – curiously while I understand that we were in a very young, hip part of Washington DC and correlation is not causation, it has been since I arrived in Montana that I have started to notice a lot more ‘plus-sized’ people… And frankly, if I had access to all you can eat pizza for less than the cost of two individual slices I’d probably be one of them!
After lunch some of us chose to go along for a drive out to the Spring Meadow Lake State Park (which had something of the Helderberg Nature Reserve for me) and take a relaxing walk – something we definitely needed after all that pizza!
To read part 11 click here.
