Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Archive for montana
The Whitefish Trail
By Linda Tancs
The Whitefish Trail in Montana provides 47 miles of natural surface trails and 15 trailheads/connectors located in a forested, rural environment. It’s a popular destination for hikers, trail runners, bikers and equestrians in the spring when the flowers are in bloom. The resort town is a gateway to Glacier National Park as well, which is a great place to visit in the spring because it’s one of the quietest seasons. Glacier Park International Airport is only 15 minutes away.
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The Beartooth Highway
By Linda Tancs
The Beartooth Highway is an All-American Road ( a special designation conferred by the U.S. Department of Transportation for a scenic byway) on a section of U.S. Route 212 in Montana and Wyoming between Red Lodge, Montana, and the northeast entrance to Yellowstone National Park. Once dubbed “the most beautiful roadway in America,” it zigzags across the Montana-Wyoming border through a series of steep switchbacks along the Absaroka-Beartooth Range, rising from about 5,000 feet to 10,947 feet at the Beartooth Pass. The ecosystems on display range from pine forests to alpine tundra, with snow that often lingers through the summer months. The breathtaking scenery includes high alpine plateaus dotted with glacial lakes, forested valleys, waterfalls and wildlife. It offers some of the best motorcycling in the country this time of year.
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Wild Geese and a Lake
By Linda Tancs
Glacier National Park is a wilderness area in Montana’s Rocky Mountains, crossed by the mountainous Going-to-the-Sun Road. Just off that road is Wild Goose Island, in the middle of St. Mary Lake. Legend has it that a Hatfield and McCoy-type romance bloomed between a couple from two different Indian tribes located on opposite sides of the lake. When the tribal elders tried to break off their engagement, the Great Spirit turned them into geese so they could fly away and be together forever. It’s as good a story for the locale’s name as any other, a place prized as one of the most photographed spots in the park. The best photo op is at sunrise, the first shutterbugs arriving before 5 a.m.
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Taming the Wild West
By Linda Tancs
Charles E. Conrad played an impressive role in taming the Wild West. Together with his brother William, Charles established a shipping and freighting empire in Fort Benton, Montana Territory, that eventually became the most important transportation center in Montana with routes extending north into Canada and as far west as Walla Walla, Washington Territory. When the advent of the railroad hindered their progress, Charles founded the city of Kalispell, Montana, a tiny frontier town that proved hospitable for the construction of a dream home. The palatial Conrad residence is a 13,000 square foot, shingle-style home with a Norman period interior boasting 26 rooms and eight sandstone fireplaces. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Conrad Mansion Museum preserves and exhibits the Conrad family estate through docent-led public tours, educational programs and community events.
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The Red City
By Linda Tancs
A popular tourist destination since the 1960s, Marrakech is immortalized in a 1960s song by Crosby, Stills & Nash. It’s Morocco’s “red city” due to the hue covering the walls in the old section (Medina). But even more striking is the Medina’s combination of Amazigh, Arabic and Moorish architecture and its lively public square, Djemaa el-Fnaa, bursting at the seams with circus-like entertainment such as acrobats, fire eaters, belly dancers and street entertainers. New museums and cultural attractions are a boon to its arts industry, which includes an arts festival and magician’s festival.
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Burying the Hatchet in Montana
By Linda Tancs
“Garry Owen” is an old Irish quick-step that can be traced back to the 1800s. The town of Garryowen, Montana, was named after the old Irish tune, purportedly one of Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer’s favorite marching songs. It was the last song played by the band for Custer’s men as they left the Terry column at the Rosebud River, the lead-up to the Battle of the Little Bighorn—a definitive engagement between the U.S. Cavalry and northern tribe Indians (including the Cheyenne, Sioux and Arapaho) known as “Custer’s Last Stand.” A registered historic site, the town is privately owned and the only one within the battlefield. It is the site of the Custer Battlefield Museum, housing important Indian War period artifacts and manuscripts related to Custer, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull and the 7th Cavalry as well as a lock of Custer’s hair. You’ll also find the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the burial site of one of the first casualties of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The granite tomb was dedicated 50 years after the conflict in 1926 during the Burial of the Hatchet Ceremony featuring White Bull (a Sioux Indian) and General Godfrey.
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Montana’s Birthplace
By Linda Tancs
A quaint river town, Fort Benton is known as the birthplace of Montana. It’s a National Historic Landmark, a monument to western expansion and once the world’s innermost port, a place where steamboats shuffled along the Missouri River for 30 years. It served as the terminus for the 642-mile-long Mullan Wagon Road, the first wagon road to cross the Rockies, binding together the navigable headwaters of the Missouri and Columbia rivers for easy movement of troops and supplies during periods of Indian hostilities. The town’s history is celebrated every year at this time at the weekend Summer Celebration, one of the state’s premier events.
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Fossil Hunting in Montana
By Linda Tancs
The Hell Creek Formation in northeastern Montana is a fossil hunter’s paradise, a living chronicle of the end of the dinosaur age. That’s one reason why its impressive bounty of dinosaur remains such as Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops is so significant. Hunting privileges get leased out for big bucks. For an affordable dig, go along with a prospecting company for a weeklong guided tour on property that they’re leasing. Best of all, you can usually keep what you find. Happy hunting!
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The Great Divide
By Linda Tancs
The Continental Divide is an epic hydrological divide separating the watersheds draining into the Atlantic Ocean from those draining into the Pacific Ocean. In the United States, its route is over 3,000 miles long, extending from the Canadian border with Montana to the Mexican boundary in southwest New Mexico. Following this course you’ll find the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail, part of a series of national trails established by Congress in recognition of their natural beauty. The Continental Divide trail in particular passes through 25 national forests, 21 wilderness areas and three national parks, providing access to spectacular vistas in some of the most scenic places left in the world. The highest point is in Colorado at Grays Peak (14,270 feet) and the lowest is along Waterton Lake in Glacier National Park in Montana (4,200 feet). The long winter season along the Divide (September through May) is now over. Why not plan a hiking or camping trip! From backpacking to family day trips, there’s something for everyone.
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Free Flowing Yellowstone
By Linda Tancs
Yellowstone National Park contains most of the world’s geysers, Old Faithful a great favorite among them. Its regular, billowing eruptions are not the only thing that’s free flowing in America’s first national park, though. The park is also home to the longest free flowing river in the United States, Yellowstone River. From there it glides 676 miles to its confluence with the Missouri River without a single dam to break its stride. Along its many points of access you’ll find plenty of recreational opportunities, including some of the best trout fishing ever and some cool Montana agate to add to your collection.
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