Miles City to Great Falls, Montana

I actually left Miles City earlier than usual: on the highway at 8:30!  It was already 24ºC and heading to 35ºC like yesterday.  But it is dry heat, as the locals call it.  That means it's supposed to be not as hot as humid heat.  The car didn't appreciate the distinction and engine/air-conditioning fans worked overtime to keep me comfy.

I took the road less travelled after I got to Billings for 'cheap' gas.  As it turns out, I couldn't make it from Miles City without adding $20 of gas at $3.61/gal.  When the gas warning light was solidly on with only 20 miles to go, I stopped in and filled up to $20 at $3.59/gal.  In Billings, I managed to fill at $3.54/gal, instead of the.07 cheaper gas that I had expected.  Oh well, a fill-up of around $50 US is still a lot cheaper than $75+ Cdn.

So here are a few shots I made today.  They only give a very small sample of the variety of terrain I drove today.  

The road less travelled ends up requiring more active driving, and since it's scenic, it required a lot of head movement; much like watching tennis.  Other than the 10 miles where the road was converted to rough dirt while it was being rebuilt, it was a perfect road for motorcycles and I met many.

After rolling hills, I can to more serious hills and valleys like this one.

Most of the day, there was a meandering creek along the road.  That's interesting because it's the only place where the cottonwoods would grow.  It turns out that these mountains have a fair bit of water, and the cottonwoods and other trees are the telltale signs of where the water is.  Neat.

Of course, while most gullies are dry, some water does flow in local rivers such as the Yellowstone river which this is.

This is a Yucca seed pod, now empty with the jet black seed scattered to the winds. Still neat though.

There were these yellow weeds off and on all day; here they seem to grow where the farmer's vehicles crushed other plants. Note the snow on the far mountains, even if I was in 30+ºC!

Of course, any red roof is cause for an emergency stop.  It's always better if you are alone on the road...

This picture fails to provide the scale involved: the river was a good 75 feet across, and the massive wall on the right was a good hundred feet tall and very 'in your face'.  Unfortunately, it looks kind of tame to me in the picture, but trust me, it was stunning to look at.

This is essentially made at the same place, just swinging to the right.

With luck, I should reach Okotoks tomorrow afternoon, a few days earlier than the usual drive westward.