Following the re-visit to Yellowstone it's time to head into Montana, once again it's very hot & due to our physical state we take a short route to Bozemon along route 191 through Gallatin National Forest & the appropriately named 'Big Sky' ski resort, the fly fishermen are also out in force.
After a deserved night sleep we plan another short day to Virginia City & Nevada City, once again these were gold strike towns that fell into disrepair only to be rescued by tourism.
Nevada City has a living Museum & while we were there a re-enactment of a 1863 hanging took place by vigilantes, it was fairly realistic & upset a couple of kids in the audience.
John & I have a drink in the Saloon, it's a Sarsparilla for me & a 'Pig Iron' Cola for John, I remember the old Cowboy shows on TV!
There is also a great collection of mechanical musical instruments from the time, this Violano-Virtuoso was voted one of the 'Eight Greatest Inventions' of the decade in 1912 when it was made, it works as well!
This is Boot Hill (one of many) with the graves of 5 men hanged on Jan 14th 1964 by the vigilantes of Montana prior to the introduction of formal law enforcement.
Our bed for the night is also one of the original buildings & it's supposed to be haunted, we sleep well & see nothing unusual.
The town has many re-created shops from the 1860's & opposite the Inn is a Gypsy Arcade with more mechanical musical instruments & old gambling machines.
The star attraction however is a fortune telling machine for which $1m dollars was offered by the magician David Copperfield, it belongs to the State of Nevada however & can't be sold.
The local bar is full of atmosphere, as a change from sawdust the peanut shells are thrown on the floor & only cleaned up at the end of the season in September, the local craft beers are pretty good too.
I guess with the name of 'Big Sky' State you would expect the sunsets to be pretty good.
After Virginia City we head towards Glacier National Park & stop at Deer Lodge to visit the car museum & old Montana State Prison, they have a great collection of 1950 Chevrolet Bel-Air's, I'd love one of these.
Highway 83 follows the Swan River & we stop at Seeley Lake for the night before heading onto Whitefish, it's a scenic ride through more national forests passing Summit Lake as well as several others, Lindy Peak can be seen in the background.
The road continues through Flathead National Forest & reaching Whitefish we find a small clean Ski town, we will be here for 2 nights.
Another Montana sunset sets in with some great cloud formations.
Today it's a day ride to Eureka only a few miles from the Canadian Border returning via the Lake Koocanusa Scenic Byway, we are now not far from where we started?
The ride is good but I've never seen road repairs like this, a soft tar filling with paper!! it doesn't work & is very slippery.
Back in Whitefish a storm is brewing, it passes the town but rain falls over the mountains creating a double rainbow, you can also see the end as the bogies on the train wagons are lit up, is there a pot of Gold?
After a deserved night sleep we plan another short day to Virginia City & Nevada City, once again these were gold strike towns that fell into disrepair only to be rescued by tourism.
Nevada City has a living Museum & while we were there a re-enactment of a 1863 hanging took place by vigilantes, it was fairly realistic & upset a couple of kids in the audience.
There is also a great collection of mechanical musical instruments from the time, this Violano-Virtuoso was voted one of the 'Eight Greatest Inventions' of the decade in 1912 when it was made, it works as well!
This is Boot Hill (one of many) with the graves of 5 men hanged on Jan 14th 1964 by the vigilantes of Montana prior to the introduction of formal law enforcement.
Our bed for the night is also one of the original buildings & it's supposed to be haunted, we sleep well & see nothing unusual.
The town has many re-created shops from the 1860's & opposite the Inn is a Gypsy Arcade with more mechanical musical instruments & old gambling machines.
The star attraction however is a fortune telling machine for which $1m dollars was offered by the magician David Copperfield, it belongs to the State of Nevada however & can't be sold.
The local bar is full of atmosphere, as a change from sawdust the peanut shells are thrown on the floor & only cleaned up at the end of the season in September, the local craft beers are pretty good too.
I guess with the name of 'Big Sky' State you would expect the sunsets to be pretty good.
After Virginia City we head towards Glacier National Park & stop at Deer Lodge to visit the car museum & old Montana State Prison, they have a great collection of 1950 Chevrolet Bel-Air's, I'd love one of these.
Highway 83 follows the Swan River & we stop at Seeley Lake for the night before heading onto Whitefish, it's a scenic ride through more national forests passing Summit Lake as well as several others, Lindy Peak can be seen in the background.
The road continues through Flathead National Forest & reaching Whitefish we find a small clean Ski town, we will be here for 2 nights.
Another Montana sunset sets in with some great cloud formations.
Today it's a day ride to Eureka only a few miles from the Canadian Border returning via the Lake Koocanusa Scenic Byway, we are now not far from where we started?
The ride is good but I've never seen road repairs like this, a soft tar filling with paper!! it doesn't work & is very slippery.
Back in Whitefish a storm is brewing, it passes the town but rain falls over the mountains creating a double rainbow, you can also see the end as the bogies on the train wagons are lit up, is there a pot of Gold?
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