DILLON TO BOZEMAN - GHOST TOWN RUN

  Sadly we finally left Terry and Sally in Dillon and we took the road of the ghost towns of the gold rush era.
Today was the first day of serious rain since we arrived but we still managed to have a walk round Nevada City and Virginia City.

BEAVERHEAD ROCK

SANDHILL CRANES FLYING SOUTH......LIKE US!

TAILINGS FROM THE DREDGE

The scenery around these towns was decimated by the dreadful dredge - the huge machine that throws up piles of earth in its search for gold, leaving tailings everywhere.

NEVADA CITY

Torrential rain hit us by mid afternoon then eased as we arrived in Bozeman where we will stay for a day at least for food shopping and parts for the trailer brakes and to give Roy time to fix it. As we rolled into the campsite the lady said to Roy - I know you - once seen never forgotten! She didn't give us a discount though.

VIRGINIA CITY

Love this painted pony! I want one.

VIRGINIA CITY FROM BOOT HILL

AN AMAZING LADY

THE HANGMANS BEAM

THE CITY WATER COMPANY OFFICE WHERE THE MEN WERE HUNG

MORE SANDHILL CRANES

SPECIAL WORDS ABOUT AMERICA FROM OUR FRIEND

I often struggle with the right words to explain our time here, Terry wrote these on his blog and I think they are beautiful so would like to share them with you.

When we are surrounded every day by such beauty as we are here it is easy to become acclimatized to it and neglect to put that into our narrative. 
For the last two weeks we have been traveling in the mountains and forests of Eastern Oregon, Central Idaho and Western Montana in some of the wildest and most remote countryside in the United States. Mountain ranges such as the Wallowa, Clearwater, Bitterroot and Beaverhead that give evidence to, but also hide, the story of the making of the Earth itself, Volcanic construction and tectonic upheaval, bursting forth of liquid minerals to create the mineral and metal wealth. So remote that most Americans do not know where we are talking about. Mighty rivers such as the Snake River and small rivers like the Powder, Imnaha, Grande Ronde, Lochsa and the Big Hole each with its own story. Land that was only discovered by white men 200 years ago. 
It has been our privilege to see some of the most beautiful rivers, valleys and mountain passes in the world. We are disappointed if we do not see wild animals and birds at every turn of the road, a deer or bear, or at every glance out of our trailer windows a stellar jay or squirrel, every time we turn an eye to the sky we look expectantly for an eagle or hawk. Every mile of the roads we traveled have their own story of the making of America by explorers, mountain men, emigrants, gold prospectors, real cowboys and real Indians. Of life and death, hardship and joy, grizzly men and children alike passed across this countryside. What a privilege.

MT HOWARD NEAR JOSEPH

Thank you Terry and Sally xx

BIG HOLE NATIONAL BATTLEFIELD, BANNACK GHOST TOWN AND A MAD ENGLISHMAN ON A PENNYFARTHING!

We are still travelling with Sally and Terry but today is the last day. We made for the Big Hole National Battlefield which we have visited before but I wanted to see again. The video show told the tragic story of the Nez Perce slaughter. The tepee poles stood as they would have been left and you could almost hear the voices of the poor souls who were attacked for no reason.

BEAUTIFUL PRONGHORN

the battlefield

As we were going up the Big Hole Pass  we saw the strangest thing on the road.... a man pushing a penny farthing bike up the hill! Roy stopped, I went back and asked if he'd mind if I took his photo, he stopped and we found out he was English from London and he was touring the world, he makes penny farthing bikes, saves up enough to go off for a couple of years then comes back and does it all again. He had been to the Himalayas, Great Wall of China and Taj Mahal on his bike! What an eccentric! If you want to see more about him his blog is pennyfarthingworldtour.com. He was on his way to South America!

Our last stop was at Bannack, a ghost town from the gold mining era set in the middle of nowhere. Fascinating walking round and reading the history of the people who lived there.

We ended our day by enjoying a meal at the Lions Den Supper Club with Terry and Sally.

JAIL

MASONIC LODGE UPSTAIRS - SCHOOL DOWN

LAST ORDERS GUYS!

MASONIC LODGE

HANGMANS GULCH - SPOT THE GALLOWS

OVER LOLO PASS TO SULA, MONTANA

CANOE CAMP

Still travelling with our friends we headed east into Idaho, stopping at a couple of Nez Perce Historical Park sites – firstly, Canoe Camp or Ahsakha Village site – where the famous Lewis & Clark built canoes with the help of the Indians to continue their journey to the Pacific in 1805 and then Heart of the Monster, a mound of earth with a fabulous Nez Perce story about how Coyote protected the animals from the Monster by being eaten by the Monster and how the blood became the Nez Perce tribe, (shortened version) a young guy who was going fishing stopped to tell us the story.

We passed through an active wildfire along the Lochsa River, thick smoke and fire debris in the air made for poor air and views and camped for free for the night in the middle of nowhere at a campsite by the Lochsa River.

HEART OF THE MONSTER

WILDFIRE SMOKE

Over Lolo Pass and into Montana, mountain time – an hour lost. We had a short hike on the way to some hot springs up in the wilderness, dipped our feet in and had a chat with some Montana folk.

I find it amazing that as we looked across the Lochsa River there was the Selway – Bitterroot Wilderness is 1,340,587 acres of roadless wilderness. That is larger than the landmass of Delaware, which has almost one million residents.

We are now in Lolo Hot Springs RV resort, in cold weather so we all had a lovely morning in the Hot Springs at 104oF and swimming in the outside pool at 84oF. Hoping the weather improves!

WARM SPRINGS

The weather turned cold with the odd sprinkles as we moved camp and headed south down the Bitterrooot Valley, we lunched at Lake Como, totally deserted apart from a bald eagle.

LAKE COMO

LAKE COMO BALD EAGLE

WHITE TAILED DEER, WE WENT OUT IN THE EVENING LOOKING FOR ELK AND BIGHORN SHEEP - JUST SAW LOTS OF DEER.