Sunshine-y Day in the Big Sky State

This picture is of what I think is the Gallatin Range in the Rockies. I'm not totally sure, but we are just outside of Bozeman and I do believe this is Gallatin County. If someone knows better, please leave us a note! The field in the foreground is a recently harvested wheat field. We have heard it was a bang up wheat year...weather must have been just right.

Despite waking up to the hints of spitting wet snow, the day ended up being spectacular - by days end, we were driving under blue skies, range after range of Rocky Mountains rising up ahead, behind, and on either side of us. Splendid!!

Just west of Dickinson ND you come to Theodore Roosevelt Nat'l Park, which we will have to come back and explore at some point. We opted not to towing a moving truck! Very pretty land out there, with striped badlands jutting out, layers of geology crumbling away with every rain and wind storm. Beautiful, rugged land!

Eastern Montana was still under the darkened skies of the big weather system currently dumping lots of snow on Denver. Sorry Denver, but I must admit, I'm glad it was falling on you and not us in our van! We ended up really pleased to have taken the 94. Not only did we get to see Jake, but we also avoided some sloppiness that was extending up over the 90 south of us. About a third of the way into Montana on the 94, the front began to lose its hold and the skies began to break up, first into big clumpy gray clouds trailing each other closely, but then into sparser and sparser and whiter, fluffier clouds. By afternoon it was getting sunny and we were feeling most fortunate. The roads were clear and mostly dry, hardly anyone about till we passed Billings and joined the 90. We passed through one lower pass coming into Bozeman and are parked for the night outside of Bozeman about 6 miles in Belgrade, MT. There are literally mountains all around us. Snow predicted on the morrow, but just a little bit...maybe 2 inches and that will be wet with day time temps predicted in the mid 40's. Butte and Missoula are also getting good temperatures tomorrow, with snow showers only predicted for morning. We cross a number of passes tomorrow, so we are really pleased with the good tidings.

Tomorrow morning we're stopping in about 12 miles west of here at Wheat Montana, which is a wheat co-op I used to make purchases for at the bakery. Great wheat! We're going to buy a few bags of wheat berries to take home with us and have breakfast there - they have a delicious bakery, very large and all made on site - big delicious cinnamon buns and other breakfast delights. We try to stop there whenever we pass through Montana, and happily we have had a few opportunities thus far. Looking forward to a decadent, sticky breakfast. Probably won't be hungry again till dinner time after that! Mmmm.

It's so beautiful here! Every which way we look, there are beautiful things to see! Mountains, fresh snow on the hills, just harvested wheat fields with the golden stubble glowing, bare willows with bright yellow and red twigs making up for the green now gone. The sky really is big here! Beautiful clouds, too. What a wonderful trip so far! The weather has been A-OK. Hope it stays that way just a little bit longer!

Penny is the only one really ready for the trip to be OVER.

:-) Good night...

See the "Great Pumpkin" rising in the Western Sky (spooky Halloween magic) and other pictures from our first day in Montana: