Arriving at Big Timber

This morning we headed west out of Glendive across eastern Montana. What beautiful country! Interstate 94 follows the Yellowstone River all through this part of the state, along with the railroad. A lot of the area is undeveloped, although we did see some farmland and some horses. More huge fields, some beautiful expanses of golden wheat, and quite a few cornfields, irrigated and improbably bright green against the buff yellow of the surrounding hills. We saw a brightly painted red and white building touting their red angus beef, but unfortunately we did not see any of the cattle. We did pass a couple livestock yards, and numerous gargantuan grain storage facilities that were probably the size of several city blocks, but in the vast openness it's hard to appreciate their size. In one area, all the hilltops were dotted with pine trees. Some areas had considerable trees, and others were open prairie. Everything is so big it defies photography.

It seemed like we were climbing an elongated staircase going from Glendive to Billings, but it turns out that we climbed just as much from from Billings to Big Timber, and even further from Minneapolis to Glendive. We started out at 830 feet and are now at 4091. When we go home next weekend we'll be able to coast half the way!

We are camped along the Boulder River, which is pretty full and rushes by with a bit of a roar. I am looking forward to sleeping to the sound of it, and with "good sleeping weather"--temps maybe below 60! When we stopped for gas today in Billings it was 98, so I could go for some cool. Snuggling under the blankets, as opposed to being clammy and thinking "get 'em off me!" at four in the morning. Does make it a little more difficult to pry oneself out in the morning to let out the dogs, however.