Day 3: Kalispell to Billings MT

It was a high altitude drive today. After leaving Kalispell at 9am we took MT 83 south, what a pituresque route, certainly a scenic byway. There are several profoundly blue lakes, Swan and Seeley to name a couple. The lakes at the summit are still frozen over! I didn't try walking on the ice but it looked solid. The first couple hundred miles where spent well above 4000', Helena is at 5000'.

The elevation at MacDonald Pass was over 6800'. Sounds high, all of the Montana we drove thru today is high.

We ate lunch just east of Helena next to Manlove Homestead, the original log home they built in the summer of 1864 is still standing.

Just before and after Helena the landscape was no longer forested, it was rolling grasslands with mountains in the distance, then the mountains were no longer visible. And lots of landscape, gee, Montana is large, there are still many miles to reach the South Dakota line.

Jack has become resigned to his new daily routine. He is sleeping more there in the back seat. He consents to drink from the bucket of water he has back there, he treated it with disdain the first two days and would only drink when out of the car.

Today we saw more wildlife: bald eagle with a beak full of long sticks, ospreys both flying and in their nest, a herd of proghorn antelope, 5 deer on the side of the road sporting what looked like herds of lice on bare patches of skin, geese, ducks, lots of vultures circling together tightly, doves, pigeons, magpies, redwing blackbirds, and squirrels.

Much of the last 3 days we have been on the Lewis and Clark trail.

Over and out.....