heidikins.com

Ghost towns, Dinosaurs, and Buffalo (also: Montana)

Philipsburg, MT is the biggest city in Granite County (it’s still a really small town though), and notable for their quaint downtown, overpriced food, and an amazing candy shop.

The Sweet Palace is on the main floor of one of the Victorian buildings on Main Street, and the shelves are packed with glass jars full of every kind of candy and sweet that you have ever (or never) heard of. I could have walked in circles for days and not seen everything I wanted to try. (Note: I need to learn how to adjust my camera to take pictures inside, because they all turned out orangey and blurry. Learning curve on SLR, right here.) They also have a big selection of various flavored chocolate and a fudge counter where they give everyone

Granite Ghost Town and Mine are located in the mountains above Philipsburg, and frankly, if I hadn’t seen a little blurb about it in guide book I bought for this trip we would have missed it completely. (By the way, that book was the best $15 I spent for the entire trip.) The road to get up there is really steep and 4WD is definitely required. The views over the valley are stunning and the ruins of the town and mine are hauntingly fascinating.

The town part wasn’t very big, perhaps 10 collapsed buildings long with the biggest one–a 3-story Miners’ Union Hall–being the one that was most impossible to photograph. I loved the eerie, almost surreal quality of this place. (Yes, I edited these pics to be more ghost town/old timey because the bright colors didn’t really give the feel that I wanted of the town. My blog, my rules.)

The old mine was a bit up the hill from the town, and it was fascinating. The rock wall that was half-collapsed, the stamped bricks, the enormous wood pillars and the dilapidated building up at the top. Part of me wished I had the space and where-with-all to haul a couple of those distressed wood columns home–they really were beautiful up-close. (Yes, I totally crawled all over that pile of wood and brick and stone. In flip-flops. Carefully clutching my camera as I scrambled up to the top. That’s just how I roll.)

**Editor’s Note: I had initially decided to break this post into two separate ones, but I seem to be on a roll right now and I’m excited to get to the Yellowstone leg of my trip, all 437 pictures of it. Yes, I’m serious. At any rate, on we go from Philipsburg to Helena to Bozeman.**

After stocking up on candy at The Sweet Palace and touring the ghost town, J-Mo and  headed back to his parent’s house. A few days later he and I went on a 100+ mile Harley ride through some gorgeous country and an unpleasant downpour. Of course, I didn’t take a single picture of that. (Don’t judge me, I had the wind in my hair and was trying really hard to dodge the bugs that kept dive-bombing my face). Before I had to pack up and head back home, J-Mo and I had one last adventure on the Green Jeep Tour, starting with an off-roading attempt over the pass between Butte and Helena. Unfortunately, even in June, there was too much snow to get through. I’m sure we would have just gone for it if we had a bottle of extra water, and real shoes, and perhaps a jacket. Here’s to being responsible, I guess. Even so, the scenery was lovely up there and the lodge pole pines are strangely soothing.

I have heard Helena is absolutely beautiful, and the little I saw of the city only confirmed that. It was pouring rain while we were there, so instead of getting soggy, sloshing wet while exploring the city, we opted for lunch, a movie, and drive-about to see a few buildings. Like the state capitol building.

And this fantastically Gothic cathedral. I would love to go back to Helena and explore a little more. But for now let’s head East to get chilly and wet in some caves. The Lewis and Clark Caverns were not discovered by Lewis or Clark, but they are located on the famous route the explorers took through Montana.There are signs here and there stating “Lewis and Clark slept here” and “Lewis and Clark allegedly camped here once” and every other road, diner, and sight-seeing point is named after the traveling duo.

Now, I’ve been through caves before, I’ve seen how incredibly dark they are, felt how deliciously cool they are, and can tell you the difference between stalactites and stalagmites. That being said, I’ve never been through a cave like these ones.

The formations were incredible, the story about discovery was exciting, the knowledge–imparted by our 20-nothing tour guide–that cave bats are a regular site/sound in the cave was a bit thrilling. That part was awesome. The not-as-awesome part was the pathway through said cave. It was narrow, ridiculously narrow, and steep, and in some places (most places) the ceiling was less than 5 feet tall which meant I was crouching constantly to avoid cracking my skull open on the rocks. I was careful and paid close attention, but I still managed to get a good bonk in somewhere in the middle. Seriously, it’s slick, and narrow, and tiny. If you are claustrophobic or have trouble walking I would not recommend this particular excursion. At one point you actually scoot on your bum along a slide to get from one cavern to the next. Is this awesome? Yes, it is. But I didn’t love having to stare at my feet the entire time to avoid taking a tumble into million-year-old rock formations, the kind that essentially die (stop growing) if they have contact with the oils on human skin. That’s a lot of pressure, you know!

That being said, there were some really spectacular formations. Towards the end of the caverns the state has invested in some new lighting that is supposed to help make the formations look their true color (instead of everything looking any orangey-yellowish color), and you can see lots of pinks and greens and even some purple. I love how a trace amount of the right minerals in the dripping water will change the formations colors so drastically.

All in all, this stop was well worth the hike and the super-skinny-super-tiny trail to see everything. Just be warned that you will get to go on a slide to get through these things. A slide made of millions-of-years-old slippery, shiny rock.

After hitting up the Caverns we had just enough time to get to Bozeman and go to the very impressive Museum of the Rockies. This museum has a little bit of everything. They have a “living museum” of “old timey” things, a house and garden and farm that is staffed by people in costumes from the 19th century, doing things like churning butter, milking cows, weaving on looms just like it would have been done 150 years ago. You can go through all the rooms and see the beds and furniture and kitchen and black smith shop and everything. It reminded me a lot of the founding and settlement of Salt Lake City, actually.

In addition to this part of the museum, there were also displays on Native American dress, weapons and life with photos and beadwork and history plaques. There was a giant display about frogs; the museum has it’s own planetarium, and at least a dozen rooms full of dinosaurs. Did you know that the Rocky Mountains have revealed more dinosaur skeletons than anywhere else in the world? I didn’t. And I live in the Rockies for heaven’s sake! Seriously, their dinosaur displays rivaled the one I saw at the Museum of Natural History in New York City a few summers ago.

And then, after all the skeletons and poisonous frogs and gorgeous bead-work on moccasins, we got to the part of the museum that is dedicated to all things Yellowstone. As this was my next stop, I was particularly interested in this section. It’s got a lot of great stuff for kids to do, activities and coloring and clothes to try on and earth-systems to study.

And they had a life-sized buffalo made out of junk. Bike tires, belts, a guitar, engine parts. The wooly part on it’s head is made out of piles of old-school telephone cords. And doyou see the baby buffalo laying on the ground between Big Buffalo’s hooves? Adorable. And Awesome. Seriously, click on that pic to blow it up a bit and then play “I Spy With My Little Eye.” Go on, clickity-click-click.

Coming up next: Yellowstone National Park

See all my Montana pics here.

6 Comments so far
Leave a comment