First a few photos of scenes from along the way…

Our trip from West Yellowstone to Deer Lodge made for a long but fun day in Montana.

We started out to cloudy skies but no rain in our campground.  We were impressed with the place given that it was in an urban location – the real benefit of camping in West Yellowstone was it was right at the gate to Yellowstone National Park, where we had earlier planned on spending a day seeing the familiar and popular sights.  However, since we spent an extra day in Twin Falls, in order to catch up to our itinerary we never entered the park.  Both Tom and I had seen it before anyway.

On our way to our next destination, the AOK RV Park (formerly an KOA that lost it’s accreditation,) we past signs for the Visitors Center at Earthquake Lake .  We pulled over, but it was 9:20AM or so and the visitors center didn’t open until 10AM.  We were already off the road, so we drove around and read the interpretive signs and were fascinated to learn that the lake was formed by a massive rock slide in a massive earthquake (magnitude 7.5) in August of 1959.  We learned that 28 people died – buried as they slept in campsites or drowned by the rapidly rising and fast-moving water.   We spent enough time at the outdoor interpretive signs that we were still at the visitors center when it opened at 10AM, and we went inside.

The visitor’s center is built on the rockslide that rode up the opposite side of the canyon, and has a great view of the missing side of the mountain.  You can read about the details of this earthquake – such as one campsite that was split in two with one side ending up 20 feet higher than the other.   For more information see this excellent website that has much of the same information we got from seeing the exhibits and watching their movie.  Very impressive job by the forest service.

After lunch, we drove through Butte on the way to Deer Lodge.  We learned about the World Museum of Mining and had to stop by.  We spent a couple hours climbing around actual mining equipment in an actual mine that went 2,800 feet or so deep.  Then we walked around their recreation of a turn of the century mining town.   It was very intriguing to see how mining technology advanced during the years Butte had many copper, gold, silver, and zinc mines – but we both agreed that the life of a miner – frequently called a mucker – must have been miserable.  The mules had it worse – they lived underground and frequently went blind.

We then drove on the 30 minutes or so to our campsite and arrived a bit before 4PM.   Scott – tired from all the fun we were having – suggested we eat out even though we had lots of leftovers.  Since we were going into town anyway, Tom suggested we go to the prison museum – the downtown prison was huge and ornate, and we drove by it on the way in.  We also noticed that there were several other museums close by, but one would be more than enough for a quick visit before dinner.

The prison was interesting if a bit depressing – Scott wondered whether it was better to be a prisoner or a mucker, but at least muckers were free to leave.  When we entered the prison museum, we learned that while the admission was kinda pricey at $29 for the two of us, it included, not only the prison, but the car, kids toys, and antique gun/WWII museums that were part of the complex.

The car museum was right across the entrance from the prison, and we had another hour before they closed.  What the heck – let’s look at a few cars.

A few cars was over 200 – the exhibit never seemed to end, and it was one of the best car museums we have ever seen.  It just kept going on, and on, and we barely got out before 6PM.

We then went for an uneven meal at a place Tom was convinced was as authentically Deer Lodge as you could get.  Tom sent his overcooked steak back and we waited over a half hour for the replacement with Scott nearly falling asleep in his food.  But an interesting story and lots of leftovers to add to our already ample supply.

When we got to the campground there was another Winnebago Navion – similar to Khan.  It turns it was driven by two older women with whom Tom chatted for a bit.  We’re right next to the Cottonwood Creek, and Tom spotted a swimming mammal that he thought was an otter.  However, he didn’t get a picture.