Keep those doggies movin' - Rawhide...

GlacierTrip Bozeman to Deer Lodge (8 of 10)
Originally uploaded by Olivia Linkel

Today we drove from Bozeman to Big Hole National Battlefield. It was the prettiest stretch of country road you have ever been on. Hugging the Wild River the entire way with views of the snow capped Rockies. The road went through forest service property and here as in NC/TN they are losing trees to invasive beetles. Here it is the Lodgepole pines. Sad to see whole stands of dead trees. It took about three hours and on the way we went through Butte.

This park honors the Nez Perce tribe and the 7th calvary members who fell in 1887. It was extremely sad to hear the story of what happened at this site and the kids really took it in. They picked up another junior ranger badge and we learned quite a bit about the Nez Perce.

From there, we stopped along the roadside at the river to have lunch and then finished an hour long drive to Grant Kors Ranch in Deer Lodge. Along the way, we stopped to take some pictures in front of the Butte, MT sign - only one of which I can post.

This ranch is a working ranch owned by the national park service that was once owned by the "Cattle King of Montana" - Conrad Kors. It was a great hands on experience with cattle roping, a black smith who made us brands on wood and a horse pick, and a real chuck wagon where Scott drank coffee from the pot on the coals. Here you get the Junior Rancher badge instead of a ranger badge and you can choose it to be a patch. The kids earned theirs and then we headed to the campground.

The kids played by the river and on the swing set then we cooked dinner and watched Dances with Wolves because the weather here is cool and windy with off and on showers. Tomrrow we head to Glacier with a stop in Helena for a look at the capital building. Going to be a cold couple of days.