Part One: In which we drive 895 miles, ride four wheelers around, and stay at a cabin far out in the wilderness with no running water, electricity or cell phone coverage but lots of ghosts.
I have so many photos to share from our trip to Montana and Canada. I'll try to pick just my favorites, but I'm still going to have to break it down into multiple posts. I made little maps for the days we traveled so you can get an idea of where we went.
This is a map of our entire journey. :
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| Google maps says it is 2953 miles (2 days and 7 hours). ish. |
Day 1 - Thursday, July 28:
I don't have any photos from this day because it was a travel day. Adam and I both worked half days, dropped Chester off at his parent's house, and then met my parents at our house. We drove from St. Paul to Dickinson, ND. When we arrived in Dickinson, we ordered pizza and then went to bed.
We were on the road from 2:05 pm CT until 9:40 pm MT (10:40 pm CT) with a few very short stops in between. Even though we were in the car for about 8.5 hours, the drive didn't seem too bad because we did some fun things to pass the time. Mom and I watched "The King's Speech" which I really enjoyed. Adam and I also played some cribbage.
Day 2 - Friday, July 29:
This was another travel day, but since we had made it so far the day before, it wasn't too bad. All told, we were driving for about 6 hours total (not including stops). It was so broken up throughout the day that it didn't even seem that long.
Right outside of Dickinson, we stopped at Teddy Roosevelt National Park to see the Badlands.
Around lunch time, we met Levi and Sheila in Glasgow, MT before driving to Malta and then Zortman. We had to leave our vehicles by Zortman and take four wheelers to the cabin because the roads were washed out from all the rain they got in Montana in the spring. It was quite the chore to get all our gear in with four wheelers and trailers!
I like staying at the cabin, but it's kind of rough to live without running water, cell phone coverage and electricity for a few days. I was definitely longing for a hot shower! It's strange, yet peaceful to be off the grid like that for so long.
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| Our camp by the Whitcomb Cabin |
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| Some pretty wildflowers by the cabin |
Day 3 - Saturday, July 30
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| Breakfast cooked over a hot fire |
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| Winston - we tried to get our pug fix in with him, but still missed our little Chester! |
After a breakfast cooked over the fire, we set out for a four wheel ride to the other cabin. There we relaxed, panned for garnets, ate snacks for lunch, and the boys played horseshoes. I never knew Adam was such a horseshoes pro!
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| Trail riding |
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| Some pretty wildflowers |
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| We saw this type of wildflower everywhere. It reminded me of fireworks |
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| One of my favorites |
Dad's Uncle Willy joined us that evening for some really good steaks and shrimp cooked by my dad over the hot fire grill. We sat around the campfire until it got late. I also saw a ghost.
Day 4 - Sunday, July 31
This was our last full day at the cabins. We headed into Zortman, and enjoyed a nice cool trail ride along the stream. It was probably our favorite trail ride because it was fun to go back and forth over the creek bed. We saw a lot of cool things including an old abandoned mining crane and people panning for gold.
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| The old abandoned crane |
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| Stine, Adam and Dad by the crane |
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| Explaining how he pans for gold |
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| He was really friendly and showed us some gold nuggets he had found. |
At lunch time, we ate at the Miner's Cafe in Zortman which was a fun experience.
After lunch, we went for a really long and hot trail ride on the east side of the Little Rockies.
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| Adam was ready to be done riding! |
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| I thought this little abandoned building was so cool |
That evening Willy joined us again for dinner. Stacy and Mark also joined us with their kids. It was nice to visit around the fire and roast s'mores.
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