Idaho, Part 1

Remember when I said I was going to post about our trip to Idaho? Well, I lied. Kind of. I'm actually going to start in New York State and talk a little about Montana, which is the state right next door to Idaho. Our trip this time started the evening of Saturday, August 30th.

As usual, we began by boarding the train in Syracuse and riding the rails to Chicago, where, after a two-hour layover, we picked up the Empire Builder and set out across the northern United States. Taking Amtrak is apparently becoming a popular travel option; our sleeping car attendant said the Empire Builder is pretty much booked solid until February of next year! With rising gasoline prices and airlines adding new fees, I can see why people would choose train travel. One of these days, when I'm in between vacation reports, I'm going to write up an entry on our Amtrak experiences, which have overall been positive. In the meantime, check out their website here.

We left the train in Shelby, Montana on Monday, September 1st. We had already called ahead and reserved a rental car, which we could pick up right at the train station. The first part of the journey was an easy 24-mile drive to Cut Bank, Montana, where we checked into the Glacier Gateway Plaza Motel. The rooms are clean and comfortable. Breakfast is included in our room rates. After a good night's sleep, we were off the next day to Hamilton, Montana, where our next hotel awaited us.

I'm including some pictures taken along the drive through Montana. You can see why the state's nickname is "Big Sky Country"!

Our drive took us through two places we've actually visited before: Bynum, which has a dinosaur museum, and Choteau, which has a small "town" consisting of a gift shop, museum, ice cream parlor, and other displays of local interest. The last time we stopped at the dinosaur museum, the fellow on duty in the display area talked to me for over 40 minutes about the Seismosaur skeleton, dinosaur eggs, and a host of other related topics. I'm not sure if he just didn't get a lot of adult visitors asking questions, or just didn't have a lot of women who seemed interested, or what, but I enjoyed the conversation. We didn't stop this time; I'll have to post the details of our two-week Montana trip at some point in the future.

After parking at the gift shop in Choteau, we walked across the street to Oasis Books, a bookstore connected to a grocery store that features all organically-made items. The bookstore specializes in first editions, and most of the books deal with topics of regional interest. The people running both stores were very friendly.

We stayed at the Best Western in Hamilton, Montana. Rooms again were clean, the bed comfortable, and the stay was very enjoyable.

After leaving Hamilton on the morning of September 3rd, we wound our way up into the Rocky Mountains until we reached the Continental Divide. As you probably know, this forms the two watersheds of the United States; all the water on one side of the Divide flows toward the Pacific Ocean, and the water on the other side flows toward the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. We stopped at the high point of the Lost Trail Pass, where explorer William Clark tried to cross the mountains as the Corps of Discovery expedition sought a way to the Pacific in 1805. (No one is sure of the exact campsite, but there is a rest stop here with information on the expedition.)

I will pick up with our trip into Idaho in the next post. Here I will leave you with the last look back into Montana from the Lost Trail Pass.