Summer Travel Map

Thursday, September 2, 2010

How many falls in Great Falls?

September 2, 2010
Great Falls, MT

Yesterday was another travel day. We had some strong afternoon thunderstorms, an OK night en route, and another partly rainy (a new weather term I made up) day traveling through Billings and then along MT-3, US-12, US-191 and US-87 into Great Falls. We arrived at our destination, Dick's RV Park (managed by the Dick family, of course) early in the afternoon. Once set up and hooked up, we headed out to Wally World for a quick shopping excursion, picking up enough provisions for the next few days. We had more strong storms and savage winds during the night.

Today dawned completely clear and on the cool side. Good sleeping weather! We cleaned up a bit and took off for a ride after lunch. It's "Great Falls" after all, so there must be a waterfall around here, right? Well, ask Lewis and Clark, I suppose. They arrived here in June of 1805 and spent two weeks hauling all their stuff up Portage Creek and around. So, we headed out on River Road and soon found Black Eagle Falls, with a large hydroelectric dam built right on top of the falls. A short distance down the road, we came upon a similar scene, this time at Rainbow Falls. I could see Crooked Falls off downstream (no power plant there). We then headed further downstream on the north side of the Missouri, to Ryan Dam and the Great Falls of the Missouri, the first waterfall Lewis and Clark ran into and the largest (and "greatest" of the falls).

So, four falls, right? Well, before they built all the hydroelectric dams, there were five. Colter Falls, a relatively shallow cascade, has been submerged behind Rainbow Falls. Accordingly, no pictures of that one. But, click here for more pictures from today's drive.

Tomorrow, it'll be a more sedate day. I think I'll wash the Rover...

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