Marvels of Underground Water

Rolling down Rte 287 we stopped at the Lewis & Clark Caverns. We couldn't take the coach up the dirt road to the caverns so we unhooked the car, left the coach in the RV parking lot, and drove up the winding road up to the caverns. We signed up for the 12:50pm tour and grabbed lunch at the cafe. As we sat at a table outside we watch the tour before ours go UP the path that wound around the moutain - what have we done! Several people turned around and came back down... oh oh... We met our guide and she explained we had to walk the path along the side of the mountain which was a 3/4 mile hike that elevated 300 feet (I thought you went below ground to see caverns..). As some of you know I am afraid of heights.. but off we went. Thanks to Ken he got me through it. We had 1/2 hour to do the hike and it took the whole time! As I stood in the mouth of the cave I could look out over the valley below and it was beautiful.

Lewis and Clark Caverns is Montana's first and best known state park. Hidden in the white limestone cliffs high above the Jefferson River, are two dark holes. These openings are gateways to an underground world of spectacular caves that are naturally air-conditioned and feature a world of frozen waterfalls, multi-tiered columns and rock icicles. In 1892, two hunters discovered the cave. Though Indian arrow heads have reportedly been found in the cave, these were the first men of modern time to enter. Tom Williams, one of the hunters, returned to the cave six years later and began to wonder about the possibility of developing the caverns. A local miner and investor named Dan Morrison was approached. Morrison opened the caverns to the public and began to build 2000 wooden stairs inside. These included the famous spiral staircase, and started a large campaign to publicize the caverns in 1901. You can still see some of the original staircase today.

The tour was about 2 hours and it was excellent. Exiting the cavern through a tunnel that goes through the mountain we found ourselves back onto flat ground.

We continued down Rte 287 through ranches and small towns which are very close to being ghost towns! We arrived at the town of Ennis and our stopping point the Ennis RV Park. We got settled in and had our evening cold “Mikes Lemonade” while we enjoyed the view of the Madison Mountains.

We headed into town. Ennis is a little western town and we walked up main street enjoying the various store windows. We found the Long Branch and walked through the bar to the restaurant in back for dinner. Ken had pork chops and I had a big salad and taco. The food was really good and the bill was $23!

After dinner we took a ride out of town. We saw about 100 deer in a field as we drove down the road. The sky was clouding up and getting very black. We turned around in the driveway of a ranch and saw several pronghorn. The clouds suddenly burst and we had a fantastic rainbow over the mountains. It went from the ground up the side of a butte and into the clouds. The colors were really clear, even the purple.

When we got back to camp we had new neighbors in the site next to us - they were the couple from Phoenix we met in Medora on July 31! What a small world. We had a nice visit. Bill got a tour of the coach as he would like to downsize.

What a nice day. Don’t know if we’ll have time to fish as we have to be in Yellowstone on Wednesday. There’s not enough time to do everything. We really want to come back to Montana!