Well, I am back and we have had some amazing day trips that I want to share with you. Now realize in between all my babble will be picture overload but so worth looking at.
First of all, I want to give a shout out to the place we are staying which is Indian Creek Campground. The main manager is Penny and what a very nice lady she is and a busy one too. We have been treated so wonderfully here and can’t express what a nice place this is. We will be here till the end of the month and it is so fun to watch many campers leave everyday and then by evening this place is totally full again. Crazy and man some of these rigs are huge. Makes ours look little and we are not little at all.
Below is Penny. Super super nice and a very busy woman.
On July 7th, we decided to take a little drive and we went to Anaconda. Cute little town, so we stopped at a brewery and went in for a cold drink. I loved the neat things inside. The beer taps were very original. The picture is made out of wood and painted. I thought it was quite unique.
On July 13th, we decided to just get in the truck and drive. Best day ever. We came to Dillon, Montana and what a super cute town. We parked the truck because there was a train depot I wanted to get a closer look at. It was a Monday, so the Museum was not opened but I still got some pictures and some good history by reading and peeking into some windows. lol
This tree truck is 300 years old. Seriously this is crazy.
This wagon was sitting by the old depot. I would have loved to tour the depot but it was part of the museum and so it was closed.
These signs were on the wall on the outside of the museum. It was Lewis and Clarks trail and the other is brands. 
The front of the depot and actually the whole block was a boardwalk and all the names and brands from the sign was engraved in the wood of the boardwalk. It was so cool.
In case you can’t read this sign, it says: From Moosetown, 1866, this is the most primitive invention for crushing quartz. Weighing between 1200 and 1600 lbs, the fragments of rock are spread upon a circular enclosed stone bed, on which a mule walks along led by the arm of an upright shaft. This mechanism is like an old-fashioned cider-mill only heavy rocks are used to grind out the quarts. ARRASTRE.
This is a typical one room log cabin built in 1885 by Thomas W. Poindexter, a son of Philip Poindexter one of the original owners of the P & O Ranch just outside of Dillon. It was built on a lot purchased from the Dillon Town Lot Company for $1.00. The logs came from the Hoffman Gulch area in the Sweetwater drainage north and east of town because the trees were short, but thick in diameter. The logs were hand hewn, the corners fitted and stacked to the needed height. It is typical of many of the cabins built during this era.
These were some cut outs. I can’t imagine how long this would take years ago.
As we were walking back to the truck, Curt saw this sign and he really liked it and so I took a picture so y’all could see it.
We got in our truck to go leave Dillon and go somewhere else and this store caught my eye and I wanted to go, so Curt goes around the block and parked and I jumped out and went in. Curt went in too for just a little bit and I think he could tell I was going to be awhile so he went out and sit on a bench outside. lol. This store was called:
I talked to the lady that was running this store and she told me the man that owns it actually lives in Africa. She said all the taxidermy is the original animal the owner shot. She said the only thing that was not original were the elephant tusks but they were the exact size of the tusk and each one weighs 90 lbs each. Everything in the store is from Africa. The owner ships everything for sale in the shop and a lot of the things are hand carved from native people in Africa. This store was amazing and a great find. A lot of the things were very expensive but I did find a few things I could afford and few things on sale if you want to call it that. But I was so intrigued and I really am proud of the things I bought. Here are a few pictures I took.
I came out with my purchases and we continued our drive. I kept seeing these pretty wild flowers and we needed to get out and stretch so I walked into the weeds to get these pictures and there were a billon mosquitos the size of a fly and by the time I took the pictures and went back to the truck I was bitten several times. The sacrifices I make to get a picture. lol lol
Look at this scenery. I never ever get tired of looking at this.
This was a cute little ranch just stuck out there. I loved it.
On down the road we went and came into a little town named Wisdom. We pulled in so I could get this picture of this house. It had a sod roof.
in this area, they put up a lot of loose hay which Curt was so intrigued since he had his own hay business in Texas. This is the contraption they use to put loose hay up.
I love the fences out here. So unusual but they are also good for all the snow they get. I just thought they were so awesome.
This is Wise River. So pretty.
This Rock was just sitting there at the Wise River. Weird what intrigues me. I loved it.
It really was a great day.
On July 15th, we took off again for a day trip. This trip was so awesome. We were literally just going to take a scenic drive. Famous last words. I do want to throw in here, Curt Wilder is the best guy to travel with. I am notorious for saying….stop here, turn here, I want to see this or that, etc and he just calmly does it. Well this trip was one of those days. We got to Helena….what a wonderful find. We knew it was the state capital but that was all we knew.
As we were going through I saw this thing that looked like a huge needle. I said, Curt turn right…he did and then said why? I said there is a needle thing sticking out and I want to see what it is. So we drove to it and it was the Civic Center.
We then ended up in the historic district and man it was beautiful. Some of these houses were 4 stories. Incredible.
We then decided to head out of town and I saw two steeples. Again, I said, wait let’s go toward those Steeples. I know it is a church but I want to see. So we headed that way. OMG. This was the biggest church I think I have ever seen. It was a Catholic Church. I took pictures and then I went inside and seriously it gave me chill bumps and took my breath away. Stunning. The front wooden doors were huge and on each side were carved out bishops and the archway completely across the big doors were carved out lots of angels.
The ceiling
We then went to the backside and the side and I jumped out to take more pictures and there was a lady walking up with 2 little girls and I asked her how long the church had been here and she said a very long time. One of the little girls quickly goggled it and said it was built in 1914. The nice lady said it was built as a replica of the one in Vienna. She said one of the old stories was a man told the bishop he bet he could fly his private plane between the steeples and he did do it but shortly after, he got his pilot license taken away. lol These are pictures from the side and back so it shows how huge this church is.
So again, we decided to leave and we went down the street and we saw this. So we parked and I took some pictures. Very unique part of town.
The house below was a doctors house. It said by appointment only and it was a naturalists Doctor. I thought it was unique.
We decided we needed to get down the road so we loaded up again and you guessed it……we went around two corners this time and there was the capital building. So I once again, jumped out to get pictures.
Curt said, I’ll drive around the block so you can get a front view. I jumped back into the truck and we went around the corner and right beside the capital was the Montana Museum and it was opened. Woot Woot. I said, I want to go….so I jumped out and Curt went to park. I walked briskly to the front of the capital building and it was under construction but I took another picture.
I decided to take some pictures of the outside of the museum while I was waiting on Curt.
This was in front of the museum. It was awesome.
Okay….now let me just say this. This museum is amazing to say the least. To let you know how much we liked it…..we were in there for over 3 hours. I took 642 pictures inside the museum but don’t worry, I won’t be posting all of them. But I will say, if you ever get a chance to go to Helena, Montana it is so worth it. So much history in this museum. Amazing.
Charles Russell is an artist that is displayed in this museum. I will only show some of my favorite pictures he either drew with pencil or painted. Amazing. There were so many pictures and pencil drawings. This man was really talented.
This is what was written in the bottom right of the above picture. His handwriting was beautiful.
This was the brewery part of the museum. So interesting.
Then we came to the beginning of the history of Montana. Simply amazing.
By the time we left the museum, it was time for Curt’s stomach to eat so instead of leaving we went to a brewery to eat supper. It was really really good and after we ate, we did finally start home and by the time we got back to the campsite it was 9:30 pm. It was such a great day trip and it was nothing we had discussed to do. So we decided when we decide to take a day trip we are not having any destination….just drive and see what we see. It makes the best trips ever.
I hope you all have enjoyed this trip with us. Stayed for more day trips.
Until next time…..
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