Monday, July 15, 2024
Moving on to Butte, Montana
After a run to McDonald’s and the grocery store, we got on the road about 11:00. The Horse Gulch fire is still in the news. It has grown to 12,797 acres with zero containment. It is 2 miles north of Canyon Ferry Lake where we were yesterday.
We’re headed to the town of Rocker, just outside of Butte, for six nights. We think the temperatures there might be 6 to 10° cooler than here in Helena. At least we hope so. We are supposed to have full hook ups and Wi-Fi which will be an improvement over our last four days at the fairgrounds.
Our drive today took us between mountain ranges again. I saw a sign that identified the mountains on the left as the Elkhorn Mountains. I don’t know if the ones on the right are still part of that Sapphire Range or if we have another range now. It was a very pretty drive but it only took 1 1/2 hours. We almost wished it was longer, it was windy but a nice day for a drive.
Like most of our drives in Montana, we have a river (Boulder River) running along beside us.
At one point it was running in the median between the four lanes of traffic. Joe said he bet the river was there before the highway. It switches back-and-forth from side to side, tumbling over rocks. It’s not very deep, but it’s pretty.
We are driving through the Deerlodge National Forest. Somewhere along the way we picked up some roadkill on the front windshield. Joe is really looking forward to getting that scrubbed off. That was a conversation piece for miles.
As we came down the last hill, we could see Butte spread out before us. With our short drive today, we actually had some downtime in the RV this afternoon. Watched a little TV, took a nap, and then we went out to dinner and drove around the east end of Butte.
So we are now in Butte, Montana, of which we know nothing about, but we have already learned that it’s a very historic mining town with an area of copper mines. we saw at least seven derricks still standing and there’s a sign in town "The Richest Hill on Earth."
After that we drove around through the old part of town. It’s really smoky here. Mountains are clothed in smoke and haze from the fire.
We followed Main Street north out of town and got into their mining community, Walkerville. We saw at least 8 of these derricks still standing
Most of the derricks had a flag on top.
One mine, The Con, with the 3 derricks (there was another one over the hill) looked like it might offer tours. I'm sure we will learn more about that later.
Walkerville still looked like an old mining town. There are people living there, and some traffic on the streets. Most of the buildings are old, but some still have businesses operating in them.
Here's a picture of the smokiness as we headed to the RV. We could even smell the smoke at the camper. We don't know if this is smoke from the Horse Gulch Fire, or another one. There is a new one over toward Missoula. And Butte is in a valley so it seems to accumulate here.
Tomorrow we will go to the Visitor's Bureau and get information on the fires, mine tours, and see what else there is to see here. We also have to do laundry again. Predicted high is 86, so that will be an improvement over Helena.
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