"I'm Gonna Ride 'Til I Can't No More"

Our trip to the twin ghost towns of Virginia and Nevada City had us retracing a bit of our drive from the day before.  When that drive takes you through Gallatin National Forest and  Yellowstone National Park, you just continue to soak it all in.  When we made the turn on to 287 heading towards Ennis, there were yet more sights to take the breath away.  The wild flowers have been late to bloom this season, as the locals have grumbled that summer just arrived two days ago.  We have been enjoying the cool reprieve from Florida, but we sure could understand the locals' eagerness to have the beautiful colors come back, especially as we passed miles of fields of yellow - so gorgeous.

Love all these fly fishermen!

In addition to the backdrop of mountains throughout our drive, we also had the musical backdrop of new music by Little Nas X and Ed Sheeran.  It made for quite the dramatic drive.  Those of you who check out Maddie's Instagram story probably have a sense of our back seat dance floor.

Arriving to the western/fishing town of Ennis  just in time for lunch, Dana got his first "howdy" of the trip, and Daniel declared the french fries that came with his meal the best of the trip, if not his life.  We just hoped that the potatoes came from Idaho.  While we didn't spend much time in Ennis, it was easy to see why it is a favorite starting point for fly fishermen visiting this area of the state.

The drive from Ennis to Virginia City was short but spectacular.  Ennis is surrounded by three mountain ranges, and scenery is jaw droppingly beautiful.  The "big sky" moniker is certainly justified.

Next up were the ghost towns.  Initially I was a bit disappointed by how accessible they were by cars, which can be parked up and down the street, right in front of each of these restored structures.  In the past when we had visited ghost towns, the parking was far away, and the feeling of walking through the empty buildings and past them on dusty roads, no car in sight, definitely added to the mystique.  However, what quickly became apparent is that Virginia City, especially, is a vibrant little town that owes its vibrancy to its colorful origin story and the mission of one Montana couple in the 1940's to make sure that history was protected.

The local newspaper and book publisher back in the day

Daniel realized that he had only thought of the gold rush as occurring in California, so it was eye-opening to realize all the various parts of the country that were effected by early settlers' search for gold.  When we took a stagecoach tour later in the afternoon, we were able to visit the "point of discovery," far enough off the main road to feel as if we had slipped through time to imagine the two men who took a chance on an out of the way spot, struck gold, decided to keep it a secret, but made the foolish choice to go back to nearby Bannack and feast on steak and eggs before returning to their "secret" spot.  The savvy fellow surveyors in Bannack recognized that the men wouldn't have been able to afford such a meal if they hadn't found something, followed them to the spot, and Virginia City was born.

Not surprisingly, when you put that many people in an area, all of them searching for gold and staking claims, not only does a city emerge but so to does all manner of lawlessness.  Apparently the area was notorious, in particular for having a sheriff who was one of the most lawless among them.  Learning of the history of the early African American citizens who owned businesses here, and the Chinese citizens who couldn't legally stake a claim but cleverly found ways to collect the gold dust from the linens and clothes they washed, brought to life once again what a rich history our country has.

Our guide told us that one local resident, who still mines his inherited claim, returns each summer and collects enough gold to live through the winter before returning again the following year.  We also learned that in the 1850's Wells Fargo ran the stage coaches (the one in which we rode was an exact replica) that brought people in and out of town to manage their gold claims, thus shedding light on the logo they have to this day.

As you may have seen in our Facebook posts yesterday, an afternoon storm swept in suddenly and fiercely, pelting hail on any person or car still outside.  Luckily we were able to dive into a cute little candy store and watch the dramatic show while sheltered.  It was quite something.  The shop owners said they had never seen anything quite like it.

Once the rain subsided, we were able to make our way just two doors down to an adorable little ice cream parlor, The Creamery, and wait out the rest of the storm while enjoying what is considered the best ice cream in Montana (it was delicious) and post a note on their wall (their answer to "social media").   When the rushing water slowed, we made it to the car and continued to and through Nevada City, which, with all the rain having driven everyone away, seemed much more ghost-like than its counterpart.  We slowly made our way, reading some signs and taking it all in, but remaining in the car lest the storm returned.

Our drive back to Big Sky would take us through Bozeman, where we had dinner but were too late to enjoy any shopping,  some lovely sunset vistas, and then, finally, a somewhat harrowing several miles in the dark and rain before we arrived back at the condo for a game of shanghai with the two fulls decks I discovered had been hidden in our luggage all along.   I won. :)

Today is our last full day in Big Sky, so we're staying local.   If the weather holds, we'll try out a couple of hikes in the area.  One, in particular, is supposed to be astounding.  Tomorrow we head to Missoula for what promises to be a very different glimpse of Montana.