Meandering through Missoula

A painfully slow Internet connection, a lost folder of photographs, and a couple of days of driving and meandering to and through Missoula have conspired to keep me from posting more faithfully.
Soon we'll be heading up river to inflate two kayaks and float/paddle them down the river right back to our hotel, where we've been watching all manner of fishermen, tubes and floats busy themselves these past two days.

On Sunday, we opted to take a somewhat longer drive from Bozeman to Missoula in order to drive through the Bitterroot Mountains and Valley, a route my trusty book on road trips through the U.S. had claimed was one of the more beautiful in the country.  While I have little photographic evidence of its beauty, you'll have to take my word that it was quite stunning.

First up, a quick pit stop near the Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park.  Unfortunately, an electric storm had taken out the lights within the cavern, halving the tours they offered and causing them to have a longer waiting period.  Since we learned that Lewis and Clark camped in these parts without actually discovering the cavern that inexplicably carries their name, we found it appropriate to do the same.  Still, it was a fascinating stop and amazing to think of the early explorers who discovered the caverns and explored them by climbing up the mountain we had driven and then lowering themselves down a 200 foot rope, which they would then have to climb back up.  A photograph of four nuns in full habits left me particularly in awe, imagining these women hauling themselves up a rope deep in a dark cavern just for the sake of exploring an unknown space.  Not sure if it filled me with awe or confirmed my fear that quite a few people are off their rocker.  Either way, it was interesting.

 

However, what made the most searing impression on all of us was what we learned as we crossed over to 93.  Passing through the sort of stunning rock caverns where you have seen or can imagine many Westerns filmed, we happened upon a historic marker that mentioned the Nez Perce and the Battle of Big Hole.   Being on the very ground where U.S. soldiers, who were ordered to relocate the tribe to a reservation in Idaho, had murdered women and children rather than allow them to leave for Canada, where they believed they would have more freedom and autonomy, on the same day immigrant children are being detained in deplorable conditions and ICE raids were threatened across the country was all just a bit much to process.  What I recall learning in school is pretty much limited to the Trail of Tears, so it has been powerfully eye-opening to be exploring so many of the areas where natives lived before they were driven from their homes, forced to sign treaties that were never honored, and relocated to reservations.  Daniel, ever the expert DJ, played one song after another about social justice, causing me to first cry, and then, finally, laugh, when his playlist went from "O-o-h Child" by the Five Stairsteps to Brad Paisley's earnest but laughable "Accidental Racist."

A few hours later, with both Maddie and Daniel taking turns at the wheel and some challenging driving through mountains, we arrived in Missoula, where we have relaxed, walked through the town, enjoyed the local homemade ice cream, visited the Smokejumper visitor center and learned all about the advances they've made at their fire lab here to make fighting fires in mountain forests safer for the men and women who do this dangerous job, tried to convince Daniel to shave as he is beginning to look quite a bit like a certain beloved animated character, and watched an entertaining but relatively bad movie (Stuber) in one of the most state of the art movie theaters any of us has ever seen.

Sights from our hotel room balcony... we'll be on that river soon

Learning about the fire fighting fabrics and tools created here

Maclean wrote A River Runs through It based on his childhood in these parts.

The river at night, under a full moon

Now it's off to breakfast, the float and a drive to Whitefish, Montana.  Tomorrow we spend the day in Glacier National Park, so I'm hopeful my camera will cooperate and the Internet will be working properly, so I can post some of what I imagine will be the most beautiful sites yet from our trip.