Corps of Discovery Trip - Day 18 - June 17, 2026

 ONE MORE HIKE FOR THE ROAD 

We took it easy this morning and explored downtown Bozeman. Our hotel is on Main Street, so all we had to do was walk out the front door. Even though it was cold and windy today, there were lots of people enjoying their Sunday in town. Shops and restaurants line the street.

Karen spoke with the front desk attendant this morning and learned about a short walk through town that would get us an overlook of the Bozeman vicinity. After eating and shopping, we laced up and took off.

The Gallatin Valley Land Trust is a local conservation group that has initiated a network of trails through private and public land to help preserve the natural environment and to provide ongoing access for recreational use. Their signature project is the Main Street to the Mountains trail system.

It starts right here on Main Street, and a short distance away is Peet’s Hill and Burke Park. We walked through a leafy neighborhood and then climbed up the hill. In the winter time it’s a sledding hill. Today, it felt cold enough for snow, but was a dry and breezy stroll.

The walk was just over 3.6 miles by the time we got back to the hotel, and it didn’t even feel like we’d gone that far.

While Karen took a break in the room, I went over to the Museum of the Rockies, located on the campus of Montana State University. There’s not much about Lewis and Clark, but there were some nice exhibits.

For instance, how about some exotic fauna?

Live llamas.

Live Tree frogs.

Magpie door sentry.

Poisonous Amazon Jungle Frogs.

A Crow-A-Lope?

On our walk to dinner it was drizzly and cool with a wind chill factor in the 30’s. Brrr!

NEXT: Visit Jeff and Joanna

Corps of Discovery Trip - Day 17 - June 6, 2026

 CRUISE THROUGH THE GATES OF THE MOUNTAINS 

We’re staying right in the heart of downtown Bozeman on Main Street. This made it easy to walk across the street and grab a quick breakfast this morning.

Then we headed west on I-90 for a short distance until we passed Three Forks and Trident (it’s all about those three rivers - Jefferson, Madison, Gallatin - around here), and turned north onto Highway 287.

This road follows the newly-formed Missouri River northward, between the Elkhorn Mountains to the west and the Big Belt Mountains to the east. We passed through ranch land and seed potato farms on our way up into the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest. 

Just north of Helena, we joined I-15 for the last 20 miles up to Holter Lake. This is the jumping off point for the boat tour of the Gates of the Mountains section of the upper Missouri River.

When Lewis and Clark came up the Missouri there were no dams impeding the flow of the river. Lewis wrote in his journal that they could hardly make it through because of the combination of swift water and a narrow canyon with sheer walls thousands of feet tall. Coming upriver from the east through mostly flat prairie for much of the trip, he was beginning to be concerned about what lay ahead. He named this part of the river The Gates of the Rocky Mountains (since shortened to Gates of the Mountains).

Today, dams above and below the Gates control the flow. Although the rapids are gone, the towering limestone cliffs remain.

Here are some pictographs on a cliff above the river. Our guide said these have been estimated to be around 3,500 years old. Unlike the carved petroglyphs we saw on the Snake River, these are painted onto the rocks.

Aside from the famous Lewis and Clark expedition, we learned about another notable event that took place in the canyon.

The Mann Gulch Wildfire occurred in August of 1949. It involved the tragic loss of 13 out of 16 smoke jumpers who parachuted into the gulch just above the river. The lessons learned from the fire revolutionized fire fighting strategies in Montana.

For anyone interested in reading more about this, there is a book entitled, “Young Men and Fire”, by Norman Mclean (you may have heard of his other book, “A River Runs Through It and Other Stories”). Or, if you’d rather hear someone sing about it, check out singer-songwriter James Keelaghan’s tune, “Cold Missouri Waters”.

On the way back to Bozeman, we stopped for a quick look at the State Capitol building - it had been several days since our last photo of an old public building, so we were due for one.

And, no trip to Helena is complete without a visit to the Lewis and Clark Brewery.

NEXT: A day of rest in Bozeman

Corps of Discovery Trip - Day 16 - June 5, 2026

 COLLECTIBLE CLOTHING; CAVERNS; CONFLUENCES

On the way out of Anaconda this morning we saw one more reminder of the powerful hold that the copper mining history has over this town. The signs below show the potential value of vintage clothing from the mining era. It’s time to check those closets!

We had reservations to tour the Lewis and Clark Caverns today on our way to Bozeman. After crossing over the Continental Divide, and just off I-90 near the little town of Cardwell, we turned onto Highway 2 and followed the Jefferson River into a narrow valley that climbed up to a wider valley. Up here, next to the river, is where Lewis and Clark camped in 1805 on their way west.

Three miles north up in the steep hills lining the valley, is the entrance to the caverns. The road going up switches back and forth to quickly gain elevation.

The caverns have a long and interesting history, but the short version is: Native Americans knew about them for eons, but never went into them. Lewis and Clark did not know about them, even though they were camped just three miles below. Some ranchers in the 1880’s saw the entrance, but never went in. An 1890’s landowner/entrepreneur learned about them and explored them enough to know he could make a buck leading tours. Eventually, with help from the C.C.C. in the 1930’s, the State of Montana turned them into a State Park.

Here are some photos we took inside, where the air temperature was a cool and consistent 48 degrees.

A formation called the North Pole. Note Santa with a ball cap.

This one’s called Babe Ruth’s bat.

Here we are next to a door built by the C.C.C. and still in service today.

A geode in the wall of the 500 foot long tunnel blasted to get into the caverns (also compliments of the C.C.C.). Our guide says this geode runs hundreds of feet horizontally through the side of the mountain.

Who is that on the left, peeking out?

Our next stop was north of I-90 at the Missouri River Headwaters State Park. To get there, we drove along the Jefferson River. On our way, we crossed over the Madison River and the Gallatin River.

It is where these three rivers meet that the Missouri River begins. It is where Lewis and Clark camped. It is where generations of Native American tribes congregated to hunt and trade. It is also where Karen and I stood today.

This is Lewis Rock, where Meriwether Lewis climbed up to make astronomical observations and plot maps as they traveled west.

Back in June 2018 at the other end, Karen and I also stood in St. Charles, Missouri, where the Missouri River flows into the Mississippi River, and where Lewis and Clark officially started their expedition.

We pulled into downtown Bozeman tonight just in time for an authentic German dinner.

NEXT: Gates of The Mountains State Park