Day 13 Ghost Towns, Crazy Garmins and a crappy KOA

Final morning in Yellowstone and another yummy Breakfast buffet. Honestly it just hit the spot. The food was good, if only warm most of the time. But I did not care, in the morning give me a cup of joe and something to eat and I was ready to conquer.

Off I went and after two days in Yellowstone being on the open roads of Montana were a bit different. I drove by Earthquake Lake, colloquially known as Quake Lake. It was created by an earthquake that hit in 1959. It was really weird seeing a giant lake with dead trees sticking out all over. From wikipedia

"The earthquake measured 7.5 on the Richter magnitude scale (revised by USGS to 7.3) and caused an 80-million ton landslide, which formed a landslide dam on the Madison River. The earthquake was the most powerful to hit the state of Montana in historic times. The landslide traveled down the south flank of Sheep Mountain, at an estimated 100 miles per hour (160 km/h), killing 28 people who were camping along the shores of Hebgen Lake and downstream along the Madison River. Upstream the faulting caused by the earthquake forced the waters of Hebgen Lake to shift violently. A seiche, a wave effect created by wind, atmospheric pressure, or seismic activity on water, crested over Hebgen Dam, causing cracks and erosion."

I should have taken some pictures but I did not but it is still in my head and wanted to talk about it.

Here are some random bullet point musings.

• Montana has cell towers well at least one that looks like a giant tree. They should definitely do this everywhere. 
• The town of Ennis has this super cute downtown western feel. A bunch of towns do but this one stood out,
• I have decided the only place where people use the left lane properly is out west. Everyone uses it as a passing lane and gets back over. NO ONE seems to do that back east even though it is a law.

So I made it to Butte, Montana which is a big city spread out over well i guess a butte(?),  From the highway and into town I could see the 90 foot Our Lady of the Rockies statue. From Wikipedia.

"Our Lady of the Rockies is a 90-foot (27 m) statue built in the likeness of Mary, the mother of Jesus, that sits atop the Continental Divide overlooking Butte, Montana. It is the fourth-tallest statue in the United States after Birth of the New World, The Statue of Liberty, and the Pegasus and Dragon. The base is 8,510 feet above sea level and 3,500 feet above the town. The statue sits on private land and is lit and visible at night.

The statue was originally conceived by Butte resident Bob O'Bill in 1979 as a tribute to the Virgin Mary following the recovery of his wife from cancer.[1][2] Later, the statue was additionally dedicated to "all women, especially mothers."[3]"

Things went sideways here. I had planned on eating at this place in town but when I drove by it looked basically empty and half of it was a casino. It just did not look like I should go. So i kept driving and on to Garnet I went. 

So Garnet is a 1850's mining town that has been amazingly preserved over the years. The problem there are two ways to get to it up in the mountains. One is by Highway 200 in the north. I was in the south and had to take the way off of I-90. This is known as the Garnet Range Road. Susan, my garmin, if you have not been following, was not prepared. Or perhaps she was overcompensating. Let me tell you what happened. My phone GPS said If took this road called Rattler Gulch I would be about 21 minutes longer but would go through some more difficult roads. OF course i took this way.

I questioned my sanity the whole time. But if i had not gone that way I would not have gotten these cool pictures

Just sitting in a field rusting out was this? I mean what is this?

I am guessing a car of some sort.

This guy was like what the hell are you doing back here.

This guy too... but hey I was asking the same thing. . what the hell was this cow doing over here.. staring at me.

This was the most normal part of the drive. Gravel like road through things like this.

 Okay so then the horror story part started. First Susan is possessed and has me taking so many strange back roads I have no idea what is going on. I swear the road was not this crazy on google maps. It wasn't. I was not on the correct road. I should have been on Beer Gulch.

I was really starting to question my choice when I rolled around a corner to see a pickup truck stopped in the middle of the road. A wild eyed half wolf looking dog was running around the truck and he was messing around with something in the bed of the truck. OH MY GOD. It was a chainsaw. This was where it is going to end. I am going to die on some backwoods road by some hillbilly. It is all over. He looked back at me .....

and waved.

He motioned me forward and came over smiling to the door. He said he was not used to anyone using these roads. His family and pointed back to a ranch gate i had passed a few 100 yards back owns all this land around here. I told him I was just following the GPS up. And he inserted to Garnet? I said yeah and he was like most people do not take this way do to the 4WD nature. Oh do i know that. He said give me a second and I will move the truck out of the way.

I lived.

And he was actually super nice and never did I feel like it could have gone bad. I do not know why but never got that impression. After a few other turns I think I was on the right road and then I came across this.

Reynolds City was a mining tent city in the 1850's. When the gold ran out they left and burned down the whole place.

I honestly did not even want to know what that was all the way out here .... I did not go look.

You walk up a small cleared path from the muddy road to find this small cemetery to the past of Montana.

But kept behind freshly repaired picket fences sits the spot that 21 year old JKP Sticklin is buried. At 21 what was he looking for in the wild gold mine towns? I think Indiana Jones said it best. Fortune and Glory, Fortune and Glory.

After a few more ridiculous Susan moments I finally found Garnet, it even had a parking lot, a visitor center and well bathrooms. 

Here are some of my favorite shots of the town. I am sure when I get home I will put up more.

Kellys Saloon , 1898

The walk into Frank Davey's General Store. Davey died in 1947

The J.K. Wells Hotel

Kitchen area of the Wells

The common room of the Wells where poor miners would go and just throw down some blankets.

I can just imagine the miner sitting there now.... maybe he is?

All of the pictures just above here were from the random mining cabins still standing.

The Adams family lived here and had one daughter Mary. She was the last living resident of Garnet I believe. She told a story about when her family left, they left everything in the house but a few trunks. They even left her black cat. You can possibly hear the soft pads of the ghostly cat as you stand in this room ...

I had so much fun roaming around and then talking to the visitor center people I even got the cool shirt that said I survived the Garnet road. I had not. . not yet at least.

I got in the car and put Whitefish KOA into Susan and she promptly tried to kill me again. I only had a 1/4 tank of gas left. She decided to try and take me the Garnet Backcountry Byway to Whitefish. I shit you not. It took me a bit to realize as I criss crossed multiple roads and was lost beyond whatever. She was not taking me back to 90 where I needed to go. I eventually found a way to get her to just take me to 90 but it was a long devastating drive. None of the roads were roads. They were backcountry  all the way. I was lucky to get out with enough gas to make it to the next town. I will not lie it was a bit nerve wracking and scary for a bit. More so than the random guy with a chainsaw.

I then continued along on my way. I have some more random musings.

I love the Montana Highway Patrol cars. I just like the black and gold. I can not help it.

In the town of Ronan I noticed their high school had a rodeo yard like a football stadium. I know it is not called a rodeo yard . . I honestly do not know what they are called but i thought it was cool. I am sure it was something i had missed in other towns.

Also a lot of towns up 93 towards Whitefish were decorating hay bales for Halloween.

I have no visual proof of this next happening as I was pretty much stunned. Along 93 on the side of Flathead Lake I was cruising along and three cows started casually walking across the street. In a row. It so reminded me of the Beatles Abbey Road cover. It was awesome and I was stunned and did not take a picture.

Now for the really horrible part of the day. Two days ago I had called and left a message for the Whitefish KOA asking to upgrade to a cabin because I knew I was going to get there late, it was going to be cold and possibly rainy and I had to do laundry that night. They never called me back. I figured the office would be open till 8. I got there at 7:55.  Well the office was closed, the hours were covered over with paper. My name and TENT camp site was listed. Under my name was another late arrival who had a cabin. There were tons of empty cabins. I was furious that they never even tried to call me back. I also had tried to call them during the day and went to answering machine each time. I did my laundry and then ended up sleeping my truck. It was about the same as my tent....

what a day...