We departed Dickinson around 9 AM on Wednesday with a 323-mile trip ahead for us — destination, Billings KOA Holiday. We traveled west on I-94 and crossed into Montana about 70 miles west of Dickinson.
Up until now, we have been traveling along beside or somewhere in the vicinity of the Missouri River. Today, we said goodbye to the Missouri and said hello to the Yellowstone River. The Yellowstone River is considered the principal tributary of the upper Missouri and is approximately 692 miles long. We have crossed paths with the Yellowstone River several times on our journeys through Montana and South Dakota.
The Yellowstone River is one of the prettiest rivers as it meanders gracefully through valleys and across plains as it skirts about the Absaroka Range. It has a wide riverbed in the sections we’ve encountered. Also, we have often driven parallel to railroad tracks. This is a new section of highway that we have not traveled before. By the way, we have had some of the best roads in the country across this north-central section of the United States. It hasn’t been at all like we anticipated. It has been better. For sure, the roads have been better than we’ve become accustomed to east of the Mississippi.
The Absaroks Range, by the way, is a sub-range of the Rocky Mountains. The range stretches about 150 across the Montana-Wyoming border. At the widest point the range is about 75 miles. It goes from the eastern boundary of Yellowstone National Park near Paradise Valley and into the western side of the Bighorn Basin. (Yes, that Bighorn where Custer and his troops met up with thousands of angry Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribal members who were tired of being pushed around. Apparently, one thing Custer didn’t learn at West Point was the wisdom of sizing up the foe before going into battle.) We drove past the battleground by did not stop since we had been there before. If you’ve never had the opportunity to do so and are nearby, we recommend doing so.
So far, we have had great traveling weather, with rain only as we departed South Sioux City, Nebraska. As we approached Billings today, we watched a storm move north of us. We encountered a small rain shower but mostly only encountered winds from the storm.
Interstate I-94 intersects with and ends at I-90 about six miles east of Billings. From here our journey will be on I-90 as we travel over a significant distance we have driven before.
We arrived at Billings KOA around 3 PM. Billings KOA Holiday has been a stopping point several times in the past and is one of our favorite KOA campgrounds. In fact, the Yellowstone River flows past it. In caves across the river from the campground are petroglyphs that are a feature of a state park. The Billings KOA is the first KOA in the nation and opened 61 years ago to serve travelers heading to the World’s Fair in Seattle.
Shamelessly, Byron wanted the next photos plucked from the KOA site to show the setting at the campground.
No comments:
Post a Comment