Bike ride in Great Falls, Montana

We left our overnight spot in the Lewis and Clark National Forest at 6:30am. It's now light out by 5:30am, so we like to get our driving done while there is no wind and hardly anybody on the roads.

From the time we got on the highway, it was downhill pretty much the whole way. In fact, there was one section where I didn't touch the gas pedal for over 20 miles (33 kms)! Amazing. Sure, at one point we were down to 35 mph, but with nobody on the roads there was no need to speed up.

We stopped at an overlook near Sluice Boxes State Park and had some breakfast.

Sluice Boxes State Park.

From the overlook, we saw a hiking trail that goes into the canyon, so after breakfast we drove down to the parking area and went for a walk. The trail is 7 miles long but it crosses the river at times and the water is too high right now, so we only managed to do about a mile and a half. Not bad to stretch the legs, but it would have been nice to do more.

Interesting cave, but it would have been difficult to get to.

A tree growing in the middle of the river.

American yellow warbler.

Belt Creek.

When we got back to the parking area we noticed the sign that says we were supposed to pay! Montana State Parks are not as friendly towards out of state residents and we were supposed to pay a parking fee. We likely wouldn't have gone if we had seen that first.

We carried on to the city of Great Falls (pop 59,000).

The town of Belt.

The prairies.

After the town of Belt, the landscape changed dramatically. We thought we were back in Saskatchewan! Which is not surprising because we are not that far away from Saskatchewan. In fact, the Canadian border is only about 120 miles (200 kms) from here.

As we entered Great Falls.

I had read on iOverlander about a free parking spot by the river that is right in town beside some tennis courts. We made it there, and it'll do for a night but it's not ideal. Better than Walmart though. I forgot to take a picture!

However the best part of it is that it is located right by the Missouri River Bike Trail system, and that was the main reason we came here.

So, we had some lunch and then hopped on the bikes.

This is the view opposite where we are parked!

Interesting art.

That's a lot of nuts!

The Missouri River.

Lewis and Clark with their native guide Sacagawea.

Looking back towards Great Falls

Pelican.

Interesting cliffs.

The remains of a silver smelter.

Ruth and the Missouri River.

Crooked Falls.

We turned around and headed back at this point. It was hot. The temperature was 91F (33C). Fortunately we had lots of water with us, and we drank most of it. 

We ended up doing 15 miles (25 kms) and were gone for 2 hours. Nice bike ride!

Didn't sleep the best last night. Too many noises... you can sure tell you're in the city with the number of sirens! We had planned on hanging around another day to see the town itself, but there are high winds coming that aren't supposed to settle down until Tuesday. We would have done one more day here, but we really don't want three more days here... so we are setting off towards Missoula before the winds pick up.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rechargeable LED Worklight Floodlight with Stand. Take 55% off at checkout using coupon code KBAL22O3

And in Canada...

Nice price drop on the Echo Dot.