Big Sky Country

Beautiful, isn’t it?

You know the saying “If you don’t have anything nice to say…”? If I applied that principle to my trip to Great Falls, Montana last week this would be the end of the post.

But I’m not that good of a person so I’ll share more.

Great Falls, Montana is loved by many… apparently. I am not one of them. I think they overstated the name a bit. Falls, Montana would’ve been a more appropriate name.

But in order to skip over the boring details of what one CAN'T do in Great Falls, I'll move along and try to point out the 2 things I found to do!

One of the things I did there was visit the Lewis and Clark interpretive Center and become very edumacated. For instance, I learned that the crew of the expedition had to portage around the “great falls” 18 miles.
(Definition of Portage: They had to take their boats out of the water, build wheeled ramps for them, and lug them across country to avoid the waterfalls. And we’re not talking small canoes here! One was a keelboat (below) and the others were large canoes.)

Here’s one of the falls:

I’m sure they were much prettier when Lewis and Clark saw them. Modern-day man has rather ruined the look, wouldn’t you say?

Here’s another part of the Great Falls area.


Lewis originally described them as a “sublimely grand spectacle.”

Another thing I did while in great falls was visit the C.M. Russell Museum. I’ve seen some of his work before and pretty much loved it all but now he has earned a permanent place in my heart. Let me tell you a little about Charles. He lived from 1864-1926. (And no, this is not a school report.) He grew up in St. Louis and his parents wanted to send him to a boarding school when he was in his mid-teens. Charles wasn’t loving the idea because he dreamed of the wild west. His parents decided to send him to Montana to live with an aunt and uncle in order to cure him of his desire. They figured once he saw how tough life was in the west he’d be cured. Their plan backfired and he remained the rest of this life. He was an amazing artist and some of his early work is quite funny. He had a great sense of humor which you'll have to see for yourself if you ever visit.

"MEAT'S NOT MEAT 'TILL ITS IN THE PAN"

Charles M. Russell definitely would’ve taken me to the mats over saying Great Falls isn’t that great. But seriously… the first two days I was there the low was -11 and the high was -1. Nothing about negative degrees Fahrenheit is ever “great.”

I’m sure the country Lewis and Clark saw was quite a bit different and in some nice 80 degree weather my opinion might alter a bit. But for now I’ll stand by my love for Utah.

Oh, and if you’re waiting for your FedEx package to come it might be a while. I think the driver decided to take a cat nap down by the river.

He’s in no hurry, obviously!