One of the reasons that we decided to come up to Great Falls, Montana is that I have always been a big fan of the Lewis and Clark expedition and this is prime Lewis and Clark country. We have been bouncing along their route since we left Portland and Great Falls has a wonderful Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center, a part of the National Park system, right on the banks of the Missouri River. The center is a place where you can get a good idea of what life must have been like on their journey. Check out their expedition here
From the interpretive center we went over to the Charles M Russell Museum. For the uninitiated, Charles Russell was a painter of the west and lived in here Great Falls. His paintings have always been some of my favorites of the old west, along with Frederick Remington. Again, this is a fantastic museum and is on the site of his home, where his studio is still standing. His paintings are even better in person, which is always the case.
From here the plan was to drive down to Billings, I think that tomorrow we will go to the site of Custer’s last stand. Today has been a very hot day with temperatures over 100º - the thermometer said 107º at one point. The highways we took were all two lane highways and wandered through some amazing landscapes. I’ll let the photos speak to the beauty.
