Between fire and ice - 9 August 2012

"In a gorgeous locale surrounded by rolling green hills and pine forests and framed by snowcapped peaks, Bozeman is the coolest town in Montana"  Lonely Planet, USA

With a write-up like that why would you not detour to visit?   Reality was: In a fugg filled valley surrounded by mirky skies that completely obliterated any hills or forests that might exist, Bozeman was the most disappointing sight in Montana.

In fact, Montana all told has been disappointing.  We were promised exciting vistas and big skies but when the sky is full of smoke from local forest fires and the hills are burnt brown from the summer sun, the pallette is distictly uniformly boring drab.

However, before we got to Bozeman we had a delightful run up the Gallatin River valley where the hills were pine-clad and the river was crystal clear and the road was not too busy.  Although we started and ended in Montana, we briefly dipped back into Wyoming and back into Yellowstone National Park as we motored north.

Yesterday we crossed and re-crossed the Continental Divide as we motored the Grand Loop Road, but today we crossed it permanently and are now officially on the western, Pacific, side, just that little bit closer to home.

From Bozeman it was drab brown all the way to Missoula our stop between the fire of Yellowstone National Park and the ice of Glacier National Park and where we were introduced to Huckleberries in the form of Huckleberrry ice-cream.

310 miles today, total trip 4560. States Montana, Wyoming.