From Glacier to Laurel

We left Glacier Campground at 10 Sunday morning, filled up with gas, and headed south. Highway 83 was closed due to wildfire Thursday, but was reopened Saturday so we were able to go that direction. We had a long way to go before reaching the interstate; it took four hours of two lane road through forests and mountains before we reached the highway just before Deer Lodge. We saw lots of smoke, and lots of fire “staging areas” with National Guardsmen controlling access, but no active fires.

When we reached Deer Lodge there was a high wind and spitting rain. We decided to do McDonalds instead of making sandwiches, and took 45 minutes between our gas and food stop because “fast food” doesn’t mean fast service in Deer Lodge.

Our drive east on interstate 90 was difficult due to high crosswinds buffeting us around. We enjoyed the view as we crossed the Continental Divide past Butte (a pretty town in an industrial sort of way). Also around the divide we saw many towering rock formations interspersed in the woods, reminiscent of the campground we stayed at years ago near Butte with the “castles.”

There was an active grass fire along a ridge about 20 miles west of Laurel. We were chasing the rear of a storm and had a rainbow for about 10 minutes

We reached Laurel at about 7 and checked in to our campground. The campground was originally the camp for German POWs in WWII. There are several brick buildings in the park that were built by the prisoners. It was right across the river from an oil refinery which makes noise. According to the people next to us the noise keeps going all night. Actually, we had more noise due to the highway and train tracks next to us, but we had a decent enough night of sleep and got going early Monday toward the Black Hills. Through the smoke and fires in Montana and Wyoming.