Montana
Not being able to find the campground we wanted to stay at North of Helena, (due to bad directions from our map program and lots of road construction), we drove on toward Helena and managed to find a cancellation at KOA (North Helena Campground). We arrived after hours to find just one spot open for one night only. Because a High Wind advisory was in effect for the area we were praying we could stay here the next night as well. Steve spoke to the manager as soon as the office opened in the morning and he had just had a cancellation so we moved to a different site for the second night! Praise to the Lord our Provider!
Helena, Queen City of the Rockies
We drove into Helena after moving our rig to our new site and walked the old area of town to admire the architecture of the late 1800’s. The Capitol Building, churches, multistory downtown buildings, the Governor’s mansion and townhouse apartments were reminders of a bygone area that followed the California Gold Rush 49ers who settled in Montana.
After our stroll around town discovering the "architectural exuberance of the period when Helena earned the nickname 'Queen City of the Rockies,'" as a historical plaque put it, we enjoyed a movie at the Myrna Loy theater. This is in an old jailhouse that has been converted into a two screen theater which hosts live music, film screenings and an art gallery.
Since we had no reservations for this week in Montana, Steve researched some campgrounds in the National Forest around Bozeman. Online it appeared they were first come, first served sites. However in Montana these National Forest campgrounds were booked by reservation beginning in January! A sixty mile loop through the National Forest with nothing available brought us back to Bozeman where we had started our search. Steve did more research and we headed west
to try some places around Ennis, Montana. We pulled into Meadow Lake campground and found the last two sites available out of the nine sites in this small campground. While backing into the site we chose, another camper took the last site. Wow, the Lord provided again! I am being stretched to trust the Lord in the details!
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.”
Proverbs 3:5-6 NKJV
Bannack State Park
Dillon, Montana
According to their literature, Bannack is one of America’s best-preserved ghost towns. Gold was discovered here in Grasshopper Creek on July 28, 1862. This strike set off a massive gold rush, causing the population to swell to over 3,000 in the spring of 1863. Boom and bust periods eventually led to the town slowly dying as the gold played out.
Bannack State Park was established in 1954 to maintain and preserve the town site. Over 50 buildings remain, empty and slowly decaying, from tumbled down one room cabins to the two story prominent Hotel Meade. A school house is filled with intricate, empty school desks, while the homes hold clues to the past decor with their old stoves, fading wallpaper and paint, well worn wood floors and patches of colorful linoleum.
Walking through the town is a glimpse into life in the old west, when men sought gold and gangs of murderers and thieves terrorized the towns.
We stayed one night in the campground here, by a reservation that Steve had been able to make. The air was rather smoky from a distant fire and mosquitoes were out in force because of the proximity to Grasshopper Creek. We walked around and into the buildings of the ghost town for about an hour before returning to our trailer for the night.
Montana has given us a glimpse into the history of this one-time western frontier, from Helena, the state capital and its magnificent old homes and buildings, to a deserted gold rush town, now empty of its residents.
Wyoming
Grand Teton National Park
We are camping for five nights at Wolf Creek Campground, about 30 miles outside of Jackson. After checking some other campgrounds that were full, we found lots of sites here to choose from, along with a super helpful campground host who drove us around the campground to find just the right spot! We are all set for the coming days!
We used our first full day to do a lot of driving to see many of the amazing sights in the National Park, with the Teton Range in view most of the time!
Schwabacher
Landing is one of our favorite
places in the park and always warrants a
visit. There is a short hike which is delightful even when it’s as
crowded as it was that day. We met a sweet couple from Virginia when we
offered to take each other’s pictures. They were headed back to their
car as we began the hike and they showed us an iPhone they had found and asked if we would try to locate the owner. We took the phone with us as we hiked, asking each person we saw if they had their phone.
Finally as we sat at the end of the trail enjoying the view, a couple approached us and asked if we were the ones who had found a phone! They had apparently left the area and come back to look for the phone. As they hiked back along the trail everyone they spoke to assured them that a couple on the trail had their phone, so they finally found us after they retraced the entire trail! It was a great outcome to return the phone to its owner!
Since
we had several days in the area, we not only revisited favorite sites,
we checked out some places we had not seen in Grand Teton National Park.
A drive out to Two Ocean Lake was recommended
by the clerk in the visitor center. The narrow road was lined with
wildflower filled meadows. Another recommended drive was to top of Signal Mountain, at 7,727 ft elevation, it provided views of the entire valley known as "Jackson Hole".
Jackson
Lake Lodge, our most northbound site that we visited in the Park,
provides a great view of meadows and marsh stretching out to the Tetons
in the distance. We ordered a Huckleberry Shake to enjoy in a tree
shaded spot overlooking the Teton Range.
We tried to revisit a favorite hike from the past, Leigh Lake trail, but signs indicated the parking was full. We found a spot to park at the Jenny Lake overlook, which gave access to a trail along the bluff overlooking Jenny Lake. After our full day of driving the Park, we returned to Jackson for dinner at Hand Fire Pizza, a great restaurant we discovered on a previous trip to the area. 10:30 pm stargazing was a spectacular way to finish out our day, with a dark sky lit up by perhaps the most stars I have ever seen.
“The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.”
Psalms 19:1
Besides incredible night skies the entire area offered us amazing opportunities to enjoy God’s creation, including beautiful mountains, a bald Eagle, white swans, a blue heron, a moose and her calf, deer, elk, a variety of butterflies and flowers, tall pine trees and shimmering Aspen trees.
Shopping and dining in Jackson and time enjoying our campsite rounded out our stay here. Our campground host, Laverne, invited us to join her for a game of Yahtzee for our final night here. We brought the fixings for a taco dinner, and enjoyed a great time of visiting and getting to know one another. So fun to meet great people along the way!
At the end of our stay in 
Jackson, we left Grizzly Bear Territory and drove to Salt Lake City for a flight home and an extended weekend visit. We are looking forward to seeing family, neighbors and church members soon! We have missed you all! We are so glad that you can join us for our Adventures on the Road, by reading our blog! After our time at home, we will fly back to Salt Lake City to get our truck and trailer and head on for another month of Adventures!
By far, the best small town museum we have encountered is Frontier Auto Museum in Gillette. Billed as an auto museum, it is really so much more. Filled with amazing pieces of Americana from the first half of the 1900’s we were constantly amazed by the careful curation of pristine collections ranging from clothes, jewelry and housewares to automotive tools, porcelain and neon signs, gas pumps, pedal cars, automobiles and too many other things to list. 
This 13,000 square foot museum reflects the collections of three generations of one family lovingly displayed and cared for! They have an eye for picking great pieces of history from homes and ranches in the area and then displaying them in such a great way! Just look at those cars on the mechanic's auto lift. We felt like we walked into a gas station garage in the turn of the century!
