Almost Granite

 True to form, allow us to have a few hours without a purpose and we’ll get into trouble. After a morning twiddling our thumbs, we headed west out of Anaconda on Montana highway one toward Philipsburg. Four miles east of Philipsburg is the ghost town of Granite, now a state park. Off we went on Contract Mill Road toward the park. We soon discovered that the road in was an unmaintained one lane very steep track! After bouncing along for what seemed to be a very long time in four wheel drive, we decided that our vehicle was simply too large to navigate the “road”. We found a place to do a 10 point turn and returned to civilization. Sorry, no photos. Couldn’t spare a hand!

We continued north toward Drummond, Montana, through sparsely populated fertile valleys.

Near Drummond, a bit of the history of the valley.

We looked at each other, shrugged out shoulders, and headed northeast toward the Capitol of Montana, Helena. Donna had packed a nice picnic lunch, so we located Centennial Park and rested a bit! A group of kids were playing softball in a field next to our table, and the dog park was busy! A great stop.

Driving south toward Butte and Anaconda, we fought the sun and a dirty windshield, but managed to survive a lonely interstate 15.

Not a bad day’s trip! 215 miles in the saddle, seeing some of Montana that we may never see again. Now to see what happens next!