Sunday, July 28, 2024

Scenic rural roads in central Montana

 We left Bozeman, MT mid-morning after spending the weekend with our youngest son, heading toward Glacier National Park. This is our first time on the BMW in this part of Montana, and it was a gorgeous ride on gently curving, 2-lane paved roads through mountains, forests, and acres of wheat as far as we could see. Unfortunately the skies are still hazy from wildfire smoke but not nearly as bad as two days ago.

We left Bozeman riding northeast on Montana Highway 86 through the Bridger Mountains, named after Jim Bridger, a famous trapper and Army scout from the late 1800's.



Montana Highway 86 ends at US 89 just north of Wilsall, MT and we followed 89 north the rest of the day. 


As we passed through fields of freshly mown hay and wheat, we started noticing bald eagles perched on top of telephone poles, watching us as we rode by. There are very few trees in this area and the eagles sought out the highest perches available.


We stopped in White Sulphur Springs for lunch, and happened into the Jawbone which was serving a delicious Sunday brunch - not what we expected in this small western town.


A few miles north at the junction with US 12, US 89 is now the Kings Hill Scenic Byway, winding through the Lewis and Clark National Forest





US 89 joins with US 87 and skirts Great Falls, and once we were out of the city traffic we once again rode on 2-lane roads with almost no traffic.


Our stop for tonight is the lovely Coffey House Bed and Breakfast in Choteau Montana where the prairie meets the Rocky Mountains. Tomorrow we plan to ride through Glacier National Park on the Going to the Sun road - hopefully the smoky skies from hundreds of wildfires in the West will continue to improve and we'll have a beautiful day to experience Glacier.


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