April 20 – To Missoula, Montana

I love the mountains. If it weren’t for our family ties back east, I am pretty sure we would move out west.

It was a glorious day. No wind and clear blue skies for our first mountain views of the trip.

The actual first view was not that great. Just outside of Billings there was an oil refinery in the foreground.

Then the morning fog from the Yellowstone River obscured things for a while.

And then …

We never got close, as we were still following the river valley, but views like this just lift my spirits.

I can’t stop.

Even the low hills has some good colours.

In the afternoon we had some low but steep passes to go over. We chugged up at about 25 mph.

This next one was a really long climb and we could see what we were up for, from a long way away.

We came down a very long hill to see the city of Butte on the opposite side.

But that view was somewhat marred by the massive open pit mine right next to the city.

Up on the hill overlooking town there was a huge sculpture.

And now the regulation shot of us parked for the night in Missoula.

Two more driving days until we take the ferry to Vancouver Island.