Fly Fishing Montana

On Sunday, we drove from Spearfish, SD to Hardin, MT taking U.S. Highways instead of driving boring old Interstate 90.  We did 237 miles.  The day was sunny and cool.  It was a good decision to travel the back roads.  We saw a lot of small towns and stopped at the Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument.  AKA Custer's Last Stand.

Basically, the U.S. government had finally signed a treaty with the Native Americans and part of the reservation land was the Black Hills of SD.  Some of the bands of the tribes had refused to go to the reservation.  Then gold was discovered in the Black Hills and the white man kept illegally entering the reservation.  The tribes even went to Washington, D.C. to persuade President Grant to honor the treaty and keep out the miners and settlers.  The government offered to modify the treaty by way of buying the land and resettling the Native Americans in Oklahoma.  This was not acceptable to the Sioux, Lakota and Cheyenne because Oklahoma was not their homeland.  Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse were 2 famous warriors who continued to fight for their land and refused to go to the reservations.  In time, around 7,000 Native Americans joined them in a camp at the Little Bighorn.

The government told the Native Americans to return to the reservation by January 31 or face military action.  Of course it was winter and the tribes decided to stay put and return in the spring.  Not being good enough for the government, they attacked the tribes with about 270 soldiers suffering a defeat with all the soldiers killed.  It was a major victory for the Native Americans.  Custer had been arrogant, did not understand the pride of the great warriors and way underestimated their abilities.

When we left Hardin, Doug decided that what he really wanted to do was to fish so instead of heading to Glacier National Park,  we drove to Belt, MT.  It was sunny all day.  The morning started out very cool, but it warmed up to around 80.  We drove 254 miles, again using mostly U.S. Highways instead of the Interstate.  We even traveled part of U.S. 12 which goes through our hometown in Michigan.

We are at the Ft. Ponderosa RV Park right on the Belt Creek.  Very small park, free Wi-Fi, but no cable.  We can't even pick up a signal off of our antenna.  There's only one other campsite occupied so the space is fantastic.  We tried our hand at fly fishing and had some bites, but didn't catch any fish.

The RV park even has 2 Texaco gas pumps!  What a bonus for a Texaco collector, like my husband.

It's another cool morning here and I turned on the furnace.  We haven't decided yet if we will stay another night here or continue north.  It's only 8:30 and Doug and the dogs are still sleeping.   Staying here another night would be just fine with me.  I could read all day, listen to music and walk the dogs.  The coffee pot is empty so I guess it's time to fix a pot.