Day 9: Great Falls, MT

Today started out wet and cool. We drove from Bozeman, MT to Great Falls, MT via Helena. Along the way, we stopped at the state capital building. Closer to Great Falls, we partook of many Lewis and Clark stopping points. The first one was Tower Rock, which was the marker between the plains and the start of the Rocky Mountains. Next, we stopped at First People’s Buffalo Jump. This is the longest buffalo jumps that the Indians used to kill buffalo off the side of a cliff. The jump itself was over a mile long and up to 65 feet high. In Great Falls, we stopped at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Trail Center. It was very similar to the trail center in Casper, WY, but it covered the Lewis and Clark expedition only.


From the trail center, we walked along the Missouri River path to the shortest river in the world, the Roe River. The river measures 201 feet in length. It just so happens to flow into the longest river in the US, the Missouri River, which spans 2,540 miles. This is actually 200 miles longer than the Mississippi River. The Roe River was certified the shortest river in the world by the Guinness Book this year. It starts from Giant Springs, which is one of the largest freshwater springs in the world. Below is a picture of the springs with the 1st half of the Roe River flowing from it.

Other than laundry, that’s our day in a nutshell. Tomorrow we’re off to the Grizzly Festival in Dupuyer, MT and Glacier National Park. Therefore, the next post may be delayed a few days because we’ve come to find out that most National Parks lack modern conveniences, which is the whole point of going there in the first place.