Day 4:
After spending the night in Bozeman, we continued westward on I-90, headed toward Coeur D’Alene, Idaho.
Here’s where we crossed the Continental Divide - sure doesn’t look like raindrops that fall on the other side of this overpass head west… I suppose there’s some slop in the location of signage at the divide. The divide is around Butte, MT. And here’s a view of the Anaconda Mine in Butte. Pretty dramatic scenery.
Eric and I had plenty of time for geo-conversation on this day (and all subsequent days really). Turns out, there are some fine Quaternary features along this stretch of road. Glacial Lake Missoula was impounded here 12,000 years ago, and you can see evidence for it in the hillsides all along I-90 between ~ Missoula and the western Montana border. But – more on that Day 5 when we visit the channeled scablands.
Sure was quiet in the backseat.
We made it to Coeur D’Alene and found a campsite at Beauty Creek. It was a fine place to camp, although Beauty Creek itself was dry.
By the way – I highly recommend our tent. It’s a Mountain Hardware Hammerhead-3. A 3-person tent that we jammed a 4-person family into (Claudia and Clayton were stacked in head to foot). It’s a great tent, especially without the rain fly.
After we set up camp – we jumped back into the car and headed for a public beach on Lake Coeur D’Alene. Clayton was wowed by the float planes taking off and landing in the water.
And back to the campsite to run around a bit before dinner.
‘Twas a chilly evening at Beauty Creek…
1600 miles into our trip now – and the best is still yet to come!