Big Sky country

Thursday's travel took us from Helena to the Eureka area of Montana, in the northwest corner. Big Sky country!

Deer, disturbed in their morning foraging amidst miles of grass. 

Spring flowers in a burn just south of St. Mary's, Montana, the east entrance to Glacier NP. This fire had just been suppressed when I came down this road in August 2006. Not much regrowth in less than two years.

Miles of grass, with an abandoned farmstead in the foreground and snow-capped peaks as a backdrop.

The main street of Augusta, Montana, on a busy Thursday morning ... a charming little town, one the decades seem to have passed by. We waited to turn down the street while a dog ambled across the intersection. 

We did pass two large agri-business complexes that were very impressive. Both had small signs advertising fryers for sale and one also had a sign for flowers for sale. We learned later they are Hutterite colonies, stemming from the Anabaptist movement that gave rise to the Amish and Mennonites in northern Europe, contemporaneous with but not related to the Quakers in England. See www.hutterite.org for more on the Hutterites.

Silly me for not checking to see if Logan Pass was open yet ... it wasn't. So, after going to the St. Mary's entrance, we had to backtrack to Browning and take US 2 around the south edge of the park. Left-over Chinese food was good, sitting beside a railroad track and enjoying the warm sun. We found our way to my sister-in-law's in time for a beautiful evening of sunset, food and conversation. tv