May 23rd - Livingston, Montana

We made it to Livingston around 1:30 this afternoon. Our overnight stay at the rest area was uneventful. Montana is stunningly beautiful.

Threre are LOTS of photos below, maybe half of the ones I took. Sadly they don't come close to showing the actual graneur of the area.

We think the "clouds" in the photo are actually snow falling at the higher elevations.

 I think the mountain in the background is Warren Peak, elev 10,463. The "flat" area where we took the photo is at elevation 4,750.

 The blue in the sky is beyond description.

 We passed this truck up around elevation 6,000, it was empty. I wonder what type of engine managed to pull that loaded trailer up the grade.

 The two photos below are of Granite Peak. It is the highest point in Montana at elevation 12,799.

 Lunch in Livingston. It was the best Mexican food we have had since leaving Indiana.

 Livingston is a very interesting community. We spent a good deal of time walking around. The downtown area is full of stores. The actual downtown shopping area is several blocks long and several blocks wide.

At the campground. We are parked about 100' from the edge of the Yellowstone River. I don't know how deep it is, the water is cloudy enough that you can't see the bottom. It is running so fast that if you fell in you would have a tough time getting out.

Looking away from the river.

This evening I went for a walk along the path that extends from Livingston to a little over a mile beyond the campground, total length about 5 miles. (I only walked a little over a mile to the end and then back.) Below is looking toward the river from the path. The lilacs are just starting to bloom here. They don't yet smell as good as the ones in Twin Rocks did. Everything along here, south of downtown, is in a valley that ranges from one-half to three-quarters of a mile in width.

  The sun had set in the "valley" but looking down the valley it was still shining on the mountain when I started my walk.

 By the time I got back the clouds were turning red. Stunning!

We went uphill and downhill a lot today as we drove along the I-90. Noteable high points, they were miles apart, were 5,400 (we drove through snow flurries when crossing this one); the Continental Divide at elev 6,393 & the last high spot was elev 5,300. All the "low spots" were around elevation 4,300. For trucks with gross vehicle weights over 12,000# the speed limit downhill from the Continental Divide was 25 mph for miles, because it was so steep. I think we have already descended grades as steep as this one, it was 6 miles of 6% grade.

At the rest area it only got down into the low 40's last night. In Livingston the high for the day was 58. The low tonight is supposed to be 35. Tomorrow there is a 40% chance of thunderstroms and the high/low is forecast to be 52/33. Then it gets colder. 46/30 on Friday and 46/29 on Saturday. For Friday "accumulations" of snow are possible. The campground, and Livingston, is at elevation 4,500'.

Daily average temps for this time of year are highs in the highs 60's and lows in the low 40's. We just managed to hit a cold spell. The average winter high temperatures are actually higher here in December through March that they are in Coldwater, Michigan where I grew up. The average lows for those months are about the same. It is also quite dry here during the winter. They actually get about 9" less annual snowfall than Coldwater. My guess is that here the snowfall is spread out over maybe 6 months while Coldwater gets all of theirs in a little over 4 months.

Tommorrow the plan is to venture down to Yellowstone National Park. It is about 60 miles to the edge of the park.

Goodnight to all. May God bless you and yours.