Tuesday, September 16, 2014

2014 US Trip - Day 7 - Thursday September 11th 2014

We all woke early as we knew that the weather forecasts were going to offer some incredible contrasting views of the sun kissed snow capped mountinas and that we had a decent drive in front of us. And we were not disappointed. We  drove out of the RV park and to the side of a lake where we stopped for a photo opportunity. The temperature was still quite brisk and we excitedly took lots of pictures of the snow covering the mountains, tress and ground. The pictures you may have seen would not do the experience justice. Just breathtaking.
 
From there we drove up to a picnic area that had access to the lake so more pictures were taken down there. Once everyone was done we then started the long drive out along through snow covered forests. But as we've experienced elsewhere on this trip, the terrain changes quickly and we go from mountainous pine covered hills to bare open planes.
We stopped to refuel the RV's and grabbed some lunch at a nice local cafe. Service was good and everyone had a hearty meal. I went for a plain hamburger and fries downed with a Pepsi. From there we wanted to visit a dinosaur museum but unfortunately it was closed. So we got back in the cars and pushed on to our next stop, Great Falls.

This town has the Missouri River running through it and there are some water falls near some man made dams. The water flow wasn't particular great so the opportunity for pictures was limited so we found a local super market and stocked up on food. Service again was very good and after loading up the RV's we were on our way.
 
We drove for a couple of more hours, firstly on open planes and then through mountains. We passed a ski resorts out in the middle of no where and looked like a nice little place to ski. Along the way we also had to slow down a number of times due to deer on the road. There were single deer and pairs, mother and child.
 
The final stop of the night was the RV park. Not particular big but would do the trick. After checking in the majority of us feed some local trout that were in one of the dams on the property. Reminds me of my time as a child in the Snowy Mountains.
 
I finished the evening my staying out outside taking pictures of the night sky. The evening was crystal clear so though I should take advantage of it even though the temperature was well below zero. I had approximately 40 layers on and was warm. In the end though, i achieve what I aimed to do and that was to see and photograph the Andromeda Galaxy which is one of ours nearest. Through both the image stabilised 18x50 binoculars and on the sky tracked photos, all it looks like is a smudge. But it's definitely there. The moon, though not full, started to appear adding to the noise pollution so I packed up for the night.

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