Day 8--Columbia Falls to Butte, MT

We're so ahead of our time.  So due to that plus heavy snowfall in April, we decided to skip Yellowstone since many of the park roads are still closed (a bunch open tomorrow) and the trails probably still mostly snow and ice.  We are instead going to take our time driving across Montana to get to the Black Hills by Saturday.  We're on vacation--we do we want!!

So here is the view of Flathead Lake with the glacial mountains afar off.

Everything looks cooler polarized! 

We hit up the National Bison Range that holds over 500 buffalo as well as elk, deer, antelope, black bear, longhorn sheep, magpies, golden eagles, and rattlesnakes.  It's a 15-mile loop of dusty, rocky road that takes you up to almost 5,000 ft. of elevation providing excellent scenery and a safari-like feel (as I would imagine a safari to feel like).  Although we didn't see all of the creatures listed on the brochure, we spotted small groups of mule deer and pronghorn antelope, beautiful magpies, a golden eagle, and of course large herds of bison.

The valley around this area used to be a huge, glacial lake, and its highest waters had once reached to within 500 feet of where we took this picture.  And the valley on the other side of this ridge is now full of houses, farmland, and ranches.

These two bison were about 10 feet from the road!

We saw this guy right as we were leaving the loop. 

The rest of the day was spent driving east.  We ended up in Butte where we found the Copper King Hotel and Convention Center through Hotwire.  Great place, great room, great price!!  Aurelia enjoyed the pool almost as much as daddy enjoyed the waterslide...