Friday, June 29, 2012

TRAVELING THROUGH IDAHO TO BUTTE, MONTANA

Wednesday, June 27 -- We continue eastward this morning towards Yellowstone National Park. We will be rendezvousing with our daughter, Carrie, in Livingston, MT, on Thursday, for a long weekend touring Yellowstone.

It was a beautiful drive through Idaho. We had heard that Idaho is a beautiful state and it is true. What a gorgeous drive through the mountain valleys. We drove along a couple mountain streams the entire way. Wonderful.

mountain drive

We then entered Montana on I-90 and enjoyed this section of our drive, as well. Again, magnificent mountains and valleys.

We were up to 7,000 + feet.mountains

montana scenery

It was smooth sailing all the way to Butte, Montana. What a find! This old mining town has a rich history in Copper. The downtown is full of wonderful old buildings and homes. The hill overlooking the city is where all the deep vertical mine shafts are located and that area is just full of historical places to discover.

One of the biggest attractions in Butte is Our Lady of the Rockies. This 90 foot Statue sits on the Continental Divide. Donations of money, land, equipment and hundreds of volunteer hours over six years made this feat possible. The Statue was completed on December 20, 1985. Besides being 90 feet tall, the base is 3,500 feet above the city, and the base alone contains 4,000 tons of concrete. The head is 16 feet high by 10 feet wide. The rest of the statistics are amazing. Find out more about the immensity of Our Lady by clicking on Our Lady of the Rockies.

Now you ask, why didn't they get a better photo of it? MONEY. The only way to get up to Our Lady is to take a tour. Now you know the rest of the story.

Our Lady of the Rockiesour lady of the rockies

Once again, we've found an area that needs additional touring. I guess that's why it's impossible to see everything this great country has to offer. Add Butte, MT, to our list of places to return to some day.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

15 comments:

  1. Butte does have an interesting history. And they really know how to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Have a great time with Carrie this week-end.

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  2. have a lovely weekend with your daughter!..the drive along the i-90 looks fabulous!..blue sky how strange is that..since all we have been seeing is grey and rainy!!

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  3. You're sure right about not having time to see everything this great country has to offer, but we'll keep trying.

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  4. Glad you're going to get where you need to be on time. Being with your daughter will make this rush all worth it.

    Nice photos!!

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  5. Somehow, when we were in Butte, just a few years ago, we missed that stature altogether - must have been low clouds, I guess.

    Have a great weekend with Carrie in Yellowstone!

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  6. Enjoy your visit with Carrie. I also think Idaho is a beautiful state. Want to go back and spend more time and of course, continue on to Yellowstone again. Have fun.

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  7. Two summers ago I spent two months just outside of Yellowstone, and it wasn't long enough for me. Good luck with only having a weekend to see it. :)

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  8. We did not get to really explore Livingston. . .but did do a quick visit. . .a really pretty little town. . .and you will love entering Yellowstone through Gardner MT. . .that is where the Roosevelt Arch is. . .so beautiful. . .here are our pics of it:

    http://evansescapades.blogspot.com/2010/08/another-yellowstone-adventure-roosevelt.html

    Our favorite spots in Yellowstone were Old Faithful (of course) Lower Falls (awesome) and Artist's Point (breathtaking). . .have a wonderful time!

    Janice
    ReadyToGoFullTimeRVing.blogspot.com

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  9. It's challenging; the more things we see the longer our list of things to see grows.

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  10. Wish you could spend a month or two in Butte! Heck, wish we could spend a month or two in Butte! We lived there for nine glorious years, relatively large frogs in a relatively small pond -- knew everybody, everybody knew us. We're looking forward to being back there next summer; going to Pork Chop John's and Joe's Pasty Shop uptown.

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  11. Wondering your plans for the next month or so. We will be within a short hop, skip and jump to I90 in SD. Headed this way?

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  12. The more I read blogs from full timers, the longer our full timing life becomes ... all the places we've been to are waiting to be re-visited, and all the places we've not been to are waiting to be explored.

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  13. Agree with a lot of comments, we need to quit reading blogs since our list keeps growing.

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  14. Have a great Family weekend! There must have been snow up at 7,000 feet!

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