June 6
June 7
June 8
June 9
Friday, June 6, 2014
We walked over to Stella’s (the adjoining restaurant) for breakfast, which we remembered as being fairly decent last January. Well, it’s graduation weekend for most of the schools, so everyone’s relatives were in town and they all had to come to Stella’s to eat this weekend. Again, slow service, but at least the food, once it arrived, was correctly prepared and at the right temperature. It was an okay breakfast.
It’s threatening to rain this morning, with a higher probability this afternoon, so we decided to do our outdoor visit in the morning and the indoor one in the afternoon.
So, this morning, we drove east of town about 25 miles to Pompey’s Pillar National Monument. This is a sandstone formation on the banks of the Yellowstone River which can be seen for quite a ways (except for the grain elevators in the way). It’s main claim to fame is that William Clark (of Lewis and Clark fame) carved his name and the date into the sandstone.
Where did the name come from? William Clark named it after Sacagawea’s young son, whom he had nicknamed Pomp.
It started raining just before we arrived at the National Monument.... Once again, our park pass got us in with no additional cost. So, we parked and grabbed the cameras and umbrellas and headed for the Visitor’s Center.
The interpretive center there is very well done and well worth spending some time in. The photo to the left shows a replica of William Clark's "graffiti" which is inside the interpretive center.
By the time we had looked at all the exhibits and watched the short movie, the rain had just about stopped, so we walked over to the rock itself. The photo to the right shows our view as we approached Pompey's Pillar.
They’ve added a complex set of steps to allow visitors to see the carving and to climb to the top without causing any additional damage. Climbing to both levels is also well worth the time.
The photo on the left above shows me about half way up the stairs to the first viewpoint, which is where William Clark's signature can be viewed. The center photo shows the actual signature (under the glass protector on the extreme right of the photo) as well as some plaques which were affixed to the rock before it became a national monument. The photo on the right shows the actual signature.
After spending some time looking at the carvings, we continued taking the stairs to the top. The photo on the left shows me nearing the top with the swollen Yellowstone River in the background.
At the top, there’s a plaque with an old photograph of what the field across the river looked like in 1873 when Custer’s troops camped there to protect the railroad workers who were laying the tracks through this area. The photo on the right shows this area as it appears today - just across the bridge in that open field.
The photos above show three views of the Yellowstone River from the top of Pompey's Pillar. The photo on the left is looking west (upstream). The photo in the center is looking almost directly across the river (north). And the photo on the right is looking east (downstream).
The access to the river was closed as they had had some flooding a few days earlier. In fact, the education center still had sandbags around it (photo on the right)!
All in all, a good morning. The rain wasn’t too bad and the history was very interesting.
So, we drove back to the motel and texted Kelly. She met us at The Soup Place for lunch. I can see why it’s one of her favorite places to eat lunch. Very good.
After lunch, we walked over to the Yellowstone Art Museum, where Kelly works. She’s the registrar there. There aren’t any photos of this portion of the day, as cameras aren’t allowed in the Museum.
We got a personalized tour of the place, including the Vault, where Kelly spends a good portion of her time. Her office is there also. The Vault holds the pieces of art which are not currently on display anywhere.
Very nice museum! Well worth the time, if you are in the area.
By then, it was quitting time, so Kelly drove us back to her apartment so she could feed the cats and we could get rehydrated. It was a dry afternoon...
For dinner, we drove back downtown to the Montana Brewing Company. We had eaten there twice in January and the food (and beer) was still very good. Only problem with this place is the noise level. But then, it’s a brewpub on a Friday night. It’s supposed to be noisy....
With that, we decided to call it a day and walked back to the motel.