Saturday, June 26, 2010

Let the Craziness Begin

The girls and I loaded up and got on the road at 8:00 Friday morning for our annual Montana road trip. This year is the most ambitious yet with stops in Missoula, Bozeman, Billings, Hardin, Fort Benton, Helena and every rest stop in between!!

We took an early break to stop at the Wild Mustang Monument on the east side of the Columbia River. I have pondered this stop everytime we have taken the drive (which is ALOT) but it always seems too early on in the day to make a stop. But we decided to check it out. Once we got to the scenic outlook we discovered that it was actually a decent hike up a bluff to get to the statues. I asked the girls what they wanted to do and they were adament they wanted to make the trek. So up we went.
A helpful hint for others taking this journey, crocs are not a suitable shoe option! It isn't that long of a walk, but up a very steep, rocky/sandy trail. But the girls persevered and we made it to the top. To find that all 14 horse statues have graffitti on them. How disappointing. The girls were still impressed by the statues and enjoyed exploring.

Along with checking out the statues the girls enjoyed hunting for these guys. I was quite pleased that they were very speedy so Madison's attempts to catch one were unsuccessful.

If we thought the hike up was tough, going down was twice as hard! I was sure one of us was going to slip and go sliding down the hill but somehow we survived in one piece. It did feel good to get out and stretch our legs before heading on the road for another 6 hours of drive time.

1 comment:

Heather said...

I did that hike a long, long time ago. I'll have to take the kids next time. They would love the hike.