Traveling the Hi-Line

We kept seeing references to the Hi-Line and finally asked what it meant. It’s the reference to US-2 in Montana and the land that’s adjacent to it as it stretches 667 miles across the state.

Day 10 - We woke to overcast skies, but no rain, with the temps in the low 50s. I’d read about the Pend Oreille County Historical Museum in Roadtrip USA and they highly recommended it as did several folks who reviewed it on Trip Advisor. We decided it was worth a visit.

Newport is a small town that sits on the Washington/Idaho border. We arrived before the museum’s 10AM opening and stopped at the Visitor’s Center to check it out while waiting. Lynette, the VC host, was friendly and knowledgeable. We chatted amiably about the town, the museum and the area. She invited us to use the free Wi-Fi while waiting and we made good use of it till the museum opened.

The museum, which opened in 1967, is a non-profit organization wholly operated and maintained by volunteers of the Pend Oreille County Historical Society. Its mission is to preserve the county’s rich mining, railroad and agricultural history. Based on our visit, they do an excellent job!

We weren’t quite sure what to expect, but it was certainly beyond expectation. Per the museum’s website, “The museum complex consists of the historic I. & W. N. Depot Building built in 1908 which houses the gift shop and displays on the first and second floors. The adjoining Stuart B. Bradley Memorial Building, built with private funds, was dedicated in 1994… [and] houses various displays including a military display, the research department and library.” It’s an impressive place.

Eileen was a most delightful and knowledgeable woman who collected our $5 admission fees and gave us a brief overview of where to go and what we’d see. We ended up chatting with her for quite some time and thoroughly enjoyed meeting her.

The museum is chock-a-block full of things to see and old photos to check out. There’s not a square inch of space left unused and every item other than the caboose, we were told, was donated. There were so many ‘collections’ on display and we wondered how folks decided on what to collect. There was a pencil collection and a pipe collection, a button collection and an old sheet music collection, vintage clothing, musical instruments, banjo picks, hats, railroad memorabilia, child’s toys and even a blow torch collection.

We wandered through two floors of the old depot building, then walked into the second building for more displays. We were overwhelmed and slipped outside for awhile to check out the old caboose.

There were three log cabins to peek into, “all of which were taken apart at their original locations, logs numbered and then reconstructed on the museum grounds…a schoolhouse, the Settler’s cabin and the Hunter’s Cabin.”

Having once been a teacher, I appreciated the 1872 Rules for Teachers.

So much to see, so little time. It really deserves several visits to take it all in.

Pend Oreille (French for hanging ear), by the way, was coined by the French Voyageurs for the Kalispell tribe’s custom of wearing earrings of bone and shell.

We were back on US-2 and in no time across the Idaho border, driving through heavily forested areas with lots of logging trucks on the road.

We bypassed the touristy area of Sandpoint, but stopped in Ponderay (an anglicized pronunciation of Pend Oreille) at Yoke’s Fresh Market, a local employee-owned grocery. We took advantage of Cosmic Crisp apples for 79 cents/lb, fresh asparagus ($1.98/lb) and splurged big time on fresh Copper River salmon filets ($18.99/lb). A meal fit for royalty!

It didn’t take long to drive through Idaho’s panhandle. 75 miles after entering the state, we were leaving and entering Montana. Montana has a custom of placing a white cross at the site of traffic fatalities. We saw them all along our route… hundreds of them.

It sprinkled on and off as we drove. We crossed river after river… Pend Oreille, Kootenai, Yakk. All swollen and in a hurry to get downstream. At Kootenai Falls (pronounced Koot-nee) we stopped for a short hike to view the roaring falls and then found a trail further downstream to the swinging bridge that traversed the river.

Montana’s native Baker mariposa lilies were in bloom.

It was cold and raw by the time we returned to Blanche and decided we’d treat ourselves to a cozy, warm motel room for the night in Libby, Montana. The Sandman Motel is owned by Yvonne and Shane and it was hard to ignore the Australian theme in the office. When we inquired about it, we learned Shane was a native of Tasmania. It was like old home week once he learned we’d spent a year there with Nine of Cups. We chatted and laughed and they  generously offered us the ‘mate’s rate’ for our night’s stay … definitely ‘fair dinkum’.

Day 11 - It rained during the night and it was still drizzling when we left the Sandman in the morning. Our destination today was Shelby, Montana 250 miles to the east. Heavy, low hanging clouds shrouded the mountains. Pine and cedar were dense with an occasional stand of new growth aspen. We saw deer and wild turkey along the roadside, but not many people. By the time we reached Kalispell, it was pouring. We stopped briefly at an old Great Northern train depot/Visitors Center for a quick pit stop, then continued on.

We saw the signs for Montana Vortex & House of Mystery and stopped to check it out.

At $13/pp, we gave it a pass. The gift shop was filled with crystals/New Age stuff combined with alien and Sasquatch souvenirs and there was not much more information about what we’d see for our $26 investment. We did, however, enjoy their yard decorations.

We parked at the Goat Lick, a rest stop overlooking the Flathead River. Evidently mountain goats congregate here to lick the mineral-rich rocks. There weren’t any goats this day, but the views of the Flathead and the train trestle were gorgeous.

At the top of Marias Pass, it was cold and raw. Marias is the lowest pass that crosses the Continental Divide. We stretched our legs and checked out the Roosevelt statue and learned a bit about John Stevens, the engineer who identified the railroad route across the Rockies and the Cascades.

Passing through the Blackfeet Reservation which encompasses 1.5 million acres, we caught sight of a buffalo herd grazing just off the highway.

A roadside historical marker noted Camp Disappointment, the furthest point north that Lewis & Clark reached during their famous explorations of the West. A monument stood high on a hill up a dirt road behind a closed, locked gate.

We got a kick out of the huge penguin on the east side of Cut Bank that sports the motto “Coldest City in the United States.” Not on my list of possible places to live.

We reached Shelby in late afternoon. We’re not far from the Canadian border here, only about 30 miles to Alberta Provincial line. Tempting as it was to slip into Canada, we settled for the Shel-oole Campground in Shelby. At $25/night for a site, electric, water, clean flush toilets and showers (free), picnic table and grill, it would have been grand if it hadn’t been for the 30-40mph winds that nearly blew us away. Even the prairie dogs, and there were lots of them, kept their heads down for the most part.

Next time, we continue east in Montana, visit an underground city and stay in a Great Northern Hotel.

Hey, Judy in Florida… glad you’re liking the trip so far!