Day 26 to 28 - Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park

We loved our time at Glacier National Park but it is time to move on. We made a short drive to Missoula, MT, passed by Flathead Lake. A beautiful lake with cottage communities along it’s shore, it reminded me of Grand Travers Bay Michigan shoreline. A quick overnight stop at Jim and Mary’s RV Park, a small family run park with beautiful flowers throughout. While Pat worked on his pictures, I spent part of the evening in the community center putting a puzzle together. Nothing more satisfying than getting into a rhythm and the pieces just come together.

Our next stop was Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park for a

couple of nights. What a beautiful mountain drive from Missoula, getting used to the 6% and 7% grades up and down hills. While Lewis and Clark never went into the caverns, they did have dinner on the hilltop outside the caverns on July 31, 1805, which overlooked over 50 miles of trail from thier expedition along the Jefferson River. In 1892, local ranchers Tom Williams and Bert Pannel saw steam coming from the caverns while hunting but didn’t explore the caverns until 1898. In 1900 Dan Morrison from Butte, MT first developed tours of the caverns and filed a mineral claim in 1905. The Northern Pacific Railroad disputed the claim and won the court case against Morrison, but that didn’t stop Morrison from continuing running ‘illegal’ tours, costing $1 each and took 12 hours, for many more years. The site was first officially established as "Lewis and Clark Cavern National Monument” in 1908, but the 160 acres was not fully surveyed and declared a National Monument until 1911 by President Taft. The caverns are also notable in that much of the work done to make the cave system accessible to tourists was performed by the New Deal-era Civilian Conservation Corps or CCC. Our park guide had lots of stories about the young 18 to 21-year-old men that made up the CCC crews. It was disbanded as a national monument in 1937 because the National Park Service determined the caverns lacked the required national significance and was transferred to the state of Montana in 1938 and declared Montana's first state park. The park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.

While driving through the park in the evening, we encountered a young bear having a meal in a huckleberry bush, he was very shy, but we were able to watch him for awhile and enjoy his antics. There are two tours of the caverns, one that takes you through most of the cave but requires stooping down and sliding on your butt to get from room to room. With Pat’s back, we chose the tour that takes you into the Paradis room with beautiful stalagmites, stalactites and columns as well as the 582-foot tunnel that the CCC blasted and hand dug to create an exit from the caverns. Our tour consisted of us, 3 chaperons and 15 7-9 kids. It was fun to experience the tour through the eyes of the younger generation. After our tour we headed to the Missouri Headwaters County Park 9-hole golf course, enjoyed playing with a local couple that recommended the Sac Bar at the famous Sacajawea Hotel for a burger. Good recommendation.
Stats: 313 Miles (147+166), gas 65 gal, DEF 4
Weather: high 80's daytime, mid 50's nighttime
Photos: Jim & Mary's, drive, Lewis & Clark area and caverns.