We reached Billings, MT late in the afternoon Wednesday after a substantial amount of freeway travel from the Little Big Horn area. Our plan was to do laundry and a re-supply in Billings and visit the Red Oxx facility the next day to purchase several travel bags. The following morning we did visit their facility and the owner, Jim, gave as a tour of his manufacturing shop and advised us that the "Red Ants Pants Music Festival" was starting the following day. He said it was an easy day's travel away and we were headed that direction anyway. When we finished at Red Oxx, we headed for lunch and along the way passed a custom hat store. Curious, we stopped in for a look. The sign on the store said "custom hats while you wait". Which is true, if you wait 4 months. The hat will be shipped to San Diego in early November. Two hours and $600 later we headed out toward Big Timber, MT.
The photos below are what we saw.
We
stayed at the Billings, MT KOA and it was quite nice (for an RV
park). They bill themselves as the "First KOA" for
whatever that is worth. Thor was a hit with the other
campers (as it always is). I took this shot the next
morning when we were ready to leave.
The KOA
was on the banks of the Yellowstone River. The river was
flowing fast and strong.
The
level of the river has receded somewhat from the spring runoff
maximum. The reduced flow exposed a large gravel bar.
Due to
the hat shopping experience we ended up leaving Billings at
about 1600hrs, so we did not travel far before stopping for the
night. Due to timing constraints we ended up at another
KOA in Big Timber, MT. This one was adequate and it's only
reason for existence is that it is next to the freeway.
But, it served our purposes with a shower and electric
service. The next morning we headed into Big Timber to get
supplies and then headed north about 20 miles into Big Timber
Canyon for lunch. Our late departure from Billings precluded
camping in the canyon. The photo above shows the approach
to Big Timber Canyon.
Our
original plan was to go to Big Timber Falls, but our late
departure from the camp resulted in a lunch stop only.
After eating, we continued north toward White Sulfur Springs and
the Red Ants Pants Music Festival.
We
arrived late in the afternoon and there were hundreds and
hundreds of motor homes and trailers already on site. In
addition, there were a large number of tents.
The
whole festival was hosted in a large hay field, but it had been
reasonably well planned. Passage ways had been marked with
chalk lines. Porta-potties and shower facilities were
provided. Since the area was so large, the organizers
provided "shuttle service" via horse-drawn wagons so the festival
goers could easily get from their camp areas to the venue.
Major
intersections were marked with colored flags like the white one
in the distance in the photo above.
The
vendor area was inside the paid acces area so to get food, you
had to pay for entry. The prices were rather steep at $55
per person per day. We arrived sufficiently late the first
day to cause us to decline, but we did purchase tickets the next
day.
From the
rear, the stage looked rather small. Note the large tour
bus for one of the bands.
But from
the front the stage was more than adequate. Most folks
brought their own chairs into the venue but the organizers did
provide covered seating.
The open
seating area was fully exposed to both the sun and wind.
Sadly, it was rather hot and windy resulting in nice clouds of
dust from the constant passage of foot traffic.
I
estimate there were 10,000 folks that attended.
As is
the norm with such events, there were legions of vendors hawking
"stuff" including food, liquor, water, clothing, jewelry, etc.
Both
Kathleen and I expected country western or blue grass music, but
the bands were more progressive folk music. Oddly, the
headline act was Charlie Pride. When Kathleen was reading
the play bill and asking if I had heard of any of the artists my
response was "No. No. Nope.....No". When she read
Charlie's name my response was "Is he still alive? Jeez,
he would have to be about eighty now". Turns out I was
wrong -- he is only 79. We did not stay for his
performance. We were generally underwhelmed by most of the
acts, so we left on Sunday morning.
On our
exit from the festival we passed this Rokon on an Airstream
trailer. The Rokon is a 2-wheel drive motorcycle.
A
parting shot of the Red Ants Pants Music
Festival. The dust clouds are visible to the left of
center in the photo above.
From
White Sulfur Springs, we headed north on the dirt into the Big
Belt Mountains.
The Big
Belt range is not particularly tall but the area was beautiful.
We passed
the Smith River valley and then descended into the rolling
plains of the Missouri River valley.
Next to
the road we spotted a missile silo. I am not sure if this
is a Peacekeeper on an MX silo.
We hit
I-15 and decided to head south and came upon a scenic overlook
on the Missouri River Canyon. The sign tells the story.
There
had been substantial volcanic activity in the area resulting in
steep cliffs.
We
traveled on the interstate for 60 miles or so and then headed
back onto the dirt into the mountains northwest of Helena.
We ended up remote camping on a ridge near Marysville. The
ridge had an awesome view of the Helena valley to the southeast.
We
BBQ'ed a great steak from local beef and settled in for a
movie. The winds on the ridge were calm and the
temperatures were mild. Next morning we continued to the
southeast toward Avon. The meadows on Mt. Belmont were lush
with wild flowers.
We could
see the small community of Avon in the valley beyond.
Some of
the areas on the flanks of Mt. Belmont were damaged by bark
beetles. The beetle kill area is grey. This area has
also been logged resulting in the sparse areas.
We
traveled to Philipsburg, MT then west and north into the
Sapphire Mountains via Rock Creek. There was some rich
farmland in the Rock Creek Valley.
We
selected a nice creek-side camp site with a nice view of the
meadows.
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Photos and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2014, all rights
reserved.
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