Never-ending Plains, waiting for the Mountains

With absolutely no intent to diss North Dakota, I simply present some pictures of the scenery. Those of us used to mountains or even slight hills will not feel at home here. Flat. Very flat. And LOTS of corn and wheat. Maybe soybeans. Lots of BIG farm equipment. Trees only where there is a house that needs shade. A very different world.

Here’s North Dakotan farms

Here are North Dakota fields

Here are North Dakota grain silos

But we were lucky to stop in Minot (pronounced MY-KNOT), Which some said was the coldest place in the continental U.S. No one competes with Alaska on coldness so we do need to stick to the continental U.S.

However, upon further study (thank you, Wikipedia) it turns out there are other places – mostly in Montana and Idaho, which get colder. BUT. (Big BUT here) North Dakota IS the coldest state in the lower 48.

I knew you would want some cocktail party trivia, so there is it.

Anyway, if cold is what you want, move to North Dakota.

We were waiting for Montana, and without even realizing it, we crossed the state line into Montana. And what did we see?

Yes, this is Montana.

Looks amazingly like North Dakota, except the sun had come out by then.

“WHAT??” I exclaimed… “This is Montana??” Yup, apparently geological features like flat land don’t know anything about state borders, so eastern Montana was like the side yard of North Dakota.

Then, after about an hour of the Plains, we saw our first “kind of like a mountain” mountain.

A tease of a mountain.

Ah-Ha! I said.

This is where Montana mountains start.

The baby mountain grew slowly as we cruised past on our railway.

But first – a fall thunderstorm across the plains.

Then the bumps that wanted to be mountains.

And they grew and grew….

Til they turned into the peaks of Glacier National Park. (This was actually taken the next day, more about that later.)

We ended our day in the dark, getting off at Glacier National Park for a one-day stay at the Isaak Walton Inn.

And that’s tomorrow’s story!