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The gateway into Yellowstone (or, going our way, into Gardiner, Montana)
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Devil's Slide, a reddish streak down a mountainside along the Yellowstone River
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These Montana historical markers were entertaining! No highbrow, formal tone here--they read like they were writen by a 70-yr old cowboy!
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Riding along the Crazy Mountains (though it was the wind that was crazy!)
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Several pronghorn cross the road, past one of their already-smashed brothers, as a car approaches
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Hay! That's a lot of hay!
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A well-sited wind farm north of Harlowton
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Hunting down the the Geographic Center of Montana
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Fields of alfalfa at the Geographic Center of Montana
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A group of cows watch these strange outsiders take their funny "X marks the spot" picture
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The Geographic Center of Montana
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After meeting the (grumpy) nearest-neighbor to the center of Montana, his dog decided to join us as we rode to the home of the center's steward
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He trotted along with us for several miles, despite a stout headwind
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A friendly little guy!
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We lost him at the old schoolhouse, where he got distracted sniffing in the bushes
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Ken Wichman, fourth-generation rancher at the Geographic Center of Montana
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Ken took us on a tour of his place, including his vegetable garden
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Ken took us on a tour of his place, including his vegetable garden
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Chatting with Ken
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Ken's wife Barb
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Ken also showed us around his shop, complete with dozens of sets of antlers, antique beer bottles, and "woolies" chaps
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Ken's antique beer can collection
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More antlers, an old saddle, old-fashioned snowshoes, and a stuffed barn owl
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Here's the barn owl up close (no, those antlers aren't coming from the owl)
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Chatting some more with Ken
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Chatting some more with Ken
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The Wichman ranch, with the Snowy Mountains in the background
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We also visited the location of the center of Montana we learned about from a UPS driver: on a Hutterite colonly not far from our point
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Here we are visiting the pile of rocks that marks the center of Montana, according to a geographer in Montana, as reported in the Lewistown newspaper
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Walter and Rita Hofer kindly welcomed us into their beautiful home on the Hutterite colony and showed us around
