Wolf Creek, Montana to First People’s Buffalo Jump State Park, Giant Springs State Park and back. 127 miles.
Woke up to another beautiful day in Wolf Creek, Montana!
We picked Aaron and Lillian up from their house on the hill.
I took a couple of pics from their veranda before we all headed off to the First People’s Buffalo Jump State Park, near Great Falls, Montana.
They have an eagle’s nest in a tree up on the hill above them.
The State parks we were going to visit are North-East from Wolf Creek, near Great Falls, Montana. We arrived at the State Park visitor center, which was open but not doing any tours. They have a little gift/book shop and a VERY nice exhibits area in the form of a circle with a huge outdoors wildlife scene mural painted on the circular wall surrounding the many stuffed animals and life-size exhibits. It was incredibly well done, and is a very worthwhile visit if in the area!
The Buffalo Jump is a historic site where the Native American Indians would wait in hiding for a large herd of buffalo to be grazing on the flat upper plateau of the area, and then cause a stampede from the rear while having a buffalo-skin covered runner in front of the herd acting as the lead buffalo, and directing the whole herd towards the steep cliff-face on the one side of the plateau. The runner would run as fast as possible towards the cliff with the stampeding herd following him. At the very last second, with the animals literally right behind him, he would jump off the cliff onto a small secondary ledge to safety. The panicked animals would come hurtling over the top of him, to fall to their death on the rocks below. The few buffalo that might have stopped on the edge were pushed over by the crush of the rest of the stampede, so that hardly any buffalo escaped. This is why it is called the “Buffalo Jump”.
Some pics from the top of the cliff-face, with Aaron, Lillian, Karen and Yours Truly!
Inside the visitors center exhibition area….
After the Buffalo Jump Park, we headed to Giant Springs State Park, in Great Falls. We stopped at a pullout on the road to look out at the large Black Eagle Falls dam wall built in the late 1890 as the first hydra-electric power on the Missouri river. Amazing construction for that day and age, but a new concrete dam was built in 1926 with 26 feet high x 753 feet long concrete walls and spillways.
We initially assumed that the little visitor center next to the dam was our destination, but the Giant Springs State Park is actually a mile and a half up the road, so off we toddled in the truck and soon found the correct location.
This Giant Springs State Park is the site where a large underground spring emerges and flows into one of the shortest rivers in the country – the 201 foot (61 metres) long Roe River, which joins the longest river in the US, the 2540 mile (4087 kilometres) long Missouri river.
The crystal clear underground Spring water takes nearly 50 years to reach this spot, from its source in the Little Belt Mountains, and is a constant 54 F (12C) temperature all year around.
After the Giant Falls State Park, we headed South-West back to Wolf Creek, and stopped at a scenic overlook of the Missouri river on the old US-91. What a spectacular sight, looking down to the river gorge below!
Afterwards, we headed back to Wolf Creek.
We met friends of Aaron and Lillian from across the road, Bob and Jackie. Aaron and Lillian put on a stupendous spread for dinner, with the most delicious steaks on the grill, and a very tasty salad.
After dinner, Lillian brought out the games and we played the very naughty game called Cards Against Humanity, which we’d played with friends back in South Africa. It’s definitely NOT the type of game to be played in “polite” company, haha!!!! We had a good few laughs and ended the evening with a lovely cup of percolated coffee for me. Lillian has spoiled us so much, but we certainly appreciated it all. What a wonderful, kind, loving couple! Good people!