Last (?) Road Trip with Rose the Tiny Tent Camper; Part the IVth

At age 80, a camping road trip may have been ill-advised… Notwithstanding, there I wuz —

In Choteau Mountain View R.V. Park, Daisy and Rose, the Little Sisters of the Perpetually Camped. All photos by the author, ©Charles G. Haacker.

NOW WITH NO LOCOMOTIVES!

After the grueling 600-mile run from Rivers Edge R.V. and Cabins Resort in Evansville, Wyoming, Matt and I fetched up in Choteau, Montana, and tied up at Site 73 in the tent carousel in Mountain View RV Park. Rosie is a tent on wheels and was often welcome in tent sites.

Matt and his bride Erin had long both worked at the Montana Dinosaur Center in Bynum, about fifteen minutes up the road from Choteau. Erin had started her master’s in paleontology but switched to hydrogeology. She is now tenure-tracked at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, but for several years she led tours and digs for dinosaur fossils in the bone-rich wilderness, as did Matt, both armed with outsized canisters of the nastiest bear deterrent available — the stuff the rangers use. This is grizzly country, and one does not want to come to a grisly end. (See what I did there?)

Since “Our Kidz” were both in Montana a great deal of the time, Daphne and I would go up there as often as we could and stayed in Choteau Mountain View if for no other reason than that there are no other camps around. Bynum is slowly moving closer to civilization, but they have long had scarce water problems that are only now beginning to be addressed. Someone once did try to establish a camp up there, but it was hopeless without water, so Choteau Mountain View was our base camp for excursions all over the region, not just the Dinosaur Center but everywhere.

The ancient farm wagon has been a fixture at the camp for many years. It has always been a planter box loaded with flowers. It’s a dear old friend.

The tipi-shaped office identifies the camp as having once been a KOA. It fell into serious disrepair at one time, so we were thrilled that new owners brought it back.

It’s hard for me not to use that funky old wagon as a foreground.

Ya shoulda seen the contortions I hadda go through to get this pitcher one-handed. I HATE mosquitoes.

Having dropped anchor for several days in Choteau, we set about exploring, as my wife and I had done for so many happy years. We drove back to Great Falls to visit the C. M. Russell Museum. If you find yourself in Great Falls I highly recommend this place.

Charlie Russell was known as the Cowboy Artist, but he was no greenhorn. He just liked to paint and sculpt what he lived every day.

Got moose?

The Sculpture Garden features the work of many artists.

Inside the entrance by the gift shop. There was no plaque on this so I don’t know if it’s one of Charlie’s.

Watcher of the Plains, Charles Marion Russell, 1901

A pishkun is a buffalo jump. First Nations would drive a herd over a cliff, butcher the bison at the bottom, and be set for a long, bitter winter. No part of the animal was wasted. They derived shelters, weapons, tools, and many other benefits, and the meat sustained them.

Charlie, second from right, modeling with clay with a group of his friends.

🎵 Gunslinger, gunslinger, where did you go wrong? 👀

The center photo shows the scale of the exquisitely detailed Wagon of Chuck.

In a high water year, Black Eagle Falls and Dam of the Great Falls of the Missouri, Montana. You can see there’s more rain a’brewing. (Opened 1890.)

Here’s a preview of the next installment, The Montana Dinosaur Center, Bynum, Montana. RUSTY the Daspletosaurus greets visitors with a toothy grim — ah, GRIN. Grin. He is life-sized so meeting him in a dark alley is unlikely as he wouldn’t fit.

Daspletosaurus horneri is a genus of tyrannosaurid dinosaur that lived in Laramidia between about 79.5 and 74 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous Period. — Wikipedia

When I write the next chapter, I will explain how Rusty got his name.

When they were fleshing Rusty out, they got the idea of putting red highway reflectors behind his eyes. It’s a startling sight when driving past at night.

As ever, thanks for reading and looking! I truly appreciate it. 😊👍