Our campground butts up against the Yellowstone River, the same river we saw while in Yellowstone National Park. Only, it's a tidge more muddy here, in Lamar Valley of Yellowstone it was very clear, very bluish. But as it travels eastbound to eventually meet up with the Missouri River in North Dakota, more rivers flow into it, more sediment, and it becomes wider and faster. Can't say it gets deeper, behind our campground it is pretty shallow (we think) and fast flowing.
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| Kids floating on tubes down the Yellowstone |
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| Big cliffs |
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| Then a rafter came by |
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| And another one |
Sandstone bluffs are prominent against the river as it flows through. When Lewis and Clark's Corp of Discovery expedition returned from the Pacific Ocean in 1806, the party split up near Missoula and Clark's group followed the Yellowstone River, camping near here on July 24th, 1806. The bluffs are very prominent feature of the city - when we drove from Fort Benton to here on Saturday, we were up on top of the bluffs and was stunned at the scenery, looking down into the city. And were amazed at how big the city was (we were still in very small town mode).
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| Refiners galore |
Billings has 2 major colleges, Rocky Mountain College and Montana State University; 3 refineries (very large right near downtown) to service the coal industry; several shopping malls; 47 miles of trails that are around the Billings area. In the winter skiing is big with 5 major mountain ranges within an hours drive. Hiking, biking, golf, a number of professional sports teams - it has quite a lot. This week the Montana State Fair is going on and some very big country music stars are here performing.
2 Native American Indian reservations are very close - the Crow (Custer was defeated near here at Little Bighorn Battlefield) and the Northern Cheyenne. Very common to see city folks with Native American features/looks. There are a number of celebrations - powwows - but none are going on while we are here.
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