The Hunt for Milk River and Missouri River Confluence

We thought we would have a bust day.  It has been raining very hard for the past 3 days, flooding has occurred, so we have sat tight inside the RV just waiting.  And reading.  One place we noticed on the literature we gathered for the area of Fort Peck was the confluence of the Milk River and Missouri River.  This is notable because Lewis and Clark made several journal entries about the area and one in particular to Lewis climbing a tall bluff and seeing where the 2 rivers join.  The Indians told them this was a particular landmark to look for on their way westward.

Was struck at how fast the water was running, about 2 miles from the dam

Drove into the area known as Hell Creek on east side of Fort Peck Lake

Very hard to locate this location.  Could see it on GPS, on Google maps, thought we knew that it was where, looking from the Fort Peck Dam, radio and microwave towers were located - just how do we get there?  False starts, turned around, headed back, headed south on Route 24, turned around and came back and just when we got to the Spillway, saw the turn off for the Milk River Observation Lookout.  Cool.

Did not see this sign heading south along the Lake until we turned around

Drove up to the top thinking signage was there, not

But the view was outstanding

Did I mention the lake is big??

In the meantime, we did get down to the Missouri where some folks were fishing off the banks.  Was surprised at how clear the water was and how fast it was flowing.  And cadzillion mosquitoes.  Swarming.  Forgot about that part of it.

The path was not well shown from dirt road

Prickly Pear in bloom

A leetle hard to get to but this bench was investing, on top of the ridge

Turned up the road to the observation point, went to the top where the towers were and thought - why wasn't there any signage?  How could we be up here (we did not think we should) so we turned the car around carefully, and on the way down a very steep, washed out dirt road, saw in the distance on the top of the hill some signage and a path. Huh.

Heading down from the observation area

Amazing what you find in the wild

Climbed up and was definitely rewarded for our troubles.  Of course 215 years ago when the Corps of Discovery came through, the rivers' paths were different.  But we allowed for that and was happy we saw and experienced what Lewis saw when he climbed up the ridge.

Another 5 feet and it will overflow again

At the Spillway we remarked that another 5 feet and water would be over the gates, the water is that high.  Last time (2 years ago) flooding occurred when the waters exceeded the gates.

Last look at Fort Peck Dam

Yesterday I met a man while I was doing laundry, he works for the Federal Government doing weed control.  That pretty yellow flowering bush we saw the other day?  It's call Leafy Spurge and its noxious and very hard to kill.  Animals will get sick if they eat it, farmers say they cannot control it (spray) because they don't have the time and money, so this guy's job 5 days a week is to go out and spray to kill it wherever he sees it on Federal land.  Some other things he said:  authorities know that the dam needs major repairs, that is way out dated, needs billions of dollars to upgrade.  Money is not there, so they are monitoring it.  He said that if a 3.0 or higher earthquake hit, swoosh goes the dam and the town of Glasgow would be wiped out and will flood out all towns downstream to Omaha  which means - I don't want to be around if that happens.  That's quite unnerving.

Tomorrow we head to a small town in western North Dakota, a place we visited back in 2011.  Will be there through July 4th, want to revisit some of the sights.  We are happy with our stay here, eastern Montana was calling our names and we saw and experienced a lot.