Decker, Montana, United States
I woke up at dawn from my first night of car camping in my
new vehicle on a scenic spot on the Rimrocks overlooking Billings and hit the
road shortly after sunrise. Hardin is about 40 miles east of Billings and the seat
of Bighorn County. I’ve passed by the
town several times on the highway on trips between Colorado and Montana but
never before got off and checked it out. Being next to the Crow Reservation it
struck me as a rather rough town on the decline, but maybe that’s partly
because early on a Sunday morning it looked rather post-apocalyptic. I literally had the town to myself. By that I
mean that during the 20 minutes or so I spent in the town to 3,000 people, I
did not see another pedestrian or a single other car driven down the main
street. Now that’s social
distancing! I couldn’t help but notice a
business named “Sew Queen Designs” with a rainbow banner painted on the front
window. That just seems way too gay for
a town like this!
I wasn’t sure if I might have to make a detour from my
planned route to my next destination.
There were several recent Covid-19 cases
on the Crow Reservation. Thus, the Crow
and Northern Cheyenne reservations have decided to remain on “lockdown” while
the rest of the state opens up. Fortunately, the main roads were kept open,
signs warning through traffic not to stop on the reservations. Once on the back
road through the Rosebud Valley, the scenery became gorgeous in my humble
opinion as the road curved through ranchland and open ponderosa pine woodlands.
Rosebud Battlefield State Park is a few miles farther off
the road and accessed by a dirt road.
Its story is that a battle took place there between U.S. and allied Crow
forces on one side and the Sioux, Cheyenne, and allied tribes on the other
eight days before the much more famous and deadly battle between those two
sides at Little Bighorn. The U.S.
commander here, though, was General Crook (for whom Wyoming’s northeasternmost
county is named) rather than General Custer. There are some historical markers
and dirt loop road through the grassy hills of the state park but much less to
see than at Custer’s last stand.
And I
was the only one there that morning – social distancing!
I continued south to Tongue River Reservoir State Park near
the Wyoming border, where there were surprisingly quite a few people with RVs
camped along the lakeshore. Below the
dam that form the reservoir, the Tongue River meanders its way in broad arcs through
red rock country that resembles Utah’s canyonlands. The dirt road parallels the
river through beautiful scenery, past some ranches, and what must be some of
the densest concentration of birdlife I’ve experienced anywhere. I stopped many
times and didn’t experience silence but rather the cacophony of an amazing
variety of life from song birds to waterfowl to frog chorus. Eagles, hawks,
vultures, cormorants – I saw them all. And I barely passed any other vehicles
the entire route – social distancing!
Farther north beyond a small village named Birney the valley
widens and the sagebrush flats become less interesting. One of my Montana hiking
guide books includes a section of hikes on the eastern plains, a region of the
state completely left out from most such guides which focus on the mountains.
I
decided to do a few of those for a variety of scenery, including one in this
area called the Tongue River Breaks. I managed to find the allegedly tricky turn
off onto a Jeep track without any problem, parked next to the windmill at a
gate, and started on my way. There were
no other cars or hikers that day, and it looked like there might not have been
any others yet this season. The guidebook said the trail wasn’t well marked but
could be found, and although faint I felt like I could follow it. To be honest, though, the scenery wasn’t too
impressive and I decided to turn back after I got about three miles into a
valley that was gradually narrowing and getting more forested. It was disappointing, but I suppose not every
hike can be scenically stunning. I should have spent more time with the birds
in the upper part of the Tongue Valley.
deb Sherer
2020-05-27
This is beautiful. Something we haven't seen !!