Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, Montana, United States
Day three on the river turned out to be another beautiful
one with quite hot temperatures and nearly cloudless skies, ideal for getting
into the water for a swim several times. During the morning, the overall appearance of
the landscape changed significantly, reflecting geological differences between
the two regions. Whereas the white
cliffs of the first two days are mostly made up of sandstone with some darker volcanic
shonkonite formations, the lower stretch of the route on the river cuts through
the Missouri Breaks, true badlands of eroded landscape of horizontal layers
that represent mud at the bottom of an inland sea. The striations are quite
colorful in many places, including some black coal seams, but I have to admit
geology is not my strength.
Our day of floating on the river was interrupted only by a
lunch stop and then a stop for a short hike to the Hagadone Ranch, an abandoned
homestead on a low bluff above the river that must be one of the most remote
places in the Lower 48. There is
apparently a rough track into the bottomland through the breaks, and I suppose the
feeling of isolation may have been somewhat less a century ago when there were
more people around in the early days of settlement before most homesteads in
the region were abandoned.
The ranch and this stretch of river through the
badlands and breaks was to me one of the most quintessential western
landscapes.
The night’s campsite was at a place called Colleen’s Bottom,
memorable partly because it was the only one of the five nights we were on the
south bank of the river. Is that the
left bank or the right bank? To answer
that question anywhere, I always have to orient myself to Paris, where the
famous Left Bank is left when you are heading downstream. So that means Connie’s Bottom was our only
campsite on the right bank of the Missouri.
Connie’s Bottom is also memorable for being the best place
to do what guide Keith calls “the diaper float”. That’s when you put your legs through the arm
holes in your PFD (personal flotation device), better known as a life vest, as
if it were a diaper, buckle up, and use it to float comfortably in the current
along the bank of the river. Connie’s
bottom was also the least memorable campsite in the sense that I drank to much
beer and wine that night, but I do recall another very good dinner with a
Mexican theme – chips and salsa as an appetizer, followed by tacos. I recall
sleeping well, but it may have been more a matter of being passed out.
2025-05-22