After yesterdays exhilarating day, we were looking forward to a nice quiet ride, and a little cave exploration. Let's keep the motorcycle away from the edge of the cliff, and relax with a nice rural Montana back road journey. The morning started out that way. US-191S out of Bozeman was quiet, and when we turned west on MT-84W, the scenery improved as we followed along a river. There were beautiful rolling hills of farmland and ranch land with the snow capped mountains always in the distance. As we turned north on US-287N the mountains got a little closer, and except for the temperature differences as you either went up or down in elevation, the ride was smooth and peaceful. When we turned west on MT-2W, we started the climb to the cave.
     Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park is a lovely park, with the main attraction being the caverns . Since we were non-residents, we had to pay the $4 entry fee to enter the park so we could go to the caverns and pay the $12 for the tour. Odd arrangement, but it is Montana and everyone was very nice. The ride up the mountain from the Main Visitor Center to the Cavern Visitor Center is a wonderful 3 mile paved road up the mountain. Mostly it is inland, but there are a few spots near the top where you ride close to the edge. The view from the Cavern Visitors Center was excellent, mostly of a deep green valley below. We arrived about 10:00 and were able to get on the 10:20 tour. The tour is 2 miles long, and takes about 2 hours.
     What they didn't tell you until the tour began was that the entrance to the cave was way up there on the side of the mountain. It was a three-quarter mile hike up the side of the mountain, that was so steep that they even had switchbacks on the walking path to make the trip easier. I didn't mind the strenuous exercise, I am always up for a good hike. The problem was that the path was only about 3 feet wide, and was right on the side of a very steep mountain with no guardrail or anything between ourselves and the edge . So I stayed to the inside of the path, and tried not to look down over the edge as best as I could and made it all the way to the top. Jody asked if I was getting any good pictures along the way, but I didn't want to stop for fear that the people behind me would want to get past me on such a narrow path.
    Once we got to the top and went into the cave itself, all fears of heights were forgotten, and we got back to the cave at hand. It turns out that this cave still has a bat population, though it has now dwindled from the original hundreds to about seventy. We were able to take pictures of the bat maternity colony on the ceiling, and saw some of the bats flying around as long as we didn't use flash photography.   Once we got deeper into the cave, and away from the bats, we were able to resume using the flash. The cave had a lot of low ceilings and narrow passageways. There was even a place called the "Beaver Slide" where you had to sit down on the rock and slide your way through the narrow passage . The slide floor was worn into the shape of a butt from all the sliding of years gone past.
     It's an odd cave, in that it is fairly wet, so it does have a lot of active formations. There is a lot of damage due to early cave tours that used to encourage souvenirs. But the strange thing is that it is really two caves that were connected by a man made tunnel during the FDR administration. They also blasted in a second entrance tunnel so that the cave tour can be downhill where you enter at an upper level and exit out the man-made tunnel back at Visitors Center level. The government doesn't usually make modifications to caves, and certainly doesn't dynamite new tunnels any more.
     Fortunately, the exit to the cave was at a much lower level, and the path was consequently much wider, so I was able to navigate my way back to the Visitors Center without any trouble. Now I sometimes use the word "we" in my descriptions, but to be perfectly honest, Jody has no fear of heights whatsoever, so any perturbations about the height are strictly my own . We finished with some coffee in the gift shop before we left, and our cave morning was thoroughly enjoyable.
     As we left Lewis & Clark Caverns behind us, we retraced our path over MT-2E this time. We did have to make one stop for a picture that we saw on the way up to the caves, and had to verify on the way back. There in a field next to the road was a metal bridge up on what appeared to be blocks. It was not being used as a bridge, but was apparently a bridge at one time, but somewhere else. It looked like it had been transported here and put up on blocks for some unknown reason.
     So we turned north back on US-287N and expected to continue our leisurely ride through the Montana countryside, cruising along at about 70 mph when a little orange sign warned us of 35 mph road construction ahead. Then there was the dreaded "Loose Gravel" sign that most motorcycle riders learn to fear. Now the first mile or so wasn't too bad as there were some well worn paths in the gravel, and it was almost as smooth as a road surface . But as the path progressed, the gravel deteriorated into what i can only describe as a bunch of loose stones on the ground. This road construction of loose gravel was over 4 miles long.   There wasn't much we could do, Jody just sat as still as she could on the back of the bike, and I just kept forging ahead slowly, keeping the bike upright and navigating to worn paths wherever I could find them. Gravel roads are just part of the riding experience, and I'm sure today's ride has helped improve some of my riding skills. But it doesn't mean I have to like it!
    The rest of the ride was as we expected as we turned east on US-12E and finally north to US-89N through the Lewis & Clark National Forest into Great Falls. The scenery continues to be beautiful, and it's really easy to see why they call Montana - Big Sky Country. Everything just seems a little larger than life. As we passed through what must be the seedier side of Great Falls, we saw casino's, strip clubs, and some unsavory characters . Our hotel is on the outskirts of town near the airport and the room is nice, but there are no good restaurants in the area without getting back on the Interstate and heading into town. So the choices we had were either the Denny's next door or the Subway across the street, so we opted for the Denny's.
      Tomorrow is Father's Day, and Sunday, so we are planning to sleep in late a little. It's only 211 miles from Great Falls to our hotel outside the Glacier National Park West Entrance. It shouldn't take too long to get there, I looked tonight and verified the Riding To The Sun Road is fully open from the West Entrance to St Mary's so we are looking forward to making that ride on Monday.

265.1 miles today
6373.1 miles total

6.508 gallons today
152.682 gallons total