Lewis And Clark Caverns State Park

Lewis and Clark never saw these caves but they did travel nearby through this inhospitable valley looking for Indian tribes hoping there would be horses for sale.  They were foot sore, ill and weary.  They never did find the Indian tribes nor did they see these caves.  The federal government in a round about way acquired the caves naming them the Lewis and Clark Caverns.  The caves eventually ended up under the ownership of Montana state becoming Montana’s first state park and a popular one it remains today.

Our friends Terry and Boo just purchased their first ever RV--

and asked us to take a little educating trip with them.  We welcome an excuse to take the rig out and off to Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park we went yesterday afternoon.  Boo and Terry took their dog Rio for a long walk while Michael and I started trying to install mini-blinds on three of the windows in the truck camper.  When they returned we all gathered in their rig for a little happy hour and education on RV’s.  The weather was miserable—raining, cold and windy—sitting outside was not an option!

Today we had a leisurely morning before heading to the dump station for more education—here’s the cowboy getting ready to be the “teacher.”

Can you tell the sites were just a mite un-level???  It’s a great park this time of year—a few of the sites have electric—which you will most definitely need come July and August when the landscape becomes dry, brown and rattlesnake infested. 

Education completed we headed up the hill for a tour of the caves.  Boo elected to stay above ground while the rest of us met our tour guide and started the steep climb up to the mouth of the cave.  Michael toured this cave when he was a senior in high school.  At that time there was a scary tram—the tour group sat on open bleachers and were pulled up the hill on rails—by some type of winch operation.  Guess that method became a liability!!—imagine that!!  So, trails were built and they give you thirty minutes to hike to the cave entrance. 

We descended over 300 feet into the cave before exiting and walking back to the visitor’s center.  It’s hard to take photos inside a dark cave but here are a few:

In we go--

Almost in the center of this photo is a pool of water—you are seeing the formations under the water it is so clear—it does have a slightly green tint due to the hundreds of copper pennies people threw into the pool for luck—not allowed any more. 

The tour was great—strenuous at times—at one point we were crawling on our rear ends sliding down this slick rock—I’m not sure how some of the folks in our group managed—lots and lots of stairs, it wasn’t easy! 

Back on the surface we headed to the rigs, fixed quick lunches and pointed the RV’s toward home.  Oh, and we did get the mini-blinds installed without murdering each other!