Natural Bridge and a Motorcycle Ride

Another beautiful, warm, not a cloud in the sky Montana day. We puttered this morning with a little garage building and a little yard work and after lunch decided to take a motorcycle ride.

About six miles from our home is Natural Bridge Falls on the Gallatin National Forest. In times of high water such as now when the snow melt is roaring down the Boulder River, the falls are spectacular. When the river is at a more normal water level, a natural bridge is formed and the entire river disappears into a limestone hole and comes out as the falls but at a lower elevation. The falls drop into a deep pool and then it appears as though the river just disappears, from the observation platforms, you can't see the river once it leaves the pool, it is flowing beneath a limestone cliff on which you are standing. I love the falls both in times of high water and normal water--it is amazing to see the entire river disappear into a hole in low water times and to see people out walking on the natural bridge where in spring a huge torrent of water flowed.

After our sightseeing adventure, we traveled on into Big Timber with a stop at the quilt store, Little Timber Quilts and a stop at The Fort for gas and an ice cream treat.

We drove down by the local feed store to see if a friend of Michael's was home and when passing by the feed store, I was again reminded of how wonderful it is to live in a small Montana community. Around the perimeter of the feed store are various items for sale that ranchers need such as round hay bale feeders, wire fencing panels, water troughs, etc. NONE of this stuff is locked or tied down in any way and ALL of it could easily be stolen. There aren't many places in this country anymore where this would be possible.

Life is the greatest!

Here comes the river. The bridge crosses over and there is a hiking trail leading to the opposite side of the falls where you can really get a good view but we both had on boots for motorcycle riding and were not inclined to hike in them. The burned trees in the upper portion of the photo were from the huge forest fires we had in 2006 when we were evacuated twice.

The falls. It is hard to visualize how high the falls really are in this photo--about 80-90 feet

This is the pool at the bottom of the falls and in low water times, it is deep, deep blue colored but today it was not even visible due to all the spray and water.
Usually the river is not visible at this point, it is flowing underneath the cliff to the left of the photo. In my time in Montana, 14 years, I have never seen the river flowing like it is in this photo--we have lots of water this year! Again, it is hard to visualize how deep this canyon is, trust me, it is deep!