| Driving west from Medora into Montana just reinforced our view on
how empty everywhere was. Although it all looks a lush green, the quality of
the grassland must be poor since it only supports one cow per 15 acres, much
less than the UK average which is nearer 15 cows/acre. Still it has its
moments, like this bridge over a river. You can see the present road runs alongside
it! |  |
 | We were heading for
Fort Peck, for no other real reason except that it was a third of the way
from Medora to Glacier NP. This is a huge 130 square mile lake made in the
1930s with a four mile earthen dam. You can just see the cars running on the
road along the top. There is nowhere (except from the air or water) where you can
realistically see the dam. |
| Most people think this quarter mile spillway is the dam. But its
function is to allow excess water to flow down into the river. It has only
been used three times in the first sixty years. The lake surface is currently
some 60 feet below where it would be at full, a measure of how mild the
winter has been the last few years. However the spillway was last used in
1998 so things can change quite rapidly. |  |
 | The dam runs for
four miles along the right hand edge of this photo. It covers an area large
enough to give everyone in Montana a quarter of an acre. It stretches for
130 miles and the coastline is longer than California's. |
| Below the dam (and next to the campground) is a power station
which generates 230MW from the 9 billion gallons a day which flows through
its feed pipes to keep the Missouri river flowing. There is a small
exhibition on the building of the dam in the right hand building. |  |
Next door is a visitor and interpretative centre in a very new building. Amongst
the exhibits are examples of the fish which swim in the lake. There is a multi-species hatchery being built just round the corner. The lake is well stocked with game fish since Montana is the state to go fishing in. Many of the lakes have been stocked with game fish but now there are concerns that these have decimated the
native fish and some unique species have been lost. I don't know the names, but some were sure ugly.
There are also some excellent stuffed animals on display including the black footed ferret
(right) which was thought to be extinct but has now been found again in this area. There
is also a badger which we have not seen elsewhere in other similar centres. And we have yet to see a live Pronghorn.
| These are sedimentary lands and so it is inevitable that there are significant fossil finds. Dinosaur bones are particularly common and we have seen skeletons in several centres now. How realistic or complete they are we cannot judge but the large ones make a good show for the kids.. |  |
Well we had missed the storm the night before, being merely onlookers. Now being some 150 miles west we did not expect a repeat performance. But we got one at midnight, only this time we were the target.
We had a similar show from 30 miles away but then when it arrived overhead
we were virtually constantly lit up like daylight. Note this is 1AM.
Then we got the hail, apple sized! hammering down on the roof. We both
got up and dressed and hid in the cab section. Just as well because within
minutes we had lost our skylights and the rain was pouring in. Fortunately
they have wire flyscreens which stopped the hail, but not the rain.
Virtually everyone on the site had some damage and some a lot worse that us.
A VERY scary experience!!
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