Before we hit the road toward Glacier National Park we spent the morning visiting again with the owner of the rock shop. He had given us some details on Tom Miner Campground which was a Gallatin National Forest campground north of Gardiner, Montana. We got some more details from him and couldn’t resist buying a piece of petrified wood. He also showed us a really beautiful wolf pelt and I ended up buying a book called, ‘Wolfer.’ It’s the memoir of Carter Niemeyer who worked for the Department of Animal Control helping control predators for ranchers for many years, but also ended up as part of the Dept of Fish and Wildlife and was instrumental in the reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone. His is a really interesting perspective. He straddles the two very different worlds of the ranchers and the animal activists and sides with the animals even when he is having to make hard decisions that neither side seems to like. His view of animals seems very like a Native American view (or at least what various books and movies have informed me that is). He doesn’t shy away from killing an animal, but he doesn’t like to see one unnecessilarily killed or wasted, and even if he ends up having to kill an animal he does it with respect and a bit of reverence. It’s a perspective that seems to be getting lost as we lose our rural roots. Very few people grow up in such a way that tracking, trapping and skinning an animal seems natural to them. Many people tend to think of people that kill animals as potential serial killers, but you can see in Niemeyer’s memoir the vestiges of an older way of life when these things were a matter of course and they were done not as acts of cruelty to the animals, but for very practical reasons that rural life demanded.
We had to drive through the park to go the direction we wanted so we got one final glance of the buffalo on the way out and one actually darted in front of the Grolar Bear as if to prevent us from leaving. He scampered off though and we headed further down the road where we caught sight of the one and only bear we have seen on this trip. He was quite a ways off the road though and we obviously didn’t try to go harass him so I didn’t get a very good picture. I’ll post one of the pictures I took, but it’s more like a where’s waldo exercise than an actual shot of a bear. After our bear encounter we headed out through the Northern entrance. This entrance had the park headquarters and had more of a village feel to it. Deer lounged on a grassy knoll along the bustling street. It was a nice way to exit the park.
Tom Miner Campground was right at the base of the hike to another petrified forest so we were pretty excited. We stopped in Gardiner at the Ranger Station to get our permit to collect petrified wood and continued on. Due to a detour because of road construction it took us longer to get the campground than we thought and once again a torrential afternoon storm beat down upon us. It was a long way back on dirt roads through ranching land and the vehicles got pretty spectacularly muddy on the way in. The sprays of mud that doused my car were comical. We’ve been driving my Acura wagon along on this leg of our travels and some of the roads Totoro (my car has a name, deal with it) has gone down are quite adventurous for a non-4 wheel drive car. I get some confused looks from some passing trucks, but also sometimes just a deferential nod. We made camp in nestled in amonst the tall trees just as the rain was starting to abate some.
The next morning we got up to lovely weather and set out on our hike to the Petrified Forest. Along the trail there are interesting rock conglomerates were volcanic ash cemented piles of rocks and debris together long ago. The smaller conglomerates look like giant boulders themselves, but are composed of smaller individual bits. Apparently the lava that flowed through this area flowed in such a way that some of bigger bits flowed on top of the smaller bits, so these volcanic rock formations are quite cool to look and they get bigger and bigger the further you head up the trail until they are less boulder and more mountain. Once you get to the end of the designated trail there are all sorts of less established trails to check out and you see a ton of petrified wood. Giant limbs and trunks of old trees are stuck within the rock conglomerates and also in the ground. Often you can see where they have been dug out by collectors over the years even though there is limit to the size you are supposed to be able to collect. We had to scramble up some rather loose rock bits to get to some of the cooler bits, but it was worth it and you get an excellent view of Tom Miner Basin with the extra elevation the scramble gave you.
The campground is right next to Tom Miner Creek and we also spent a good bit of time after we got back to camp finding bits of petrified wood that were just sitting in the creek along with all the other rocks. These bits are smaller than some of the bits you see on the hike, but quite pretty as they have been polished and tumbled naturally by the creek waters. I love rock hopping in a little creek so I probably spent much longer than you’d guess doing this and just admiring shiny rocks. It’s something I used to do quite often as a kid in Maryland and West Virginia. It’s good fun. Malachi the Wonder Beast got to wade in the creek just a bit too. Although the rocky bottom made it a bit difficult for an old man doggo, he made a valiant effort. We had a nice campfire before heading out Glacier National Park the next morning. Somehow we’d managed to run out of propane too, so we’d stop along the way to fill up as hot shower was overdue for both of at this point.
