Tour of the Montana Prairie

We woke up early and saw that it had rained the night before.  We were still good to go hiking, and I was excited that there would be less dust in the air.  We drove 12 miles to my uncles place and we loaded up a pickup for the breaks.  

Dad, Paul, Dylan, Marie, Ryan, Rachael and myself piled in and took off for the breaks.  we also brought Mason, my uncle's dog.  The breaks are a set of coulees carved by rivers and streams in the past.  As you drive across the prairie you would not know they were there until you get right to them.  

We parked and started walking.  Our only destination was a petrified tree my uncle had found the fall prior while he was deer hunting.  We took off in the wind and walked through typical Montana prairie: sage brush, grass, cactus, flowers, and yucca.  We finally found a ridge and hiked down to find some sandstone cliffs.  Lewis and Clark wrote in their journals about the white cliffs of the Missouri River and we were climbing around similar formations all day.  

We ate lunch after admiring rock formations, ant hills, and wild flowers.  My uncle thought he was on the correct ridge to see the petrified log, but we could not find it.  I found a small piece of petrified wood, but no luck.  We then took off down a steep slope toward the next ridge.  

We all made it to that set of sandstone, but again could not find the log.  Marie and my Dad decided to slowly take their time and walk up the ridge toward the pickup while the rest of us scrambled down and up to the next batch of sandstone.  

As we approached, there was a cliff in front that my uncle was going to go around, but I guessed we could go up it.  We all made it, even the dog with a little assistance.  We saw a bat resting on the cliff as well as some holes in the rock big enough for a mountain lion den.  On top of that formation, we finally found the log.  

We then all walked back, met up with Dad and Marie and headed to find some teepee rings.  We drove a ways to another part of the breaks and got out.  Here there are stone circles the Native Americans used to hold down the edges of their teepees in the wind and weather.  They would roll away the stones and leave them until the next season when they would return. There are not many left in the prairie near us, but these neat.  

We then drove to the last place on the tour.  It is a cut in the side of a hill, where sea shells and sharks teeth fossils are left from the age when Montana was covered by a great sea.  I found 12 shark teeth and nobody went away empty handed.  It was this cut that sparked some of the geology and paleontology interest and helped decide my major in college.  

We then drove back to Paul's house, and Jerri had made a delicious lasagna dinner for us.  When we return home, I gathered camping gear and we all discussed our trip to Glacier Park the next day.