Showing posts with label
Missouri Headwaters State Park.
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Showing posts with label
Missouri Headwaters State Park.
Show all posts
When chinook winds gently reduced our snow forts to languid farmyard water features, this signaled perfect timing for a spontaneous dessert trip to the W & E drive-in. These days, we never consider transporting more bodies than there are seatbelts in a vehicle - oh, the horror! But in the idyllic era of my childhood, the art of condensed transport was highly refined by our family of nine. You’d be amazed how many people can stack on a pick-up truck bench seat and still allow enough wiggle for the driver to shift gears. And any leftovers rode in the back with the dog - oh, the joy! - for the mile ride to town.
Our sardine-like forays to town yielded two treats: a creamy, soft-serve ice cream sundae, and its long, clear plastic serving dish. I say “serving dish", but it was really a boat, perfectly designed for drifting on the placid waters of Barnyard Lake. (C‘mon - I was five; it truly seemed vast enough that I was afraid of falling in.) Hunched along my own little shore, feet clad in red-toed rubber boots and imagination fueled by tales of The Borrowers and Stuart Little, I would play play play until called in from the gloaming to wash up for bed. Children don’t require reminders to seize the day.
“Daisy and Lily,
Lazy and silly,
Walk by the shore of the wan grass sea,
Talking once more 'neath a swan-bosomed tree.“
-Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell , from 'Valse' in the collection
Façade
This winter wetland area along the meadow path at Missouri Headwaters State Park brought to mind childhood winter rambles. In our quest for a sledding hill on Grandpa’s farm, we trekked across acres of pastureland, skirting sloughs much like the one pictured, always careful to step on thick hillocks of grass and avoid the iffy ice. There was plenty of snow, and the cold had us bundled to leave only our eyes showing. Talk about a golden era of childhood freedoms - it still amazes me when I consider the leeway given be gone all day, on our own, with no cell phone tether and no neighbors for miles. Perhaps therein lies a clue to my craving for the balance of "alone time" and also views of unfettered terrain.
With million dollar views from every window of the Gallatin Hotel, it’s no wonder visionary pioneers clung to high hopes of creating a thriving settlement.
Read more of this settlement's short history here, and then click here to learn why you might visit the Missouri Headwaters State Park. ("Tipi rentals" and "marshmallow roast campfire" rank high on my list of good reasons! Now if I can just talk someone into going with me....)
The Missouri Headwaters State Park is a great place to stop and stretch your legs on the drive between Livingston and Missoula, Montana. In addition to vast windswept scenery, the trail provides bonus history lessons. What you see is all that’s left of the ambitious but relatively short-lived Gallatin City Hotel and the Akin Barn (far right). According to a fellow walker who’s been trekking the area for a lot of years, the roof framing only deteriorated in the last five years.
