HELENA, MT

Traveling from Great Falls took us from rolling hills through farm land with crops and horses and cattle; through an extremely beautiful canyon; and then onto the flatlands with crops by Helena, Montana.

On the way we stopped to take the Gates of the Mountains boat ride.  The boat ride was very enjoyable; Judy even remembered being on it 34 years ago with the kids.  We were on the same waters that Lewis and Clark sailed. Meriwether Lewis coined the name "Gates of the Mountains" while plying this portion of the Missouri with his party.  At almost every bend in the waterway, the towering rock formations seemed to block their passage, only to magically open up as they drew closer.  We saw osprey nests with chicks in one, big horn sheep, a deer in the water by the shore, many mud swallow nests and Indian pictographs.

Today our Helena site-seeing started with a one-hour ride aboard the Last Chance Tour Train . We learned about the discovery of gold in Last Chance Gulch in 1864 and heard about how Helena became the capitol city of Montana.

Some of the things we saw were the original and new Governor’s Mansions, opulent mansions of Helena’s mining millionaires and a restored miner’s village from gold rush days (Reeder’s Alley).  The Greek Renaissance architecture of Montana’s impressive state capitol constructed of native sandstone and crowned with a massive copper dome was impressive.  We also saw the unique downtown architecture along Last Chance Gulch including buildings embellished with giant lizards, thumbprints and gargoyles.

Note the corner of the above building: on the first floor (street level) there is one window, on the second floor - two windows, third floor - three windows, fourth floor - four windows, and fifth floor - five windows.  Pretty unusual!

A beautiful sight to behold was the St. Helena Cathedral with 230’ spires (about 20 stories high).  The cornerstone was laid in 1908 and it took nearly 20 years to complete.  It is modeled after Cologne Cathedral in a style called Victorian Gothic and is known world-wide for its stained-glass windows.  They are beautiful and there are many of them.

We then went to Last Chance Gulch in the downtown area, which is Montana's only out-door walking mall, and enjoyed a delicious late lunch at Bert & Ernie’s.

Here is a beautiful Helena sunset.