Valentines Day Getaway

Dinner and a movie? Bor-ring! 

Happy Valentine's Day! You do see the heart, don't you?

Regular readers of the blog may remember that I mentioned that our anniversary plans in December were canceled due to weather. Winter in Montana being as fickle as it is, this weekend was beautiful and perfect for those plans. 

Not everyone would consider Baker, Montana a perfect place for a romantic Valentine getaway, but we had a nearby destination in mind. So we spent Friday afternoon at Medicine Rocks State Park. The park is a collection of wind- and water-eroded sandstone "sculptures." It was a great place to wander and let my mind "see" all kinds of faces and shapes and creatures in the rocks. We stayed until dusk, taking pictures and just soaking up the warm afternoon sun. Just as we were walking back to the truck, I heard a howl. I asked Dan, "Wolf? Coyote? or just a domestic dog?" About then, the rest of the pack joined in the clamor. Funny, in town, it would be just highly annoying. In nature? AWESOME! 

The weather changed overnight, and Saturday morning, we woke up to cold temps and light snow. Oh, well. The other stop that we had in mind was Makoshika State Park in Glendive, so we headed east through oilfields and badlands. Unfortunately, this stop didn't quite "pan out." The visitor's center was closed when we got there, so we decided that we would do the drive part first. The only problem with that plan was that the road was barricaded about a mile past the visitor's center. So much for Makoshika! Bye, bye, Glendive. We hit the interstate until we came to Terry. We stopped for gas, then returned to the back roads.

By now, the sun was back (or maybe the snow just hadn't made it that far west yet), and we enjoyed bouncing along the gravel roads. We had the GPS and only really needed to stay pointed in a generally SW direction. Thus we came to Ryan Road, marked "Impassable when muddy or snow drifted." Dan looked over at me and said, "Well, it's been dry to this point, and there are tracks." To which I replied with a shrug, "You're driving." We proved the sign wrong -- the road WAS actually passable -- barely! After way too many miles with both hands wrapped tightly around dashboard and door handle (and with perhaps a little muted whimpering), I was very relieved to hit the next road. Still gravel, but a big improvement. We stopped and scraped half of the topsoil of Prairie County off of our truck, then continued on our merry way.

The next road had real pavement and led us back to the interstate. For this trip at least, I had had enough of the road less traveled.