Saturday June 10th 2017

Today was a repeat of yesterday. The weather was very similar and my activities were too. It was mostly cloudy with occasional rain showers. The temperature was cooler than yesterday. It only got into the mid fifties.

View of the lower parts of Butte from the Montana Tech campus.

My day started slowly with an extra cup of coffee while catching up with my Internet reading. Eventually I got in the car to explore the area some more. I drove into the downtown Butte area. As with most things in this area it is on a hill side. Unlike a lot of towns the old buildings are still in use. They may have been re-purposed a few times, but I didn’t see many signs of new construction replacing the old buildings. I found the World Museum of Mining that I want to visit on a better weather day. Walking around outside today was wet and cold much of the day. To get to the museum I had to drive through the Montana Tech campus. I was surprised by the number of students around on a Saturday in June.

A Head frame from an old mine on the hillside above downtown Butte.

City of Butte with and old head frame for a mine shaft.

Another observation from my wanderings today is the amount of land dedicated to cemeteries. I saw two huge active cemeteries. I also saw signs for more than one mortuary and a crematorium. I didn’t see any funeral homes, maybe that function is done by the mortuary. I’m not in the habit of looking for cemeteries, but for some reason the cemeteries of Butte got my attention.

Blacktail creek beside the county trail behind the campground. This picture was taken during the hour the sun was out this afternoon.

The rain chased me back to the RV at mid afternoon. For an hour or so the occasional shower turned to a steady rain, but it was followed up by about an hour of sunshine. Taking advantage of the brief period of better conditions I took a walk on the county walking trails around the campground. There is a creek that passes between the campground and the interstate that the trails follow. The water is not high today, but a flood watch is on until Wednesday. It doesn’t look like this creek will be much of a threat. I was disappointed not to see any water birds in the creek area.