Yellowtail Dam and Pompey's Pillar

We stayed another night (total of 3) at Cottonwood Campground. It's a comfortable spot, although management is a little disorganized. On Friday morning we drove around to see some of the sights and take some photos of the river put-in and the big dam that creates the lake and this excellent tailwater trout fishery. Turned out we were a little early for the dam Visitor Center (or maybe the ranger on duty was a little bit late getting to work!), but the gate finally opened and we got in. It's a nice, informative visitor center and the ranger was chatty and friendly. Jack got a great video looking down on the water coming out of the base of the huge dam. Very impressive, despite the fact that neither of us is a big fan of dams in general.

Click here for Jack's video

Back at the campsite Jack took it easy (recuperating from his hard day of flyfishing) and Carol worked all afternoon, finally finishing the edit of the book she's been working on for the past 4.5 months! Yay! Long book. A little drama took place in the late afternoon when a GIANT rig pulled in and tried to get into a space next to us that wasn't really big enough. That's part of the disorganization of this campground--it's very hard to tell where one campsite ends and the next one begins, so folks park sort of haphazardly. Jack ended up getting a funny picture of our little RoadTrek right next to this big rig--like David and Goliath!

Jack thinks our RoadTrek will fit inside this bus!

We had a comfortable night's sleep and departed on Saturday morning, heading (in general) toward the next river on Jack's list. We planned to stop at Pompey's Pillar on the way, a National Historic Site where Carol can get the park Passport stamped and we can see the only remaining conclusive physical evidence of the presence of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Here on an impressive rock formation by the Yellowstone River, William Clark carved his name and the date, and climbed the formation to see the view. He also wrote about it in his journal, so it's well-documented. His signature and the 1806 date are still there, along with some Indian pictographs and other people's initials and dates through the years. (Video surveillance now discourages people from adding their own graffiti...) Very cool. We are big admirers of Lewis and Clark and it was a thrill to be standing exactly where Clark stood all those years ago, admiring the same view (minus the vast herds of bison and elk he commented on).

Pompey's Pillar, named by William Clark for Sacajawea's little boy, who he called "Pomp"

William Clark's signature and date carved in the rock.

Next, we stopped in Billings to see a movie. (America--we both enjoyed this patriotic documentary that strongly counters the "I'm ashamed to be an American" trend. Some of the immigrant footage was classic.) Now we're docked at a KOA in the little town of Big Timber. Just received a sad email from our pastor, David Cox, telling us that a good friend back home, Hazel Deisher, passed away today. It wasn't totally unexpected (and she had said numerous times that she was ready to go) but we will miss her sweet spirit.

Tomorrow we drive down toward Grand Tetons Natl Park. Oh boy, BIG mountains. (So far we've been in the relatively flat part of Montana, but that's about to change...)