Montana ~ boat tour

Continuing my "series" about my vacation in Montana to visit my friend Joan, here I am last week between Roger and Joan's daughter Cari on the boat tour on the Missouri River to a place Meriwether Lewis called the Gates of the Mountains.

Our boat was the Sacajawea II, which stopped at a picnic area for a short break during our two-hour tour.  Along the path there, I saw this monument to the thirteen smoke jumpers (some mere teens) who died in 1949 during the Mann Gulch fire.

We learned a lot about history from our tour guide, who took the boat from one side of the river to the other to show us pictographs and bald eagles near their nests and how the "gates" seem to close off the passage.  This photo shows the gates upriver "opening" wide for us.

And this is my favorite photo of the boat tour.  Beautiful, isn't it?