Great Falls, Montana - September 28th to 30th, 2022
We had no expectations of what Great Falls would be like. With no advanced agenda, we explored the area. To us, it is more exciting when we seem to “discover” what a place has to offer.
Wednesday we drove from Claresholm, Alberta to Great Falls Montana. It was another sunny day. The temperature rose quickly. Before we knew it, it was in the mid 90’s (mid 30’s Celsius). We turned the air conditioner on in our Red Tail Lodge (our camper van). We can’t remember the last time we turned on the air conditioner. It was almost October, and we were finally having a first taste of summer weather for the year. There was no way we were going to complain about being hot. We’ve heard reports from our friends in the lower 48 states about heat waves most of the summer. We had no room to complain about one day of hot weather.
The stops we made before reaching Great Falls was at the border crossing and at a rest area to eat a picnic lunch. The border crossing was the longest we’ve had the whole season. At the Sweet Grass border crossing, there were three lanes open, one for commercial traffic and two for private vehicles. Each lane had about half a dozen vehicles waiting in line. It took us about 20 minutes to cross. The border guard asked us the usual questions, then opened up our rear doors to take a peek inside. He wanted to make sure we were the only two in the vehicle.
When we reached Great Falls, we took care of some chores. After filling up our Red Tail Lodge with gas, Keith waited about half an hour to get a hair cut. Then we stopped at a grocery store to restock our fridge. As we drove down 10th Avenue to the campground, we couldn’t help but notice all the casinos. Montana really likes their gambling establishments! There were one or two casinos in every block for several miles.
It was late afternoon when we checked into the Great Falls KOA campground, our home for the next two nights. The campground is on the edge of town, behind the Walmart, but it is nestled in a clump of trees, so it is very pleasant. Most of the sites are in the trees, with just one group of pull through sites that are more out in the open. For the kiddos, there is a small petting zoo. They even serve hand-dipped ice cream in the little store located in the office building. We made sure we got our ice cream before the office closed at 6:30 pm. Ann had a scoop of huckleberry in a waffle cone while Keith had a scoop of the Montana Moose Moss, which was a mint ice cream with swirls of chocolate fudge. What a refreshing treat on such a hot day.
It was even hot enough for us to put our inverter/charger firmware upgrade to a real test. We hadn’t used our air conditioner since having the inverter firmware upgraded when we were in Victoria (Victoria, British Columbia - May 16th to 18th, 2022). We plugged in and turned the roof-top air conditioner on. We left it on for the rest of the day to keep the van cool, even though our site was in the shade. No problem! Our lithium batteries charged fully, the air conditioner kept running, and the inverter/charger reported no errors. The test was a success!
Thursday we explored Great Falls. In the morning, we found a coffee shop called Electric City Coffee in the historic downtown area. A croissant and bear claw along with cups of chai were a great way to start the day. We strolled around the historic downtown area, making our way over to Gibson Park, the county courthouse, and Railroad Square. There were a lot of interesting old buildings to admire.
A variety of ducks and geese were hanging out in the Gibson Park Duck Pond. Some of the ducks were ones we had never seen before. One type had what looked like a floppy wig on its head.
For lunch, we stopped at Fire Artisan Pizza. First time visitors received a free spinach and artichoke dip. Of course we had to take them up on it! In addition to that, we each had half a pizza with a small salad. The dip came with slices of pizza crust baked with a small amount of cheese on top. We were already feeling full by the time we finished the appetizer. Somehow we managed to finish our pizzas and salads. It was all so delicious! The pizzas are wood fired. The crusts are thin and crispy, but also very chewy. Just the way we like our pizza crusts! Keith had the pepperoni while Ann had the Stallion from their secret menu, which had sausage, red onion, bell peppers, and their creamy g sauce. Ann believes the “g” stood for garlic. It was very tasty and a nice change from the marinara sauce that she normally orders.
The plan for the afternoon was to try to rent bikes from the Knicker Biker shop and ride the River’s Edge Trail along the Missouri River. However, the weather forecast called for a chance of severe thunderstorms in the afternoon with a possibility of hail. That didn’t sound like good biking weather to us, so we opted for driving over to Giant Springs State Park.
Giant Springs State Park is on the northeast side of town along the Missouri River. There is a large fresh water spring right on the south bank of the river. It is the same spring that Lewis and Clark encountered while spending a month portaging around the five waterfalls along the Missouri River in this area. The five waterfalls include Great Falls, Crooked Falls, Rainbow Falls, Colter Falls, and Black Eagle Falls. Three of the five falls have dams above them, another one is now submerged by the reservoir created by one of the dams, and only one of the falls remains in its natural state.
First we drove to the overlook for Rainbow Falls. There are still falls below the dam, but we felt the dam detracted from the beauty of the falls. From there, we walked along the River’s Edge Trail over to Crooked Falls, the one still in its natural state. When we were there, the water level was a little low. We’re not sure how much the dams control the flow of the water in the river.
Then we drove back to the Giant Spring to learn that, being out-of-state residents, we should have paid a fee to park within the state park. We gladly paid the $8 per vehicle fee at the visitor center by the spring. The Giant Spring was interesting. It bubbles out over 150 million gallons of water every day.
Right next to the spring is a state fish hatchery. They use water from the spring in the hatchery. However, the spring water is high in nitrogen, so they have to filter out some of the nitrogen before using it in the hatchery. There are some nice displays at the hatchery explaining the operations. The show pond gives you an opportunity to see the different fish they raise at the hatchery.
While we were at the Giant Spring and fish hatchery, the rain started. That was our cue to go over to the Lewis & Clark Interpretative Center, run by the U.S. Forest Service as part of the Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail, which is located within the Giant Springs State Park. There was also a fee to go inside the interpretative center, but our national park pass got us in for no additional charge.
We arrived right when one of the short movies was about to start, so we took our seats. The movie explained Lewis & Clark’s expedition, called the Corps of Discovery, concentrating on their long portage in the Great Falls area. After the movie, we wandered around the museum, trying to absorb all the information of the wonderful displays. We could hear the rain pounding on the roof. We are not big museum goers, as we reach our saturation point fairly quickly, but this was a great way to stay out of the rain. We did not make it through the whole museum before it was time for another different short movie in the theater. We were ready to sit down again. The second movie covered some of the same information in addition to different details as the first one we saw, but the repetition was probably good for us. It probably helped the information soak in better.
There were still two more falls to see. We were on the south bank of the river. To reach the Great Falls from where we were, we needed to drive about 25 minutes, heading up stream to cross the river, then looping around on the north bank back downstream. On the way, we stopped at an overlook of the Black Eagle Falls. Its dam overshadowed the falls even more than the one at Rainbow Falls.
The road to get to the Great Falls swings away form the river before heading back to it. Passing through farmland along the way, we spotted a herd of antelope in the distance. Then the road winds through some interesting landscape as it descends down to the river. A deer crossed the road in front of us.
It was rather anticlimactic when we reached the river. We were not impressed with the falls. We know the water level was low, so the falls may be more impressive at another time of the year. There is also an island in the river that is accessible from Mother’s Day to Labor Day, so it was closed when we were there. The view of the falls may be better from the island.
Even though we were disappointed by the falls, we did enjoy the drive to get there. On the way back, Keith came to an abrupt stop. There was a bright, full, double rainbow. It was gorgeous.
Back in town, we went out to dinner at Mighty Mo Brewing. We should have looked at their menu ahead of time, because we might have picked another place. Most of what Mighty Mo offered was pizza. Since we just had pizza for lunch, having pizza again for dinner was not that appealing to us. We opted for chicken wings along with a hummus plate appetizer. The food was OK, but we are spoiled when it comes to chicken wings. The best wings, in our opinion, are from Outlaw Wings which is just a mile from our house. So we set the bar pretty high when it comes to wings. Keith enjoyed his Oktoberfest beer more than the food. It was the beer he was most interested in anyway.
And just like that, the summer weather was over. Friday we woke up to cold rain, with temperatures in the 40’s. It was a short drive from Great Falls to our next stop, Lewistown. However, we spent the rest of the day doing laundry at the campground and staying warm and cozy inside our Red Tail Lodge. Exploring the cute little town of Lewistown will have to wait until another time.
Our time in Great Falls was a wonderful. It had a little bit of everything, a historic downtown, nice restaurants, and museums, along with some natural wonders. The double rainbow was the icing on the cake.
Check out our related video: Great Falls, Montana
(Ann)