Alaska 2015 - Day 7 Sundance WY - Harlowton MT

Day 7 – 5-18-15 Monday   What a difference a day makes. We woke up this morning to 34 degrees and snow coming down but with no strong winds. The snow didn't stick and had quit by the time we cooked/ate breakfast and departed at 7:30AM MST. We stopped to top off the fuel before getting back on the interstate because we knew when we got back on I90 the fuel stops that we could access would be few and far between. The landscape was quite different that what we drove through yesterday in SD. It was not flat at all but had large hills and valleys with quite a few trees for awhile. Then the trees mostly vanished from the landscape. Today's drive was quite scenic and a pleasure to drive compared to yesterday. We saw lots and lots of black cattle and just a few brown ones. We decided they raise black cattle so they could find them in the snow during the Winter. We also saw several deer (we had seen several so far but all were road kill), what looked like antelope, goats, sheep and horses but not as many horses as I expected to see. Some of the landscape looked like what you would see watching westerns on TV. Quite beautiful.

After driving for 2.5 hours we stopped at a scenic pull off to take a break. There was a historical sign beside the pull off describing a battle that had taken place in the area. There was not a trash can but people had piled their trash up against the sign and some of it was scattered all over – what a mess. I just don't understand these people. This was one of the prettiest area we saw and it was just trashed. I had been thinking up to this point that we had not seen any trash along the roads and how nice that was but then to see this.

We stopped again for lunch in Hardin Montana at a Taco John's. Lena said it was a cousin of Taco Bell's. At Billings Montana we got off the interstate and drove about 80 miles through the country to our stop for the night. We passed several ranches so we got to see a little of the state beside what is beside the interstate. These people live so far from any town that they must have to do careful planning for shopping trips to town for groceries and supplies.

We arrived in Harlowton Montana about 3:30PM MST for the night. This is a little town and we are in a little campground in their town park. When the attendant came to collect the fee he said we were the third campers that he had checked in the last few days that was headed to Alaska.