Road to Lewis And Clark Caverns SP

Wednesday
Time to press on southwards, to Helena, the capital of Montana. Quite eventful today, the first stop was for petrol, where on moving off I caught the trailer steps on a low wall and twisted them by about an inch, they still work, but don't fit properly and have deformed the metal skirt along that side. I think some work with a big hammer and a jack may help. We stopped in Helena to pick up post, then to Safeway's for food. This will be our last major supermarket before Yellowstone Park, so we needed to stock up. By this time it was lunchtime, so we parked in the grounds of the Capitol Building and had our picnic, quite pleasant. By now we were moving through big rocky hills and could once again see snow covered mountains in our path. We had planned to stop at the Lewis and Clarke Caverns State Park, We were fortunate enough to get the last site with an electric hookup. The campground is just by the Jefferson River, one of the three forks which comprise the Missouri Headwaters. The campground itself is quite open and desert like, but very pleasant with many cottonwood trees to provide shade.


We found out that we were just in time to see the Caverns this afternoon, so we turned up at the visitor center and were treated to a personal tour of the caverns, using the special route that was for handicapped. Like Disney we went in the Exit. We were very impressed with the limestone cavern there, all nicely lit up. The guide, a young lad called Derek, gave us a lot of information, so we had a fun time. When we emerged it was time to go and get some tea. After tea I went for a nice run - 5.4K in 46 mins, climbing 600ft in the process.