Columbus, Montana

Good morning, my friends. One long day of driving is finished. Three more to go before home. When we left Spearfish yesterday morning, we admired the colorful hillsides to our north.

It was only about 20 miles to the Wyoming state line. We drove I-90 virtually the whole distance. It was a little longer than taking one of the US highways in a northwest direction, but we appreciated the good road and divided highway.

It was straight and flat once we hit Wyoming.

There was the usual assortment of barns, although this area is very lightly populated. 

Some time ago, I read a statistic putting Wyoming's population as the least dense of our 50 states with an average of 2 inhabitants per square mile of land.

Also, more abandoned homesteads. 

As we drove along, the terrain began to change to more hills and more pine trees.

We passed by this large lake, so very blue it was nearly black. I inquired of the Google what might account for its color. There was nothing about the color, but I learned that this is Lake DeSmet, and it has an associated spooky legend. You can read it right here.

Rounding a bend, the Bighorn mountain range came into view. Here, the road turned us almost due north. We were going to drive around the mountains.

A few miles down the road, we crossed the Montana state line.

And there goes the road...from one side to the other in the image below.

We left the Bighorn Mountains behind, and then came upon the Beartooth Mountains.

It was only just a few more miles to our final destination here in Columbus where we planned to spend one night. The kitties posed for their pictures. 

Sadie is a consummate "flopper" when I try taking her picture.

I took the first stitches on Block 8 of Stitchin' Wisdom.

There were some interesting cloud formations, and I thought there might be a pretty sunset. I went out early to capture it. There was a dark cloud above, and that made for a streak of a sunset. It wasn't what I was hoping for.

About half an hour later, I looked out and whoa! It was a flaming sunset so big, I couldn't capture it in a single image. 

Day is done.

We're here in Columbus just one night, and we'll be moving on to Missoula this morning. We'll have two nights in Missoula, taking a day off from driving. I regret that our free day will fall on a Sunday and all the quilt shops will probably be closed. Bummer. Oh well. After that, we'll move on to Pasco, Washington, Monday morning. Tuesday, we'll be home. And now, it's time to make breakfast and be on our way. It's another long day of driving ahead.