August 8, 2017
Okay, another hot spring notch cut into our belts: Fairmont Hot Springs was worth a few days stop near the interesting town of Anaconda.
The natural spring is said to come out of the ground at 155 degrees and is then cooled enough for soakers to enjoy. There are two large warm pools, one inside and one out, and two smaller hotter soaking pools. We most enjoyed being outside in the 101-degree water — just right for staying in for a length of time. The indoor one seemed to get quite a bit hotter and felt oppressive to me to be inside: noisier and very high humidity.
The springs are allied with a resort; the bonus for us was that it was a five-minute walk from the RV park and the cost for old folks was nominal.
Warm springs . . .
Aside from an hour or so of soaking, we did some exploring and hiking in the area. We were hopeful about birding at the Warm Spring Wildlife Management Area; however, the waterfowl was mostly too far distant to identify, even with the scope.
There was one score, though: the red-necked grebe, a life bird and because we are at the edge of its range, we felt fortunate to get it. The ones we saw were an adult feeding a juvenile. We added a couple of others to the trip list out there - ring-necked duck and eared grebe.
The serpentine river and large ponds lie along the base of hills bedecked in thick dry grass with a few houses and farms dotted between the wetlands and the foothills.
We saw a very cool old sod-roofed dugout that had once been far out in the Montana wilderness. We resisted trespassing to get closer, partly because it was posted, but primarily because there was a farmer working just opposite; I prefer to do my trespassing unnoticed.
Bill’s pizza . . .
. . . not the pizza served in downtown Prescott, but of the Anaconda variety. We were feeling a little lazy on our first night at Fairmont after driving, so we bopped over to the only nearby settlement to grab a bite. We opted to try out a little hole-in-the-wall - Gallicono’s Stone Oven Pizza - it could not have been a better choice!
First off, when Chris inquired of the proprietor if they accepted plastic as payment, he replied that they did not; however, if we were short of cash, he would accept an IOU and we could send a check later! I don’t know about the rest of you, but that kind of trust of complete strangers has not been in my radar for a very long time.
I asked him if he meant that. “Yes”, he said; "We don’t want anyone to go hungry". Chris and I do not appear to be in imminent danger of starvation, but how very nice to encounter such an energy of welcome!
After a very few exchanges, I knew Bill was a kindred spirit in many ways. We had more than one think in common: he had applied at Prescott College some years back before ending up at the University of Massachusetts.
I snapped a hasty, unfortunately not very good photo of him with our humongous pizza that was one of the best ever.
Bill shared some thoughts on points of interest and gave us a feel for the town of Anaconda in addition to touching on various bits of life in general. It is a handsome former copper mining place with plenty of handsome historic buildings in the downtown and very eclectic residential areas.
Anaconda . . .
There are Victorian-type residences aplenty interspersed with tiny shotgun houses, one-room wide fronting on the street and stretching back linearly from there.
Some were nicely kept, probably restored, and others were pretty derelict and often appeared to be old company houses. Many blocks had a corner bar and some sections were pretty seedy; however, Bill indicated that the town is working on rebuilding itself and we saw signs of the redevelopment.
The Deer Lodge County Courthouse rises majestically at the end of a residential street. In similar fashion to other buildings there, it sports copper-clad architectural gee-gaws, appropritately, since Anaconda's beginnings and life were the result of copper mining.
Montana Hotel . . .
The Montana Hotel, closed and shuttered, was clearly the star of old-time Anaconda. A sign in the window urged a Bring it back” movement. Interesting in that the structure was four stories high and topped with grandiose corner turrets when it went up in 1888, but currently lacks those top two stories.
Those higher floors were removed in the 1970s to protect the structure from a leaking roof. Okay, that's the story as I read it. If it makes sense to you, please let me know how you think taking off two stories would be the logical method to accomplish that purpose. Wouldn't it have worked better to fix the roof???
The stack . . .
Saved by Anaconda citizens, a soaring smelter stack constructed in 1918 is all that remains of a large copper smelting operation. Now designated as a state park, at the time of its construction, the stack was the tallest masonry brickwork structure and chimney of any kind in the world. At 585 feet, it remains the world's tallest and possibly largest free-standing masonry structure.
The creek was lost, but we found it . . .
We found Lost Creek, but wish we'd known to look for it sooner than our final day at Fairmont. It began as just another wander to a place we'd seen a sign for, but had zero idea what we would find there. There was just enough gas in the tank to do the distance stated on the sign and of course to return, which beats being towed home.
As we continued our drive, we found ourselves entering a beautiful steep-sided forested canyon with amazing rocky outcrops and a placid stream, presumably Lost Creek.
A second trail headed from where we parked; despite the day already being well along, we opted to explore wherever it might take us. The route was actually along an old miner's road and followed the creek up into the mountain, taking us higher and higher into the canyon.
It climbed steadily through gorgeous country filled with a great variety of green foliage shadowed by thick stands of tall conifers, always with the creek tumbling noisily and beautifully alongside.
Along the way, we saw a couple of beaver ponds and spotted this lodge on one of the rare flats on the mountainside.
A vintage vehicle's body parts were scattered in one location, possibly the last car to pass that way.
Further along, we found the remains of three different cabins, all pretty much flattened by time and the elements.
The beauty of our surroundings was in no small part due to the proliferation of ferns, plants that were new to us, flowers and lots of berries:
elderberries,
unknown oddly shaped red berries,
currants, raspberries, strawberries, to name a few, and huckleberries (at least that's what we think they were, although Chris was calling them blueberries at the time)!
Chris painstakingly picked enough huckleberries to give us each a delightful burst of flavor.
I thought Lost Creek was actually a more picturesque hike than Avalanche Lake back in Glacier and it certainly did offer more solitude. I found the crowds at Glacier (GNP as it's called, but that always makes me think "gross national product") to be distracting. Of course the lake at the previous hike's terminus was far more spectacular with its thousand-foot waterfalls, but the getting there in this case was much prettier.
One odd sight we came across was this tree, alive no less, being vigorously burrowed into by carpenter ants that had created quite a sawdust detritus.
The Avalanche hike was longer - six miles round trip - than the distance that we trekked at Lost Creek - three-ish steep miles - but only because we did our turn-around not too long after reaching the road's crest; the lateness of the hour was the deciding factor not to continue down the other side.
Back in Anaconda: we were saddened to see this beauty had recently been destroyed by fire.
We found a funky piano on the portico of the Montana Hotel. Unfortunately, it was not playable or I could have enjoyed an impromptu concert.
1 comment:
If I ever get to take a trip through the North West states, I am going to follow your trek! What beauty and interesting places you've visited.
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