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Billings, MT 2012May 16, 2012
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Turkey running wild on the way in the park and gobble, gobbling...
Hey, who are you looking at?
This Bull snake got caught in the mesh that was laid down...
| Today's adventure was visiting the Pictograph Caves State Park and old downtown Billings. This city is much larger than we thought and is set in a large gorge of the Yellowstone River Valley. If fact, as we approached the city from the west we were driving on a high bluff and had a spectacular view of Billings spread out below. Billings was named after Frederck Billings the former president of the Northern Pacific Railroad. The Pictograph Caves State Park is a day use only park. Not very big. The pictographs themselves are very faded to the point of almost being non-existent. The park service has added some marking to indicate what was once on the walls of the cave. There is a nice handout describing the life and times of the indians that once inhabited and made the pictographs. There is also a dotted line indicating the level of how much has been excavated. The information about the pictographs is very interesting. What is really fascinating is the geology of the area. The caves are sandstone. The part of the Yellow River Vallley was once a shallow sea. When you look at the rimrock there are boulder like protrusions that dot one line along the entire ridge. They are located about 1/3 of the way up the ridge. These boulders must be 5 to 10 feet in diameter. Very curious. It was a pretty nice day, a little warm and humid. Possible thundershowers are forecast for later. We had a nice, short hike and some lunch under the trees. Old downtown Billings has many period buildings. A lot of them are empty. There is a great building that was once the Parmly Billings Library which is now the Western Heritage Center. We visited this center hoping to find more information about the geology of the area. We were told that going Yellowstone, WY would provide more geological information and museums. That is scheduled for a few years from now. The studio of J.K. Ralston is another western artist. It sits right next to the museum. He used this studio for 40 years. He has some nice pieces, but I still prefer the works of Charles Russell. |
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