The Crazy Mountains

by vols4everus · Published 09/21/2020 · Updated 09/21/2020

Hi everyone. It’s been almost two years since Doug and I moved to Montana. I have decided to do a montage of my many photos of the Crazy Mountains. It’s funny but I don’t remember these mountains and how spectacular they are, especially from the interstate (I-90), on previous trips. But now that I have had the chance to view them, from many different angles, my love for these tall, humps of rock, just keeps growing exponentially. If I never make it to Stanley, Idaho, as far as retiring, I would not mind having a place from which I could sit on my front porch, in a rocking chair, and view these magnificent peaks on a daily basis. My favorite mountain range is still the Grand Tetons, with the Sawtooth’s in Idaho coming in a distant second. And I, also, like the Wind River Range down in Wyoming. But the Crazies are definitely growing on me.

There’s not going to be a lot of dialogue in this 11-part article. It will be mostly photographs taken over the last two years, although, with the Covid virus, I have not traveled very much in 2020. My last shots were during the winter months.

The first time I saw the Crazy Mountains, in 2018, was on the second day after we arrived in Montana. Sunday, the 22nd of October was the first day in our new home town. We spent that night, as well as the next one in the Motel 6 in Billings, Montana. We signed the lease for our new apartment on Monday, and on Tuesday we ordered our beds from the Mattress King. Knowing they would not be delivered until Friday, the 27th, we left that afternoon for Glacier National Park. Along the way, we glimpsed the Crazies for the first time. Here are the photos from that afternoon.

There are two rest areas between Billings, MT and the Crazy Mountains. This was the second one. That was my first good view of those majestic peaks.

A great view of the Crazies. Coming up on mile marker 377 on I-90 west-bound about 10 miles from Big Timber, MT.

Looking north, from I-90, the mountains rise up, without foothills. Crazy Peak, at 11,214 feet looms large on the horizon.

After passing the town of Big Timber, we turned north on US 89 with Helena as our destination for that first night. Along the way, we cruised up the west side of the Crazy Mountains. There was a pull-off, about twenty-five miles into our journey, with a life-sized statue representing a mountain man. This bronze figure paid homage to such historical figures as John Colter, Jim Bridger and Hugh Glass, made famous by the 2015 Leonardo DiCaprio film, The Revenant.

Doug standing by the monument entitled “Welcome to the Shields” with a life-size statue named “Thunder Jack” in tribute to the famous mountain-man era of the early 19th century. John Colter, Jim Bridger and Hugh Glass, who survived his mauling by a grizzly bear in 1823, were some of the more famous woodsmen of their day. Leonardo DiCaprio portrayed Glass in the 2015 film The Revenant.

Me with the statue of Thunder Jack in the foreground, while the Crazy Mountains are behind us. These shots of the Crazies are from the west side, looking back toward the east. We were traveling north along US Highway 89 on our way to Helena, Montana for the night.

The second time we viewed the Crazies was on November 10, 2018. Doug and I had been in Montana less than three weeks when we visited our new friends, Randy, Debbie and their son Hunter, who live in Big Timber, a small town with a population of less than 2,000. This wonderful little village resides at the base of the Crazy Mountains, which means I really like the location. Doug had known Randy for awhile, via Facebook, before we moved to Montana. Both were Tennesseans with a love for the University of Tennessee football. Randy had invited us for a visit if we ever got to Montana, so we took him up on his offer.

It was a Saturday, and we arrived early so that Randy could take us in closer to the Beartooth Mountains before the football game. I got some good snapshots, but this article is about the Crazies, so those pictures will be for another day. Although the Tennessee football team had more downs than ups during the 2018 campaign, they did upset two ranked SEC (Southeastern Conference) foes during their run to a 5-7 season. The first was a victory on the road at Auburn University on the 13th of October. Doug always said that our beloved Big Orange (a nickname for the Tennessee players as they wore orange jerseys) gave us a wonderful send-off. Five days after that 30-24 victory, we left Nashville and began our journey westward to the Big Sky Country of Montana.

We were able to view the second win, this time against an 11th-ranked Kentucky squad, from Randy’s living room. Although the 24-7 victory would be the Volunteers last win of the year, the men in orange came through for us that day. Their win was over a Wildcat team that would finish the season with ten wins including a victory over Penn State in the Citrus Bowl and a final AP ranking of 12th. The last time the ‘Cats football team finished that high was in 1977.