The Crazy Mountains: Part 6

On Sunday, September 22, Doug and I began our 2019 Fall Foliage Tour. This was the first of three parts. We started our journey in Billings, Montana. Traveling west on I-90 we passed the Beartooth and Crazy Mountains. At Big Timber we turned north on US 191 before turning left, or west, on US 12. This took us to US 89 and a jaunt toward Great Falls, Montana. On the second day, we headed west for a day along the Rocky Mountain Front in north-central Montana. Heading home on the final day of our three-day excursion brought us some heart-breaking news about the weather forecast for the rest of the week.

That first day, however, allowed us to visit some parts of Montana that we had not seen before, including views of the magnificent Crazy Mountains from the east side. Oh, and we also saw a rare “white buffalo” along the way. As stated before, however, this series of articles is strictly about my photographs of the Crazy Mountains.

The FORT is basically a convenience store on steroids. Besides being a place to fill up the gas tank, you can purchase soft drinks and water, hot coffee and snacks, including a small take-out deli. In addition, there is a small area to purchase souvenirs as a reminder of your stop in Big Timber, Montana. Plus there is a gun store with a rather extensive array of firearms, from pistols to rifles and shotguns. On one of our stops, my brother was able to purchase a map of the surrounding area in the Crazy Mountains. Even when we are not visiting our Big Timber friends, this is still a great little pitstop.

This trip was the first time that we went up US Highway 191, which traverses south to north along the east side of the Crazy Mountains. We wanted to visit a place called Halfmoon Campground to see what the fall colors were like. That road, once we left the paved portion, turned out to be a bit more difficult than I wanted to try, so we turned around. I was, however, able to get some great shots along US 191, which included the above-mentioned white buffalo. Taking this route gave us a different view of the Crazy Mountains.