Looking for warmer weather

Ennis, Montana

We did have several nice days in Ennis (Weather). Allowed us to visit Virginia City and Nevada City, only 15 miles from Ennis. Up and over the hill. Although the season is over we had a good time reading the self guided tour of the cities. Nevada City is mostly a ghost town, but half of Virginia city is active. Quite remote in the winter.

Another day we drove to around Ennis Lake, got to see the Hydro plant on the Madison river. This is located in a deep canyon. There is a 35 foot high dam from which a 13 foot diameter pipe takes the water about 1.5 miles downstream and falls 110 feet into the generators. A constant 1100 cfm flow the 1.5 miles to accommodate the fish population.

We had planned to leave Sunday morning for Missoula our next leg on our trip home. Well Saturday afternoon a real wind came up. It was still blowing Sunday morning and was not to stop until Monday noon.

So we extended our stay another day. 

Anyway it gave us a chance to visit a little Southern Baptist church near the RV Park.

And it did blow all day Sunday and Sunday night. It was like a constant 20 - 30 mph both days.

Monday morning it was still blowing, but a little less. However it was 30 degrees and well you get the picture. I took this just prior to leaving at 9:30 am. The forecast for the next couple of days indicated more snow. We felt we needed to leave or plan on staying a few more days.

We pulled out and headed North. All was good until we came to Norris Pass on Hwy 287. The Chains required for vehicles towing sign was flashing and several trucks were chaining up.  I paused, but there was no place to turn around, so.... I hit the 4 wheel drive button and started up the hill. fortunately there was no traffic and I was able to keep a constant 35 mph (there was snow on the road). This is a long grade and we made it. Then I slowed down a little to descend (7% downgrade) to the valley floor. Well that was the last of the bad roads and by the time we got I- 90 the pavement was dry. As we traveled to Missoula the weather continued to improve and we had quite a bit of Sun by the time we arrived.