Electric Peak, all 10,992 feet of it, will still tower in the distance. Bison and elk will still wander next to the highway. Visitors will still pass under Roosevelt Arch to enter Yellowstone National Park.
But there will be so many of them. Summer, when we share our state with the rest of the world, is just around the corner.
For those who do, their point of reference will forever be the Montana they found in 2006. Wherever they land - here in the Paradise Valley, or the Bitterroot Valley, the Mission Valley, the Flathead Valley - this will be the Montana they reference as the years pass and more people come and more subdivisions go in to house them and more four-lane highways are built to move them around.
U.S. Highway 89 has been a treat to travel. The weather has been miserable most of the way - if you don't like it, wait five minutes? We waited five days - but otherwise, this trip has been a true pleasure.
The best actually came before we hit Livingston and the Paradise Valley. For more than 300 miles, Highway 89 took us back to the Montana I remember as a kid.
I imagine it, too, will change come summer. But it was so neat to drive mile after mile after mile without seeing another car. We visited places that make Mayberry seem like Vegas.
From St. Mary to Neihart to Gardiner, we found sleepy little towns waking up from a long winter's nap.
From Choteau to Belt to White Sulphur Springs, we found towns that seem to move at an easier pace than do towns west of the Continental Divide.
And the wildlife! For most of the week, photographer Linda Thompson lamented the lack of human beings in too many of her photos, but animals and birds were everywhere.
And it wasn't just bison and elk, deer and antelope, swans and ducks. Highway 89 delivered camels! Mermaids!
It was so cool.
I've seen more of this state's poor cowboys, miners, railroaders and Indians go broke buyin' pickup trucks. The poor people of this state are dope fiends for pickup trucks. As soon as they get 10 cents ahead, they trade in on a new pickup truck. The families, homesteads, schools, hospitals and happiness of Montana have been sold down the river to buy pickup trucks! And there's a sickness here worse than alcohol and dope. It is the pickup truck death! And there's no cure in sight.- Dialogue from the movie “Rancho Deluxe,” filmed in Livingston in 1974
Have SUVs overtaken the pickup truck population of Montana?
As we drove out of the Shields Valley, framed by the Bridger and Crazy mountains, on the third day of our trip, we had to get on Interstate 90 for two miles before entering Livingston.
It was a jolt to pull onto the on-ramp and into the fast-paced traffic. Aside from Great Falls, I honestly believe we'd seen more horses than we did cars and trucks on Highway 89 up to that point.
With low cloud cover concealing the eastern front of the Rocky Mountains, only buttes and foothills can be seen beyond grazing horses north of Great Falls.Photo by LINDA THOMPSON/Missoulian
With low cloud cover concealing the eastern front of the Rocky Mountains, only buttes and foothills can be seen beyond grazing horses north of Great Falls.
Trendy Livingston seemed like a different planet than the one we'd been on for three days. It reminded me of one of my favorite pieces of writing, a magazine article by Lynette Dodson from years ago.
Lamenting the changes that had come to the town she called home, she told of the cowboy who - after a night in Livingston's downtown bars - decided to leave his pickup parked and walk home.
He wound up being ticketed for indecent exposure when a law enforcement officer spied him, back to the road and partially hidden by trees, relieving himself.
What was happening to Montana? There was something wrong, Dodson decided, when a man couldn't take a leak on the way home.
Highway 89 was a constant reminder of the two Montanas, the booming mountain region and the dying plains. It is where the new Montana meets the old, just by driving up an on-ramp.
Being a dinosaur, I prefer the old Montana to the new one.
But, like so many of you - whether your point of reference is 90 years old or just one - I still prefer the new Montana to anyplace else.
After entering the United States, travelers pass a metal sculpture welcoming them to the Blackfeet Nation. Photo by LINDA THOMPSON/Missoulian
Reach reporter Vince Devlin at (406) 523-5260 or by e-mail at vdevlin@missoulian.com. Photographer Linda Thompson can be reached at (406) 523-5270 or by e-mail at lthompson@missoulian.com.
About this series: During 2006, the Missoulian will travel six two-lane highways in Montana, writing about and photographing the people and places of the state we call home. Highway 89 is the second to be traveled. This is the last of four parts about that trip.
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