South Dakota pt 4: Clark Fork

Apparently you drive over the Clark Fork (the largest river by volume in Montana, it connects to the mighty Columbia River, the largest river in Washington) 17 times on the way to Great Falls, Montana - one of my Mom’s friends said that so it must be true - like if Google was drunk on wine coolers and all it’s answers came back to the Bachelorette. Well, my Dad & I weren’t headed to the great GF this time because we were sticking to I-90 on our way to South Dakota. Before we reached our first night’s stop of Billings, MT, before we even reached Missoula, home of the University of Montana, the hated rivals of my parents alum the Montana State University Bobcats (in Bozeman, which we would go on to drive around on our way home - but more on that in a later post) we pulled over at a popular swimming hole and found a nice place for me to take a dip in the ice cool rapids of Western Montana (Dad stayed on land, per usual, the landlubber.) The river was running through my veins - I was the titular “it” that the Brad Pitt movie was referring to (set in, you guessed it - Missoula, Montana! But filmed in the Bozeman area on the Gallatin River (Bozeman is the seat of Gallatin County) - thusly the rivalry roars on between the Cats & Grizz - Go Cats!) 

It was a hot day (nearly 100, without a doubt), and the water was twice as nice because of those oppressive sun rays. I love swimming - especially in natural bodies of water - especially when they are freezing cold mountain water straight outta a Coors commercial on a football Sunday (coming soon - can’t wait for the season, as always). Alas, it was a lovely pit stop on our first long day of driving - road trips rule - quality father-son time, good times. We would go on to have a great trip and make a lot of awesome memories but this was just our first stop along the way - nature rules. I love a good candid photo. ⬇️ Also, Clark Fork sounds like a sidewinding reliever from the 70’s, a Rollie Fingers disciple, a chip off the ol’ stache.