Bannack State Park

On our last day in Montana, we headed over to Bannack State Park.  Bannack is an old mining town that's now a ghost town that has been turned into a state park.  At one point, Bannack was home to more than 3000 people.  The gold found around the area proved to be extremely high quality and it is estimated that there were more than 580 thousand ounces produced from the first discovery of gold in 1862, until 1930.  If you are ever in the area, it is well worth taking the time to check this place out.

Montana Mines

After our day in the snow, we loaded up the machines and spent a day wandering in the area near Argenta, MT.  Like most of this corner of Montana, this is a heavily mined area.  It was a fun day of exploring a bunch of old mine sites.

Snow Day

Two days into our adventure, we woke up to snow.  Wet, sloppy, snow.  Rather than spending the day at camp, we took the day to head down into town where we spent some time at a museum while the storm worked its course.  The next day, we headed out on the four wheelers and side by side to explore a road we had found earlier in the week.  According to our maps, the road should lead us to the upper Elkhorn mine site as well as a number of other smaller mines.  Apparently the road isn't too well traveled as we spent a good amount of time clearing fallen trees from our path.  Despite the challenges, it was a fun day and we found several old cabins and mines.  We need to go back later in the summer to see what we can find without the snow.