Roosevelt Arch and a birthday lunch

Well, the advantage is that I am married to a younger woman at least for three months anyway.

For my birthday, we drove into Gardiner, Montana for lunch and to play tourist.

Our first stop was the Roosevelt Arch. The 52 foot tall arch constructed of local rock was built in 1903 and took only 6 months to complete. Over the center of the arch is the phrase ““For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People.” which was from the act creating Yellowstone in 1872. President Roosevelt placed the cornerstone in a dedication ceremony that covered a time capsule placed by the Masons. The time capsule contains a Bible, a picture of Roosevelt, Masonic documents, local newspapers, coins, and other items.

Until 1915, autos were not allowed in the park only horse drawn carts and wagons.

This was the entrance to the park until 1961 when it was decided that it would be safer to move traffic away from the Arch which attracts a lot of photographers.

The arch is very impressive.

Next, we had my “birthday” lunch at Cowboy’s Bar and Grill. In the parking lot, they had several antique cars and inside the TV’s were playing black and white cowboy movies and the walls were covered in wanted posters and old guns (most were BB guns).

Shawna had a BBQ sandwich and I had a Buffalo burger. They were both great. I got a Dr Pepper but Shawna had “Moose Drool” which is a brown ale made by Big Sky Montana brewing.

On the way back into the park, we stopped at the 45th parallel. Officially, we are halfway between the Equator and the North Pole.  This puts us even with Minneapolis and Portland but north of Toronto.

We drove a few miles and stopped to take a walk at one of the pullouts. The area is called a “Special Place”. It is special because it is the lowest elevation in the park at 5200 feet with under 15 inches of rain average per year the lowest rainfall in the park.

Our site is pretty.

What a difference a couple of days can make. Smoke from fires to the west blew in to make being outside very unpleasant.