Day 50 - Gates of the Mountain

Today the family took a trip to Gates of the Mountain Park and boat ride on the Missouri River.  This river has high cliffs that surround it and when Lewis & Clark were traveling out west and got to this point on the river they thought it ended because it looked the river ended. As they continued to get closer to what they thought was a rock wall and rounded  a corner in the river the wall appeared to open up in front of them as if it were a gate. As they passed through, Lewis watched as it appearedt that the gates closed behind them as well.  About 22 miles up the river is a dam and the overflow fills this basin and created a lake.  This is where we boarded the boat.

We got to see a bald eagle and osprey as we traveled down the river. On one side of the river is the site of a tragic fire in 1949 called the Mann Gulch fire that killed 13 men and burned 5000 acres.

The most important thing about this trip was that there was a bathroom on the boat. :-)  (especially with 5 women in the group)

The afternoon had the boys playing Folf with their new buddy Noah again.  Once Tony came sputtering home in his little red truck we ate and then watched a new movie called "John Carter".