Second honeymoon, Day 12

Our last day on the road. We planned pretty much to take Hwy 90 all the way into Idaho and call it good. However outside of Butte we saw this massive tower. What could it be?

So, as one of our final impulsive decisions, we turned off Hwy 90 onto Hwy 1 through the company town of Anaconda.

After making some inquiries, we found ourselves at the Anaconda Stack State Park.

The park was dedicated to the Anaconda Stack (as it was called), but it was still a good distance away from the structure. Still, closer up, its scale was impressive.

See the size of the power pole at the base for scale.

The Anaconda Stack, as it turns out, is the tallest surviving masonry structure in the world, about 585 feet in height. 

The park had a couple of ore buckets. Again, massive.

It took a couple minutes to figure out why this little park had a circular pit in the middle.

As it turns out, the outer sidewalk represented the outside dimension at the base of the stack...

...while the bricked-in circular pit in the center represented the inside diameter at the top of the stack (60 feet across).

How clever is that? It was an excellent visual.

The park had many informative signs, including a comparison with other monuments (it's a touch taller than the Washington Monument, for example, but not nearly as tall as the Eiffel Tower).

Well pleased with how well-done this park was, we left and drove through Anaconda itself, a company town built for the workers of the mining operations. It was a snug and prosperous-looking place.

We continued on Hwy 1, climbing in elevation until we crested  some mountains with the Discovery Basin Ski Area and Georgetown Lake. The land still had the barren look of early spring, and the lake still had snow along its edges.

We passed a historical marker for the Atlantic Cable Quartz Lode, detailing how gold was discovered with the usual booms and busts, although for a while a mere 500-foot length of ground yielded $6.5 million in gold.

We dropped down the other side of the mountains, noticing in passing a small landslide.

Looking for somewhere to have breakfast, we stopped in a tiny town called Philipsburg, and had one of the most wonderful surprises on our trip. It was an absolutely splendidly restored 19th-century mining town. We were enchanted.

It was early enough in the day and/or the season that nothing – absolutely nothing – was open, so we simply walked up and down the streets, awash in admiration. Look at these beautiful details!

Even the alleyways were charming, including a cat.

It even had a law enforcement museum.

It had a stylish carving of Big Foot...

...next to a cool little hippie house.

The whole town was beautifully restored and tourist-dependent, but not obnoxiously so. It was, as I described to Older Daughter later on, chi-chi without the "chi." Highly recommended.

However as nothing was open and we were getting hungry, we pressed on looking for a place to eat. We finally found a place in Missoula.

After this we stayed on Hwy 90 and simply blasted home.

Still cattle country. 

Beautiful old barn.

Ah, that's the sign we were looking for.

Home at last! As you can imagine, Mr. Darcy was ecstatic to see us.

Early the next morning, we unpacked the rental car and dumped everything on the back porch.

The trip was over, but the memories remain. Thanks for joining us on our second honeymoon!