As we got near the town of Hinsdale, Montana, I got my camera ready to take pictures of the Milk River, the tiny creek that flows under the highway there. It’s always such a picturesque sight and perhaps I felt some affection for this coffee-with-cream coloured river because I’ve seen its northern reaches in Alberta. But what a surprise to see the Milk River looking like one of our Great Lakes.
Past the bridge, the ditches were filled with water and the black cottonwoods that I love so much were soaking their feet in the muddy floodwaters.
Fields were flooded so high that the water nearly threatened to cross the highway at one point.
In the higher elevations the precipitation stuck to the hills as snow. Even this was unusual for early October, but I would rather see the moisture up there than flooding the fields.
In my next post I will show some of the devastation the flooding has caused.
How sad it looks. Winter is just around the corner, not my favorite time of the year!
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Not mine either.
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boy, glad you’re not stuck in that !
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We were lucky.
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no kidding!!
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Living in a high traffic area, seeing the deserted stretch of road is rather eerie. Be safe!
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We’ve gone through many,many miles of lonely landscape. We love it as long as we don’t have to deal with a breakdown.
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Goodness, I hope the flooding didn’t cause too much damage.
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Actually, I think it did. It ruined many bales of hay and flooded quite a few outbuildings over a long stretch of land.
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Oh dear. I’m sorry to hear that.
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The cottonwoods are a hardy group. It’s amazing to see how they survive the seasons that can be so harsh on their roots. Looks a little forlorn in that area of Montana right now.
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Hope the water recedes before it freezes.
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Wicked weather. Nice shot of snow in the mountains though.
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That’s where the snow should stay too. We have to drive home soon and I don’t relish the idea of dragging a trailer through snow.
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I heard they got a lot of precipitation over there during this last weather front, but I didn’t know it was that much! I get better news from you than from the local media!
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Maybe I could get a job as a temporary local journalist.
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Jill made a great point. It does look eerie. With all the talk of Hurricane Matthew, I didn’t know there was flooding in other places like Montana. 😦
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We’ve been coming out here for the past seven years and have never seen it like this. A couple of years ago it was just the opposite, Wildfires everywhere.
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Oh wow, why did it flood? Actually this would scare me. I keep thinking there is some place better to live in the US than where I live, but then there is always some potential problem like flooding, hurricanes, fires, mosquitoes, etc.
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No place is perfect. I think because it is fairly flat land, when a river overflows from all the run-off from nearby mountains, the floodwaters spread wider.
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Mother Nature doing her thing, and that, we mere humans cannot control.
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That’s for sure. All we can do is work around it.
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Love your passion for the story. You made me feel like I was with you.
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Thank you for that very nice compliment.
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You are welcome
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Sturdy black cottonwoods, with golden foliage, always to admire. We have snow covering Comox Glacier and two mornings of frost. Thought you would be in big sky country, taking photos of the full moon against the Montana mountains!
Remember Van Morrison’s ” Well its’ a marvelous night for a moondance”. That’s what I thought you would be taking photos of; not the floods – leftover hurricane?
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It was too cold to be out taking pictures of the moon! A cold front swept down from … probably Alaska, and dumped snow all over Alberta and rain and snow farther south. Luckily we are to the east of the flooding but driving through the affected areas was sure an eye-opener.
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