{"id":4341,"date":"2023-09-09T22:13:49","date_gmt":"2023-09-10T02:13:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/?p=4341"},"modified":"2023-09-09T22:59:39","modified_gmt":"2023-09-10T02:59:39","slug":"gates-of-the-mountains-and-saint-helena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/?p=4341","title":{"rendered":"Gates of the Mountains and Saint Helena"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Saturday, Sep 9 2023<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Road video and map<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today’s weather was perfect for a day outdoors so I drove about 20 miles (32 km) north from Helena to the Gates of the Mountains National Recreation Area<\/em> and took a boat tour along the Missouri river where it runs in a limestone canyon explored by Meriwether Lewis and his crew as part of the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1805. At times the vertical canyon wall towered 1,200 feet (366 m) above us as we made our way to the northern end of the canyon and the point that Lewis named “The Gates to the Rocky Mountains”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our journey was easy, on smooth, deep water (created by the Holter Dam completed in 1918) in a motor boat but the Lewis crew were battling upstream over fast moving, shallow water and rapids in dugout canoes. The Gates of the Mountains were named on July 19, 1805 and signaled the beginning of the most perilous part of their journey which was completed in late November when they arrived at the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The view down river from the Gates of the Mountains. The area where Lewis and Clark were coming from was mostly gentle hills or flat.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The view looking up river from the same point showed very different terrain. This is the Gates of the Rocky Mountains.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The very brief video below is the tour boat captain\/guide reading from Meriwether Lewis’ journal as we passed through the gate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A typical view of the canyon beyond the gates.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The limestone of the canyon walls reveals the immense forces that created the Rockies. The curved layers of rock were once horizontal but were uplifted and deformed as the North American and Pacific plates drifted and collided.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I had lunch at the marina where the boat had departed from and then drove back into Helena. I rarely visit cathedral churches but the Catholic Cathedral of Saint Helena<\/em> had a Tripadvisor Travelers Choice award so I decided that Saturday, rather than Sunday, was a good time to visit. It is a small cathedral and, unfortunately, major structural repairs are in progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Inside, the church looks much more modern than its 1914 completion date would suggest while retaining a traditional layout and containing beautiful stained glass windows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It was a restful and calm way to spend some time but, to me, it did not stand out as particularly special. Helena is the capital city of Montana so a visit to the Capitol will be on tomorrow’s agenda. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday, Sep 9 2023 Road video and map Today’s weather was perfect for a day outdoors so I drove about 20 miles (32 km) north from Helena to the Gates of the Mountains National Recreation Area and took a boat tour along the Missouri river where it runs in a limestone canyon explored by Meriwether … Continue reading Gates of the Mountains and Saint Helena<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[97,3],"tags":[36],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4341"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4341"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4358,"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4341\/revisions\/4358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}