{"id":4359,"date":"2023-09-10T23:24:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-11T03:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/?p=4359"},"modified":"2023-09-10T23:29:08","modified_gmt":"2023-09-11T03:29:08","slug":"scenic-hike-and-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/?p=4359","title":{"rendered":"Scenic Hike and Drive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sunday, Sep 10 2023<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

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

The weather was beautiful again today, but with a threat of storms later, and I decided to get in a hike before temperatures rose or rain came. The obvious place was Mount Helena City Park<\/em> which overlooks the city from just a few miles away. I got the last official spot in the parking lot and enjoyed a challenging climb to the peak. The views were not spectacular but the air was crisp, the sky was blue and the sun was shining so everything was good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Helena lies in a flat valley at around 4,000 feet (1,220 m) above sea level and is only 15 miles (24 km) east of the continental divide.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I then headed to the Montana Capitol building for a self guided tour. There is no active legislative session and the building had no formal security inside and just one police vehicle outside. It was a refreshing contrast to the heavy security presence in Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Montana gained statehood in 1899 as the 41st State and construction of the state capitol was begun that year with the opening on July 4, 1902. One unusual feature for the time was that the new building had fully electric lighting. It was relatively small and, as the population increased rapidly, it was obvious that more space was required in order to accommodate all three branches of the state government. Between 1909 and 1912 new wings were added at the east and west ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This approximately shows the original state capitol.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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This view shows the extended building.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The interior contains the traditional rotunda and dome and is beautifully lit with bright stained glass windows and skylights.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It is the first capitol I have come across that does not have the house and senate chambers on opposite sides of the rotunda. The Senate chamber is located normally, just west of the rotunda, but the house chamber is behind the Senate in the west wing extension. Presumably, the number of representatives outgrew the space as the population of the state increased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The House chamber. The large painting behind the speaker’s chair is entitled “Lewis and Clark meeting the Indians at Ross’ Hole” and was commissioned by the state, while the wings were under construction, specifically for the house chamber.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the afternoon I drove to Great Falls, MT. The route is along Interstate highway and I was surprised that much of it was designated as a “scenic byway”. However it was very scenic in places, capping off an enjoyable day. The scenery can be viewed in the road video. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sunday, Sep 10 2023 Road video and map The weather was beautiful again today, but with a threat of storms later, and I decided to get in a hike before temperatures rose or rain came. The obvious place was Mount Helena City Park which overlooks the city from just a few miles away. I got … Continue reading Scenic Hike and Drive<\/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\/4359"}],"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=4359"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4372,"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4359\/revisions\/4372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}