Sunday, September 23, 2007

Paddling the Missouri Breaks in Montana

We paddled 149.5 miles on the Missouri River in 7 days through the entirety of The Upper Missouri Breaks National Monument, a 375,000 acre monument managed by the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Montana. The river is designated a National Wild and Scenic River and lives up to its designation, as only 2 bridges and 2 ferries cross the river along this 150 mile stretch, and they serve gravel roads.

The first 1/3 of the river out of Fort Benton has rolling hills and semi-arid landscape during mid-September, the dry season. You will notice the calm waters often serving as a mirror reflecting the landscape.


The second 1/3 traverses the White Cliffs section, my favorite region of the trip. The white cliffs gradually are introduced and then predominate. Two hundred years ago, Lewis and Clark also deemed this section their favorite and often remarked in their journals of the majesty of the spires and columns, pediments and capitals, created by Nature.




My favorite was the Seven Sisters, which resemble a Sister Superior (column on right) leading 7 other nuns up the hillside.


Another landmark is The Archangel, the white figure below.



NOTE: The 5 posts immediately before this post are also of the Missouri Breaks paddle trip.

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Slideshow of my Missouri Breaks trip with captions is here.

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2 comments:

  1. UnknownJuly 17, 2017 at 11:30 AM

    Thank you for your trip blog and slideshow. I am considering paddling the Breaks in mid-September also. Most of the information I have read suggests June through early September. I was wondering about the weather and temperatures you encountered at the time of your trip. I have no problem with cooler temps and I have appropriate gear for that, however I am not too interested in extended below freezing temperatures. Can you please elaborate on the weather for the duration of your trip?

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  2. AnonymousJuly 17, 2017 at 5:38 PM

    We had decent temps as the photos show re: our clothing, with one layer during daytime and warmer stuff on at night. Of course, it could be much colder since it is Montana. Great trip And good luck!

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