Waterfalls, Tipis, and Headstones...oh my!

There is a recreation area called the Natural Bridge near Big Timber that Matt and I rather enjoy.  The birding is usual good and there is delightful scenery.  When the water flow is really high though the lovely waterfall is transformed into an even lovelier double waterfall!  So, since we are having a record breaking wet year already and snow melt has really just gotten started up in the mountains we thought we just HAD to pay the area a visit.  The double falls didn't disappoint, especially since the last time we visited the water was terribly, anticlimactically low.  It is almost a completely difference place depending on the level of water flows.  On this particular day the river was a wild one!  Roaring, white, spray flung high in the air, feeling delightfully cool on my face in the hot, summer sun.   Making rainbows in the mist and sunshine.

Can you see a rainbow?

So I suppose it shouldn't have been to surprising that because of the raging high waters our favorite campsites in the Big Timber area are not open for camping at this time.  Alas....and I have a Big Timber camp-out planned with friends soon!  Matt and I are now looking for a new location.  At least we found out with a couple weeks warning allowing us time to alter our plans.

We also stopped by the Crazy Mountain Museum which I'd always wanted to visit.  Unfortunately we got there a half hour after closing so we will still have to come back another day.  No matter.  There were neat things to look at outside.

And it was a lovely place to have a snack and a stroll.  Matt surprised me with chocolate covered strawberries.  Yum. 

The museum is adjacent to an old cemetery filled with shady trees which was a quite welcoming place on such a hot, sunny day.  Plus, I find old cemeteries tremendously fascinating.  I could walk them looking at each and every marker if I had enough time.  There is so much history, family, and power there.  I enjoy reading the names and dates and contemplating the people they might have been.  I admire the ornate, artistic nature of the older headstones.  They are works of art that modern markers just can't touch.  To me there is something more special, more caring, more honoring, more sacred about these kinds of memorials.  I feel it is a kin to the differences between the new cookie-cuttter homes on the West End and the unique, old homes in my neighborhood.  Both get the job done, but there is so much more life, so much more story in the older one.  I realize that might be a strange thing to say about a cemetery.  I like places and activities that make me feel a strong connection to another, perhaps simpler, place in time.  Like cemeteries and hanging clothes on the line.  (Never thought I'd use both those things in the same comparison before....)

This one won the fanciest marker in the cemetery award.  It has a footstone as well. 

This headstone had been worn blank on both sides.  Ah, that one was a headstone to ponder a moment.

It is amazing to me how many near-by places I've never stopped to visit.  We must have driven by this place hundreds of times never knowing what a little gem it would be.  I bet there are many, many more out there just waiting for us to discover them.  Thank goodness Matt loves to wander and explore as much as I do.