Visiting Helena

Originally I was going to drive to Montana over a memorial day weekend but canceled since the forecast was non stop rain. The following July I made it to Montana’s capital of Helena with nothing but clear skies! Above is the state capitol located in Helena. Directly in front of the capitol building a a statue of Thomas Meagher who was one of the first governors of Montana. Thomas Meagher was an Irishman who moved to the United States after being exiled by Britain. His role in Montana’s beginnings is interesting and there are more details on his story below.

Helena was larger and more interesting than I had expected. Honestly I figured I’d just pass through the city for a few hours and then head on to more interesting places. One of my first stops was the St. Helena cathedral. This is a very beautiful cathedral and I’m disappointed in myself for the terrible photo I took above. Helena eventually became home to a large population of Germans. In 1905 when a cathedral was to be built, it was chosen to be modeled after the famous cathedral of Cologne Germany.

 

Some other places that caught my attention in Helena are the fire tower on the left and the large bull head. The bull head is a work of art created by an artist from the Sioux tribe. It’s created out of 5,000 pounds of metal and is called Herd Bull. The fire tower on the left is one of Helena’s not so distant historical buildings. The town was constantly threatened by fires in its early days.

 

Above is arguably the most overrated place in all of Montana. Before visiting the state I of course did lots of research to try to find out what was interesting in Helena. The Great Northern Carousel seemed to come up numerous times, often described as a must see if you’re to travel to the state’s capital. I thought I was going to some mini amusement park but this is just a slightly larger than normal ice cream shop. While this is certainly a great place for kids to ride the carousel and get some ice cream there didn’t seem much to the place beyond that. Part of the reason why the carousel became locally famous is because most of the animals were hand carved out of wood.

 

Here are two random shots I took while walking around Helena. The bakery on the left was one that I had breakfast at early in the morning. Fresh bread was baking and colorful pastries got my attention. I couldn’t the cookies seen above, but my main breakfast was a delicious scone. Not far from the bakery was an equally colorful object, someone’s car turned into a work of art perhaps? I didn’t inspect it enough to determine if it was drivable but I assumed it wasn’t. Directly in front of this car was an old ugly abandoned car with flat tires and a police warning to remove the vehicle from the street. Either the jokermobile above is actually drivable and not violating any laws or the police officer had enough respect for it to leave it alone.

 

A place I wish I spent more time in is Gates of the Missouri. This is where the beautiful picturesque Missouri river calmly exits surrounding mountains as it flows south east. I had missed the boat tours so instead I just spent my time going around to different parts of the lake. Though I missed the river tour, I have seen some amazing photos from others who have gone. They show the river flowing through the mountains sometimes surrounded by dramatic cliffs.