Today was "let's take a scenic drive day"! We did a Google search and found there are a few scenic drives in the Anaconda area. We also picked up a "Visit Anaconda 2015" guide and have found there are a few more, which we will explore tomorrow!
Before we headed out to the Mt. Haggin Wildlife Management Area, we went into the actual town of Anaconda for lunch. We saw there was a diner in town, Classic Café, and the write-up sounded cool so we knew we had to see it to believe it. What a really quaint place out in this bustling town of 9329 people at elevation 5335 feet. It is an old garage that has been made into a restaurant. Upon inspecting the interior decorating, we found something quite familiar. It is easier to see it than to write about it -
These VW bugs, Millie and Herbie, were made into booths to eat in!
Thom's delicious chocolate shake.
We decided to sit in Millie for our meal! Too cute!
Here is what we found upon inspection of the interior decorating! FL - St. Lucie? What?
Then we spotted another, so I had to ask. Turns out the wife of the couple who owns the restaurant, her mother lives in Port St. Lucie and has for 15 years! We always find it's such a small world after all!
After our very good lunch (bacon cheeseburger for Thom, Café Classic salad for me), we found our way to the Mt. Haggin Wildlife Management Area, a scenic drive approximately 22 miles long, but several side roads to explore, taking us up and into the valleys and plateaus so we could truly appreciate the Anaconda Mountain Range. Here are just a few photos of our fabulous drive today!
Anaconda Smelter Stack, retired in 1981 after its first smoke on May 5, 1919; 585 feet 15 inches high; 86 feet plus outside diameter of base. Washington Monument: 555 feet 5-1/2 inches. This makes this smelter stack higher! We actually saw this and took a photo of it back in 2013 when we were on our way to Alaska!
We actually came across some wildlife on this scenic drive; unfortunately, most needed to be zoomed in and were so far away we thought they were rocks, but not this deer, one of two early in the day!
This was another section of the scenic drive, also a part of Mt. Haggin.
Anaconda Mountain Range, still snow capped. We weren't sure any of these photos would be clear because of the extreme smoke coming in from the west from a fire in Idaho.
The second part of the Mt. Haggin drive was the Mule Ranch View Road, which we believe is where the mules were raised for the mines; this is all we found as far as a "ranch"!
Until next blog ...
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