Highway 89 - U.S. highway in Western Mountain states

Sunset, June, 2001 by Ed Lawrence

The West's great road

It will take you from Montana mountains to Arizona canyons, and to stunning national parks and friendly small towns. And if will lead you to unforgettable people.

UNFOLD A MAP OF THE WEST and you can trace U.S. Highway 89 as a line bisecting five states--Mountain Wyoming Idaho Utah. Arizona- between Canada and Mexico. But to see the highway as just that simple line is akin to describing a Charlie Russell painting as dabs of oil on a piece of stretched canvas. * This magnificent 1,450-mile long highway links Port of Piegan, Montana, with Wickenburg, Arizona (historically it ran to Nogales on the Mexican border). Along its path are some of the West's grandest natural wonders: Glacier and Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, Utah's Logan Canyon, the red rock country of Sedona. * But Highway 89 shows a homier side, as well. It is the interior West's Main Street, lined with cafes named Mom's and motels named Wagon Wheel. Highway 89 is the glamour of Jackson Hole, Wyoming the pious probity of the Latter-day Saints temple that dominates Logan, Utah, the historic meeting of two cultures exemplified in the Cameron Trading Post in Arizona. Most of all, it is people: Blackfeet Indians in Montana, Wyoming fly fishers, Utah saddle makers, Arizona story-tellers. * Here is a highway to explore for a weekend, two weeks, a lifetime. Fill 'er up: It's time to hit the road.

Big Skydrive

As large as the sky may seem when you're gazing up at the stars on a moonless night, there is no sky as big as the sky of northern Montana. Here, in St. Mary--just a bit south of Highway 89's start at the Canadian border--the sky is an enormous pale blue bowl, the eastern horizon the end of the earth. To the west, in Glacier National Park, rise the Rocky Mountains, which the Blackfeet Indians call "the backbone of the world."

"Everything is alive here," says Curly Bear Wagner, a Blackfeet tribal culturalist, who lives in Browning. "The rocks, sky, land, and animals are all related."

As the road heads south, it travels back in time. Browning's excellent Museum of the Plains Indian hearkens back to the centuries when the Blackfeet and other native peoples were the sole inhabitants of Montana. Mound Choteau (show-toe), one can find the remains of Mesozoic creatures who roamed Montana aeons ago; Choteau's little Old Trail Museum boasts an array of fossils that would do credit to a much larger museum.

The closest thing to a metropolis on this end of U.S. 89, Great Falls is the heart of Lewis and Clark country--it was here that the explorers encountered the famous series of Missouri River cascades that gave the city its name. Great Falls's center honoring the explorers is the best in the nation, and this month's Lewis and Clark Festival is one of those events everyone should experience at least once.

From Great Falls, the highway leads through loping range country--captured on canvas by Charlie Russell, who lived here for 46 years (and who is honored in a museum in Great Falls)--south to White Sulphur Springs. It parallels the Crazy Mountains: According to legend, they were named after a woman who was heartbroken over a lover, or involved in a murder, or badgered by Native Americans.

At the head of Montana's Paradise Valley, Livingston was once a booming railroad town. The railroad pulled out over 15 years ago, but Livingston has refused to give up. Start exploring at the intersection of Callendar and Main, and you'll see a town evolving into a less gentrified Jackson.

So glorious is the surrounding country---the cool blue Yellowstone River, the craggy Absaroka Range--that Robert Redford filmed scenes from A River Runs Through It and The Horse Whisperer here. But as you drive south on U.S. 89 toward the northern entrance of Yellowstone National Park, you won't be thinking much about the cinematic West. You'll be too awestruck by the real thing.

DON'T MISS: Glacier National Park. U.S. 89 parallels east side of park; at St. Mary, you can head west on Going-to-the-Sun Rd. (406) 226-5600 information, 756-2444 lodging.

Museum of the Plains Indian. U.S. 2 and U.S 89, Browning; (406) 338-2230.

Old Trail Museum. 823 N. Main St., Choteau; (406) 466-5332.

C.M. Russell Museum. 400 13th St. N, Great Falls; (406) 727-8787.

Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail Interpretive Center. 4201 Giant Springs Rd., Great Falls, (406) 727-8733.

Lewis & Clark Festival. Jun 20-24. Great Falls; (406) 452-5661.

Rockies wonderland

Today, Jackson, Wyoming, native Jack Dennis is one of the most famous fly fishermen, with books, videos, and sporting goods scores to his name. But 40-plus years ago, he was just a small boy fishing the Snake River with his grandfather "I started fly-fishing here when I was 5 years old," Dennis recalls. "If you draw a 250-mile circle around Jackson Hole well, it's the greatest fishing on Earth."

In truth, you don't have to be an angler to fall in love with Jackson Hole. Where the Snake River curls in the shadow of the Teton Range, you'll find world-class hiking, wildlife watching, and art gallery-gazing.