Traveling to Turner

Mention the town of Turner, Montana and some life-long Montana residents get a puzzled look on their face.

The town’s location is about 35 miles north of Harlem (US Hwy 2) and 12 miles south of the US/Canada border.

The border crossing, named after the Saskatchewan town of Climax, helps bring Canadian travelers to the community and also makes a shorter trip for US citizens heading in to Canada.

I stopped along the paved road between Harlem and Turner several times to admire the vast big sky.

In every direction the views were wide open. To the north I could see miles and miles of crop and grazing land. When I looked south I saw the Bear Paw Mountains.

The land here is production based – grain crops (wheat, oats) and cattle and sheep ranching.

Massive grain fields, some irrigated, some dryland, literally run for miles. I was able to get an up-close tour of one cattle ranch near Turner. They were almost done with calving so I had great photo ops with all of the newborn calves.

If you travel to Turner, make sure to stop at Kimber’s Border Bar and Cafe. The day I was there one table of six women had driven down from Canada for lunch. Quite a few locals stopped in during lunchtime.

As I traveled back to Harlem I stopped again for one more photo. This is taken looking south from Turner.

Turner is small but it should not be overlooked. Just the drive to and from Turner is impressive. I felt like I owned the road.