June 29, 2015 Monday.  Going to the Sun Road & Logan’s Pass

Left early this morning for a drive to Logan’s Pass and hike to Hidden Lake.  Logan’s Pass is the half way point on the Going to The Sun road as one heads west across the Park.  The hike was only 3 miles but took up a several hours and crosses the Continental Divide.
The trail was part boardwalk, gravel, rocks, and snow, an easy 600 foot incline to a look out that was a breathtaking view of the valley, Hidden Lake, and several peaks.

Our hiking group in Redding  always say that a good hike has at least on of these features……water, wild flowers, or an exceptional view.  This was everything rolled into one.   The melting snow produced the most beautiful streams and waterfalls and the meadows of wild flowers in white, yellow, coral, pink, purple.  The mountain goats were very friendly and comfortably shared the trail with us.  The snowy areas were only about 1/3 of the trail, but posed the greatest difficulty traversing.  Crampons would have been quite useful!  The array of clothing was quite interesting from complete hiking gear complete with back pack and bear spray to shorts and flip flops.

We traversed the rest of the Going to the Sun road to the west side of the Park (40 miles total) and ate  at the McDonald Lake Lodge.  We scoped out a couple more hikes that we will do later in the week.

We have been “newsless” for the last week…..Doug set up our satellite TV and we were heard about the Supreme Court ruling on Obama Care and the recognition of gay marriage.  The (hopefully) unintended consequences of these rulings are going to have profound effects on this country as we know it.

June 27, 2015. Many Glacier Lodge

Since it is the weekend, we decided to stay on the East side of the Park and explore where we are camped.  We went to Many Glacier Lodge for lunch and was not disappointed.  The food was reasonably priced and wonderful!  The view from the dinning room was over Swift Current Lake.  It seems that the vendor that runs all the lodges hires young people from all over the U.S. for the summer.  Our server was from Salt Lake City and studying International Business in college.

We had a tour of the lodge celebrating it’s 100 th year.  All of the lodges in the park were built around 1913-1915 to accommodate summer visitors from the East that came by the Great Northern Railroad.  These are pictures of Many Glacier Lodge and of course -us.

 

June 27, 2015. Glacier National Park – Eastside

10:30 pm.  Doug and I simply can’t go to sleep while it is still light out.  They say this has been one of the hottest June’s in many years.  We would like to get to bed early so we would get up and get our day started before the heat picks up.  By 1030 it has cooled down and is time for a fire, but it is bed time.

This was a beautiful critter we ran in to in the parking lot last evening at 9PM leaving Logan Pass.  I thought we had to hike to see these things but they just wander around checking out the tourists!

Doug’s friend found him at the park headquarters!

(Bonny insists that I tell you that the upper picture is one SHE took of a real Big Horn Sheep while the in the lower picture I’m hugging a statue! Pretty lifelike isn’t it?- Doug)

On the Road Again…..first leg to Glacier National Park…June 23, 2015

At last……….I must have had delusions of grandeur to think that we could get back to Redding on Sunday and, then, be ready to leave for Montana on Tuesday.  Our brief trip to Long Beach was to celebrate MoMo’s promotion to high school,  Bob Carter’s 70 th birthday, and a lovely evening Duffy cruise and dinner with Doug’s sister Patti and her husband Dick.  We also wished Madi well as she departed for a week long mission trip to Guatemala. Family events finished and now onto Glacier and Canada!

We got on the road for the first leg of our journey to Glacier around 1 pm…only 3 hours later than planned…not bad.  We are hoping to arrive in time to have dinner with Tammy & Joe Florio in Bend, Oregon.  Looks like we are leaving Redding as temperatures soar to 114 degrees this week.

We got off with a BANG….literally.  As we were loading the coach, we dropped and broke two bottles of wine…..not too sticky and fortunately ” white “.  I do hope I am PC….. can I say white?

I will never get tired of the drive North out of Redding.  It is so beautiful going through the mountains and the valleys.  Shasta Lake, sadly, is very low due to the continued draught.

We entered Oregon on Hwy 97 in a lovely valley.  It is haunting how suddenly Oregon is different.  The road changes and landscape is so green.  Suddenly there is water and green green fields.  It is a palpable difference.  Factoid – the entire state of Oregon’s population is about 1/3 the size of Los Angeles County alone.

We have kept moving despite many places we would like to explore….like the waterfalls at Post Falls, ID and the cities of Missoula, Kalispell, & Whitefish, Montana

Spent the last two nights in Elk’s Lodge parking lots ( RV ) with electrical hookups. Spokane & Kalispell……not beautiful, but the price was right.

The drive through Montana is breathtaking with mountains followed by vast valleys of cattle ranches and farm land and lots of green expanse.  We drove most of the time up Montana along the edge of Flathead Lake.  I didn’t know that it is the largest fresh water lake west of the Mississippi.  162 miles of shoreline.  We did spend a considerable bit of time following a house that was being moved intact by a semi on a two lane highway – SLOW!!!.   It was way too scary to pass, so we just plodded along.

After a quick dinner at the ELKS club of chicken and ribs ($8), we went into Whitefish. It was well worth it.  Such a beautiful quaint city with Whitefish lake for boating and all water sports and just up the hill is Big Mountain for winter sports.

It is 1015.  We are pooped and ready for bed and it is still light out.   I love it!  I’ll bet I would hate the winter.  It is probably dark at 3:30 pm.  I will have to confirm that.

We have been on and off the phone with Melanie tonight.  Apparently she was bit by her dog Teddy today (accident) and has lymphangitis.  She is currently in the ER getting IV antibiotics.

We have about a 150 mile drive tomorrow to reach our campsite at St. Mary on the East side of Glacier National Park.  After 3 days on the road we are looking forward to staying put for 7 days and simply exploring.  We heard the The Road to the Sun just opened last week.  This traverses Glacier East to West and can only be done by car…I think the Jeep will come in handy.

Friday June 26, 2015

Arrived at our camp site at St. Mary and decided to do just a little exploring around 4 pm.  We drove about 18 miles on the Going to the Sun Road and found ourselves at Logan Pass after several stops.  Every turn seemed to get more beautiful.  Even though the visitors lodge was closed for the day, we started on a hike filled with yellow wild flowers and patches of snow and multiple waterfalls. 

The temperature  dropped as the valley became shaded but the sun was still bright at 9:30.  Back at camp with a wonderful fire ( thank you Doug) we finished dinner around 11 pm.  An early start in the the morning is only wishful thinking for this old girl.