Cedar Trail and Polebridge

June 25

Today we decided to hike the Cedar Trail and Avalanche Falls trail.  Yes I said hike!  It was a real easy hike and very beautiful.  As we were driving to the trail head a buck deer crosses the road in front of us and the about a mile later a moose decides to amble across the road in front of us.  I was so excited I forgot to take a picture!

 

 

A tree with a nose

 

Beargrass

 

Moss found in trees

 

After we finished our hike we had lunch and then decided to explore another area.  This area had been burned in a fire.  It looks totally different.

 

 

We ended up at this strange little town and found out we couldn't go back thru the park because the road washed out so we had to go back the way we came.

 

 

Retraced our route and headed home.  Bruce is pretty sure we saw where the unabomer was hiding.

 

 

 

 

Rainy Day

June 24

We woke up to rain today, so we decided to find someone to give Ziggy a hair cut.I called around and found a groomer in Whitefish, a really cute ski resort town.  So we delivered Ziggy and headed out to explore.  We visited Bigfork and Kalspill.  Then headed back to pick Ziggy up and head home.  Lazy day.

Glacier National Park - WOW!!!

July 23

Today we headed for the park.  We entered at the West entrance and headed up the Road to the Sun.
This side of the park is like a rain forest.  You have a lake, a rushing strream, a wonderful green forest and the mountans.  You don't know where to look 1st!  The pictures posted here don't do justice to the beauty of this area. 

The path you see is the road we just came up!

                                        

We stopped at Logan's Pass The highest point on the road, approx. 6,600 ft.  There is no air there.  We had to climb 3 sets of stairs to get to the ranger's station.  It sure was a lot easier coming back down.  We continued to the end of the road on the east side and then headed up to the Many Glacier Lodge for lunch.  This lodge was built by the railroad in 1915 to encourage tourists to use their railroad.



This is the view from our lunch window!

 

We finished our lunch and headed back over the road to the sun.  Great day!

This is called the weeping wall.  It gets it's name from the thousands of springs that flow over and thru the rocks

Glacier by way of Lincoln

July 22

Today we left for Glacier National Park.  On the way we are stopping at Lincoln.  This is where Wayne, Lanny, Bruce, Rich and some of their friends  went horseback camping in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.  Bruce thinks it was around 1989.  This was a trip down memory lane for Bruce.



There was a picture of the guys by a Rogers Pass sign.  So we had to take one to see if he changed any!  I don't think so, looks the same to me.

We stopped at Lambkins for breakfast.  Bruce said they ate there

 





I thought Sinclair was gone.  They just went to Montana.  Who knew!

These are pictures I took out the front window of the Big Bear as we headed for Glacier.


We arrived at Columbia Falls RV Park in the afternoon.  We got set up and Bruce said lets go get some diet coke so we jumped in Ruby and took off.  The next thing I know we are half way across Glacier National Park on the road to the sun and it's raining!  It's beautiful but also scary!  We finally turned around and headed back down.  We start back and decide we need to try huckleberry pie.  We stop and have pie ala mode.  This could replace Indian fry bread!  We head back to the RV Park.  Yes you guessed it we forgot the coke.  So we go looking for a grocery store and end up with more than diet coke.  Another good day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

On to Great Falls

June 20th

Today was a travel day.  We headed northwest and checked into Dick's RV Park.  Had an early night.

June 21st

Today we headed to the Charles Russell Museum.  He was an important western artist who lived in Great Falls.

This is his sudio.  Behind this was the museum.



 

 

These engravings were made by a friend of Russell's.  They depict his life from his birth in St. Louis, MO. to his death.

 

This buffalo was painted by a local artist if you look close you could see lots of little paintings incorporated in it.

 

This was at rhe entrance to the museum.  You were not allowed to take pictures after you entered the museum.

A sculpure of Russell.

 

 

Bruce found a friend!

 

This was the last bronze engraving shown above of Russell's funeral.

 

After we left the museum we decided to get lunch and check out a casino.  This is a strange town they have 50 casinos.  You have a laundromat casino, a carwash casino, lots of lounges and restaurant casinos.  It appears any place can be a casino.  We had lunch at Ike & Susies.  We had our first Texas Beef Skillet in Montana.  Strange.  They had about 10 slot machines and they called themselves a casino.  Nice people.  Headed back to Dick's to get ready to leave tomorrow.



June 19 - Little Big Horn

Today we headed for the Little Big Horn battleground.  We started at the visitor's center.  They have a very nice exhibit from both the Indian viewpoint and the white man's viewpoint.  We purchased the cd tour for our car but we were not smart enough to figure it out.  We visited at the right time because June 25th and 26th is the anniversary of the battle and they were getting ready for the annual reenactment.  So as we were driving we saw some of the soldiers riding in the park.

The guy on the left is Custer's indian scout and the other fellow is Custer

These fellows are portraying the 7th Calvary

 

 

We proceeded to the south end of the battlefield where the battle began.  This is where Custer split up his troops.  The 2 Generals Reno and Benntine fought here and the only survivors came from this area.  This reenactor had studied one of the soldiers and he knew all about the battle.  He even had a copy of the man's memoirs.  It was really interesting.

 

This is some of the beauty of the area.

 

We headed back north toward Custer's last stand.  As you travel along you see white markers.  These are where soldiers were found after the 2 day battle.  The indians either put there dead in trees for burial or took the bodies with them.

During the battle the soldiers killed their horses and used them for cover

 

This is the Indian monument to their dead and to the Indian scouts that served Custer

This was an inscription on the memorial wall.


When I walked into the Indian monument I heard this pretty sound.  At first I didn't know where it was coming from.  Then I noticed this bird.  He was singing with all his heart.  He stayed there all the while I was there just singing. 

We left and stopped at the trading post for, you guessed it, fry bread.  Headed home.  Later in the evening the wind started blowing.  Bruce hooked ruby up to the rv so we didn't blow away.  We did some serious rocking and rolling!  Big Day!