Glacier NP East

21^st August St Marys East Glacier

Slightly better night’s sleep with only 6 trains coming through!

We took advantage of the discounted buffet breakfast at the adjoining motel and heard about the bear that had been roaming outside the bedroom windows last night.  We then set off to drive around the southern edge of Glacier NP as vehicles over 21 feet long cannot use the road that goes over the Continental Divide through the middle of the park.

We stopped in the town of Browning, which is in the middle of the Blackfeet reservations lands.  We visited the Museum of the Plains Indian which, although small, was very interesting.  They had some excellent displays of clothing and other Native Americans artefacts persevered from the 1800s. 

Most national parks are surrounded by national forest or wilderness area, but in this case the east side of Glacier NP is bordered by the Lands belonging to the Blackfeet, right up to the Canadian Border.  The Blackfeet Land used to include these mountains east of the Continental Divide (or what they called the Backbone of the World) and the Blackfeet still contest this point.

Glacier NP is right on the border with Canada and there is a similar park in Alberta called Waterton Park.  Glacier and Waterton were joined in 1932 to become the world’s first International Peace Park and the two countries work closely together on managing the parks.



View from campground

We carried on up the east side of the park to the St Mary NP campground.  Whilst taking a drive around the park to get familiar with the area we spotted a bear crossing the road.  Bears have been seen in the campground and the Rangers advised on what to do if we encountered one.

22^nd August St Mary Lake

St Mary Lake

It was a lovely day and St Mary Lake was beautifully calm as we set off with the kayak.  We spent all day cruising around, stopping on various pebbly beaches for coffee and lunch.  Unfortunately the fish
did not want to be caught for our supper today.

Alison went to the park evening programme which turned out to be a singer, and his daughter, from the local Blackfeet population.  He sang his own songs about traditional subjects but to folk/country style music.  His daughter told some traditional stories and did Blackfeet sign language to one of the songs.

23^rd August Avalanche Lake

Continental Divide

We caught the free bus shuttle that took us along the Going-to-the-Sun road. Unfortunately it was not the sunniest of mornings and the light for photos was poor. The bus took us past the road works which is a major maintenance project in the park as the 50 mile road was built in the 20s. We went up to Logan’s Pass which is at 6646ft on the Continental Divide. We then had to change buses to go back down the other side to Avalanche Creek.  The journey took longer than we had planned and we didn’t get there until 12.30.  We then hiked the 2.5 miles to Avalanche Lake. 

Avalanche Lake

St Mary's Falls

The trail took us through some lovely ‘old’ forests of Cedar and Black Cottonwood trees.  At the lake we ate lunch in the sun watching the three waterfalls that come into the lake.
On the return journey we spent a little longer at Logan’s Pass enjoying the views.  There were several ground squirrels scampering around and calling to each other.  Alison spotted two climbers at the top of Reynolds Mtn at 9125ft with the binoculars.  The highest mountain in the park is Mt Cleveland at 10466ft; much smaller than those in the Rocky Mountain NP.

In the evening we then met up with Larry and Penny again.  Their friends Dan and Sally joined us for a meal and then everyone came back to the RV for a couple of hours when Paul got out the bottle of Jameson’s.

24^th August  Baring, St Mary and Virginia Falls

Virginia Falls

Lower Virginia Falls

We took the car up to Sunrift Gorge and hiked down to Baring Falls.  From there we followed the path along St Mary Lake and onto St Mary Falls.
We then followed the Virginia River passing a number of other waterfalls until we eventually arrived at Virginia Falls and watched water cascading from high above as we ate lunch in the sun.    

Alison cooled her feet in the waters but within a few seconds they were going numb.  It was also quite slippery and in fact we saw someone slip up.  Apparently the most fatalities in the park occur from drowning in the icy waters (not bear attacks).  There had been a bear sighting at our campground again – but we missed it.

25^th August Two Medicine

Running Eagle Falls

We took a drive down to the area in the park called Two Medicine and hiked up to a couple of waterfalls. Running Eagle Falls was particularly delightful with water coming from a breach behind the rock. We arrived at Two Medicine Lake just in time to see a baby bear disappearing into the bushes; missed again.
 

The Mountains were gradually disappearing from view.  By the time we got home they were a shadowy out-line.  We learnt that it was smoke being blown from the south and west from the forest fires in California and Idaho.

26^th August Many Glacier

Many Glacier Hotel

Our journey to Many Glacier took us within 10 miles of the Canadian border; the furthest north we will be on this year’s trip. We first stopped at the Hotel for a coffee and when we walked onto the veranda we were nearly blown away.  We had thought to take the kayak on the lake but it was far too windy.  This hotel looks like a Swiss chalet and the staff are dressed in lederhosen.  Glacier was originally advertised as the USA Alps.  Outside the kitchen door were a small herd of Bighorn Sheep posing for photos.
 



Falls from Grinnell Glacier

We decided to take the boat tour which crossed two lakes.  First was Swift Current Lake, followed by a ¼mile walk to the next boat crossing over to the other side of Lake Josephine.  From there we hiked up to Grinnell Lake and sat by the acqua-marine blue waters looking up at Grinnell Glacier.  The water is pouring from the glaciers; by 2030 these glaciers will have melted. In 1850 there were 150 documented glaciers, but now there are only 25.  The  
definition of a glacier is: an area of 25 acres or more, 100 thick deep and moving (usually from its own weight and in the direction of gravity); otherwise it is just a bit of old ice I guess.
 



The return journey is the reverse of the outgoing trip.  During the ¼ mile walk between boats we were honoured with the presence of a mother Moose and baby.  This
made our day and made up for no bear sightings.

27^th August Hidden Lake and Garden Wall
 

At Logan’s Pass on top of the Continental Divide we couldn’t find any parking so had to drive down to one of the bus stops and catch the shuttle bus back up.  From there we hiked to Hidden Lake and were treated to some close encounters with Mountain Goats.
There were a number of Rangers who were there on a Goat collaring exercise as part of their monitoring processes. We watched as they found a suitable male goat, which promptly made a hasty exit down the mountain.  So unfortunately we didn’t witness the full process but could see it was going to involve a tranquiliser gun.

Garden Wall Drop-off

We then had time between shuttle buses to hike part of the Highline Trail. The trail follows the ridge of Mountains on the Continental Divide and is called the Garden Wall. The first part was along the cliff edge with a sheer drop off on one side.  We were glad there was a chain rope to hold onto for that part.  The Garden Wall section was much easier and was covered with a lot of vegetation.  We felt really high up here looking down onto the east side of the Going-to the-Sun road.

 

In this region the Continental Divide is actually a Triple Divide.  Not only do waters travel to the Pacific Ocean to the east and the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic ocean to the west but they also flow to the Hudson Bay to the north.

Glacier National Park (West)

19^th August West Glacier Nat Park

We said our farewells to Larry and Penny and arranged to meet up again next weekend, over on the eastern side of Glacier NP when the two of them would be back in USA again.

We found a campsite which we thought was in West Glacier – it was actually 25 miles further down the road.  We booked in for 2 nights and then discovered there was a rail track less than 20 yards away!

We spent the afternoon in Glacier Nat Park by Lake McDonald, the largest of the lakes in Glacier at 10 miles long and 464ft deep.  We were surprised how many people were swimming in the Lake as the water was pretty cold as it is basically snow melt from the Glaciers.  Later on we drove around   When we got back to the campground we chatted to our neighbours from Washington.

the lake and saw a bear crossing the road; too far away for a photo opportunity.

20^th August Bowman Lake

Our plans to spend the day out with the kayak were not to be.  Ten trains came past during the night!  Neither of us got much sleep and Paul spent the morning in bed with a migraine.  However it did mean we got to chat to a couple, from Georgia, who were staying at the adjoining motel.  Whilst chatting Paul thought he saw something fairly big and black run through the campground.  Could it have been a bear?

We eventually went out for the afternoon and drove up to Bowman Lake on the west side of Glacier NP.  At least 50% of the drive was on dirt road.  We stopped at Polebridge Bakery for tea and a Huckleberry Bear Claw pastry.

Bowman Lake lived up to expectation; sun glistening off the glacier blue waters surrounded by mountains.  There were more people here than we’d expected as it was quite a drive up the dirt road but there was a campground here so many people were staying overnight.  Again many were in the cold waters.

Later in the evening we drove to Goat Lick Point were mountain goats have been seen coming to lick the minerals contained in the rock.  However there were none around today.

Flathead Lake and Whitefish Lake

15^th August Polson

Ennis lake was very calm when we left in the morning heading northwest onto the I-90 and through Butte. This region of Montana is looking very dry at this time of year despite the thunderstorms.  The grass has turned brown, apart from those areas irrigated for agriculture.  It would look gorgeous when everything is green in the late spring/early summer. The bridge is not a road bridge but was built so that the animals could get across this busy road.

Half way along the I-90 we could smell exhaust fumes in the driving compartment and there was excessive noise from the exhaust.  When Paul checked underneath at lunch time, sure enough there was a hole in the box.  So we found an exhaust repair garage in Missoula and were fortunate that they had the parts and the time to fix it there and then.  So we spent a couple of hours in the local Mall shopping area. If you think a exhaust system for you car is expensive try $904 (£600)

We were pretty weary by the time we arrived in Polson that evening so the heated pool and hot tub were just what we needed to relax.

16^th August  Flathead Lake

We had planned to move on again but decided to stay one more night here.  We went for a boat tour (not in the kayak) around the southern end of Flathead Lake that afternoon.  About 30 miles long this is the largest natural lake west of the Mississippi; however we weren’t too sure how this lake was  ‘natural’ as it had a dam at one end. The tour took us through the “Narrows” and various points of interest were pointed out by the boat’s skipper.

We got back to the campsite in time for a quick dip in the pool and then packed a picnic and made our way to the Blues Festival.  This was the third annual Blues Festival weekend at Polson.  We took chairs and sat on the steep bank, with our picnic and drinks, looking down on the stage with the Lake and mountains as the back-drop.  We were treated to three different bands as the sun started to set.  It was a very relaxing way to finish off the day.

We got back to the camp site in the dark and got chatting to our neighbours Dave & Gloria from Indiana, and it was nearly midnight before we finally got to bed.

17^th August Whitefish

We drove up the east side of the Lake to Whitefish which is a town a little further north of Flathead Lake.  We had arranged to meet our friends Larry and Penny, who were coming down from Canada to see us for the weekend.

They arrived shortly after lunch and we sat and chatted for the rest of the day catching up with news and adventures as they had been evacuated from their home in June when Calgary and the surrounding region had flooded.  We went out for a meal and then visited the home of an artist they know who makes the most wonderful marquetry wall hangings.

18^th August Kayaking on Whitefish Lake

Paul & Penny

We spent the morning chatting over coffee.  Then after lunch the four of us took the kayak down to Whitefish Lake.  This area is normally known for its winter sports but today it was a glorious sunny day and lots of people were there enjoying the lake in the sunshine.

Later in the evening we had barbequed elk steaks and went to the local cinema.

Ennis Lake

11^th August

We set off early for the long 243 miles drive to Ennis.  The I-90 paralleled the Yellowstone River and the direction we followed was along points of the Bozeman Trail.  We drove through the town of Bozeman.  It is a popular winter sports area and looked picturesque with people sitting out having lunch in the summer sunshine.

After Bozeman our route took us into the Madison River valley.  We could see many people floating the river on inflatables and it was clearly not that deep a river.

Once we arrived at our Ennis campsite we took a drive around Ennis Lake.  We followed the road along the Madison River into and along the Canyon and past the dam.  It was a lovely peaceful spot.  Later that evening we had a thunderstorm.

12^th August Virginia City

We drove the 15 miles to the National Historic Landmark of Virginia City.  This town had numerous historic buildings from its original founding in the Gold Mining days in the 1860s.  Many of the buildings were of the original wooden construction which you could look into. 

There was a restored locomotive doing hourly trips to Nevada City just 1½ miles away.  It is a ‘Ghost Town’ now with only 150 residents (or as Paul described it: ‘run down’ but what do you expect of 150 year old wooden buildings).  We chatted to some archaeologists who were in the middle of excavating the foundations of an old building. 

In the afternoon we had a terrific thunderstorm again, and were glad we had done our visit earlier in the day.

13^th August Madison Dam Canyon

We moved camp to a site right on the northern edge of Ennis Lake.  We took the kayak out in the afternoon up the Canyon we had driven on Sunday.  It was so peaceful just gliding along.  There were several kingfisher birds on this section of the water.  There were also a lot of fish in the river jumping up to catch the flies on the surface but they didn’t want anything to do with Pauls fishing line.  No fish for supper tonight.

We spent the evening in the RV as there were thunderstorms circling around us.  One minute coming

 from the south; an hour later the wind changes and comes in from the NW.

 

We sat watching the lightening over the Madison Mountains opposite.

14^th August Ennis Lake

Paul was up and fishing on the lake up 6.30am.  He spent all day on the Lake and caught dinner for tonight and one in the freezer.  However those two fish were nothing compared to the size of the one the osprey caught.  I guess they’re the experts. (Photo shows

the one Paul didn’t get)

At last we had a lovely evening without any thunderstorms.  There are a lot of birds to watch on this lake; Osprey, pelicans, grebe, seagulls, ducks, heron, as well as numerous non-water birds which we have no idea what they are despite referring to our bird book.

Into Montana

8th August Travel to Buffalo

We set off on our way to Montana.  We passed a few motorbikes on the I-90 but not as many as previous days.  I guess most were staying in South Dakota for the rest of the week.  We spent the night camped at a place just past Buffalo near Lake DeSmet.

9^th August Little Bighorn Battlefield

We set off early in the morning and shortly after driving into Montana we stopped for coffee at the site of the Little Bighorn National Battlefield.  This was the last Battle that the American Indians won in June 1876, when Lt Col Custer and around 260 soldiers from the 7^th Cavalry went up against around 2000 Sioux and Cheyenne warriors.  This is a highly studied battlefield and so much information has been gathered over the years.

There are memorials to the soldiers and there horses. And to the Indians who died defending their way of life. 

A National Cemetery with 5000 plots for service personnel and spouses is also at this site.  We only spent a couple of hours here as we had visited the site back in 2008.

We moved onto our campsite in Hardin.  In the afternoon there was a horrendous thunderstorm with rain and hail lashing down. 

10^th August Big Horn Canyon

We visited the Big Horn County Museum in Hardin which had numerous old building, machinery and equipment from Pioneer Days.  It was well laid out and a pleasant walk around on a sunny morning.

In the afternoon we drove down to Big Horn Canyon Nat Rec Area.  The Yellowtail Dam was built across the Big Horn River to create a 71 mile long reservoir out of the Canyon.  We took their 10 miles scenic drive to the Marina.  Being a Sunday it was very busy with boaters.

Sturgis

31^st July On the road again

We said farewell to Bev and the dogs and horses and set off on the road again, going back along part of the route we had come down two weeks earlier.  We had an overnight stop in Lusk.  That afternoon we had a torrential hail storm that left the ground as white as if it had snowed.  Our position in the campsite had us parked directly facing the storm and the driving wind resulted in water leaking in through the windscreen.  So we had towels strewn over the dashboard soaking up the water.

1^st August  Water, water everywhere

Showers and hair washing in the morning left water all over the floor!  We discovered the waste pipe from the shower had worked loose.  The campsite owners were very helpful and lent us some glue/sealant so Paul was able to do his “Mr Fix-it” on the offending joint. 

We drove up to Sundance on the I-90 and from there into the campsite in the middle of the Black Hills Nat Forest.  We had a 10 mile journey on a dirt track which left the car covered in dust.

Cook Lake Recreation Area was very picturesque in the afternoon sunshine.

2^nd August Cook Lake Recreation Area

Our campsite is about 20 feet from the lake’s edge.  Paul spent all day fishing.  Alison did a couple of hikes; one in the morning around the lake for about 2 miles.  The other was a 6 miles round hike and three quarters of the route was uphill!  There were deer, butterflies and even a beaver in the river in the middle of the afternoon.  Unfortunately the beaver was a little too far away for a good photo. 

The clouds came and went and thunder echoed around all afternoon.  Eventually there was a terrific downpour during the night.

3^rd August Deadwood Town

This is the start of the Sturgis Motorbike Rally week when hundreds of thousands of bikers descend on the area surrounding the town of Sturgis in northern South Dakota (estimated at around 200,000 bikes). Although Sturgis is the centre point, every town within a 50 mile radius is inundated with bikers.  This was the 73^rd Annual event and it initially started as a Motor bike Hill Climb Race.  Although the Hill Climb is still held few people actually go to it these days. 

Wild Bill Hickock

We spent the day in the town of Deadwood (Debbie Reynolds fans will remember the song about the Deadwood Stage).  Deadwood is associated with the names of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane – both of whom are buried here.   The town developed when gold was discovered in the Black Hills in the late 1870s.

Just a small selection of bikes

Name the bike?

However, today it was all about Motor Bikes.  There were motor bikes everywhere and people just cruising around enjoying the day. It was a great atmosphere.  We got chatting to a couple of guys over from UK for a few weeks, they had rented Harley-Davidsons so that they could join in the Rally for the week.  

They told us Sturgis was the place to be so we drove up there late afternoon. 

However it was so busy, parking was out of the question so we decided to come back later in the week.

4^th August Rest Day

Today was our day to rest.  Paul went fishing and Alison chilled in the sunshine with a book.  Unfortunately the kayak was punctured by a thorn so the puncture repair kit had to be utilized.  Paul took it out fishing later and all seemed to be in order.  He floated past the muskrats enjoying their early evening swim in the lake.

The weekend has been busy with families enjoying the Recreation Area.  A lot of kids are swimming or fishing and some families have quad bikes and go up into the hills on the dirt tracks.  A couple of people asked us how we found this area as it is mostly used by ‘locals’.

Every evening we have had storm clouds build up but this day turned into a pleasant evening so we sat around the camp fire eating ‘Smores’.  However the storm still came in that night and we were kept awake with the rain and hail thundering on the roof most of the night.

5^th August Sturgis

We got to the town of Sturgis just after lunch.  We drove out to the Crossroads at the Buffalo Chip campground.  This huge campground also has a stage for the evening concerts.  The Crossroads is accessible to non-campers and had a few entertainments going on during the day.  Budweiser Beer advertises here in USA, using 8 huge Clydesdales horses.  The Clydesdales are well known via the media and they were here in stalls to raise publicity for Budweiser.  We arrived in time to see each of them being treated with a syringe of ??? – by the look in their eyes we think it was a tranquiliser to keep them oblivious to the noise of the motorbikes.

We watched the Wall of Death were a stunt rider rode his motorbike horizontally around a circular wall. (Paul remembers this from his childhood in Southend-on-Sea) One of his stunts was to grab dollar notes from people’s hands. We then went to watch the Uni-motor-cycle Drag Race.  This turned out to be a bit of a non-event.  We waited nearly 45 minutes whilst a TV or radio station interviewed one of the riders. 

When they moved on to interview the next rider most of the audience moved on to!

We then drove back into town passing so many motorbikes along the road.  They had ridden from Deadwood, as Monday was the ‘Deadwood Tour’.  We noticed on the schedule of events that each day a Tour is organised and bikers meet up at one of the towns and then drive back into Sturgis; sometimes they have a reception at the end.

The Main Street of Sturgis was full of motor bikers parked all along both sides of the road and double parked in the centre.  There were stalls selling all sorts of motor bike paraphernalia; although somehow gel pad seats didn’t seem to go with the tough-guy image of a motor-biker. 

We noticed that the majority of people were of our generation and we never saw any children.  It wouldn’t surprise me if the locals vacate the area for this week.  We were told that some shops remove their stock and rent out their shops to vendors just for this week. 

6^th August Devil’s Tower Nat Monument

On our way to Devil’s Tower the clouds came over and there was a down pour.  So we stopped in the town of Hulett for a coffee.  There were several bikers here but we were told tomorrow was ‘Ham and Jam’ Day and they were expecting up to 50,000 bikers.

Devil’s Tower was the first National Monument to be created in 1906.  It particularly gained fame in the 1978 film ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ and Alison kept humming the 5-notes of the theme tune. (annoying little child)

The rock is the core of a volcano which has become exposed as the surrounding rock and soil eroded away.  As it cooled the molten lava contracted and fractured into columns, many of which are hexagonal and it reminded us of the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland, except we were looking up at it as it rises some 867ft from the base.  It is popular for rock climbers and we saw one group going up and another coming down.  It takes approximately 6hrs to climb up and back down.

The American Indians have many legends about the Tower and it is a spiritual site for them.  Most traditional names referred to it as the home for a Bear such as Bear Lodge.  However today it was  surrounded by motor-bikes. The car-park attendants did an excellent job as without them it would have been chaos.

We popped into one of the gift shops on the way out of the NM and who should we meet but the two guys from UK that we had chatted to in Deadwood.  There are over 500,000 bikers here this week so to meet them again was such an amazing coincidence.  They were certainly having a good time and told us about the ZZ Top concert where bikers can park their motorbikes up close to the stage and sit there revving their engines to show appreciation of the performance. 

7^th August Sundance and Hulett

On the way out of the Forest we visited the Fire Watch Tower on Warren’s Peak.  From the 6650ft vantage point we had a 360 degree view for miles.  Devil’s Tower was 20 miles in the distance and looked surprisingly small.  The woman who worked there explained what she has to do for her job.  The watch tower had a bed so she could stay overnight.



Burn out

It was Wyoming Wednesday when even more of the motor-bikers come into this area.  Sundance was to hold the ‘Burn-out’ event.  This is where they fix a motor bike on a platform and rev the engine, spinning the back tyre until it bursts.  Really?  What is that all about?!?!?  Black smoke and bits of rubber go flying in the process and you need a new tyre before you can go home.  We didn’t quite see the purpose of it all but it’s a competition and somebody wins something ...... ?!?!

We watched one demonstration and then left.  The town of Sundance is where the Sundance Kid got his name from and they still have the courthouse which was used for his trial but we never found it.

We drove on up to Hulett, passing the Devil’s Tower in the distance and witnessing an almost continuous stream of motor-bikes on the road. 

We got to Hulett late afternoon so at least we could get parked.  There were still a lot of bikers there enjoying the Bands playing music.  There were some amazing (and expensive) motor bikes to be admired.  The atmosphere was always friendly and everyone was just there to enjoy themselves. 

What does one look at when one got fed-up with looking at bikes? the ladies of course.