This will be a long one as I’m putting four days into one post!
Tuesday 1/9/2015
Today we saw 4 seasons in one day!
As we left Spokane the sun was shining but the air was cool. It’s not a huge city so it wasn’t long before we were out in the country side heading north towards the town of Sandpoint – a popular spot for vacationers as it sits on the lovely Pend Orielle lake with lots of recreational fishing and boating opportunities in summer, but it’s only a short drive to ski slopes for winter travelers. We stopped briefly to see one of those quirky sights that we love in the USA, the Sandpoint Statue of Liberty. It’s a (small!) replica of the original, perched at the end of a pier in the lake with a lovely background of nearby mountains. Definitely worth a brief photo stop, but we nearly froze getting the shot! We’d dressed for the same summer temps we’d had the day before but it was 16 degrees with a strong wind blowing. I was delighted when I dropped in to the park restroom to discover that the good people of Sandpoint arrange for their public restrooms to be heated!
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| Fires burning in the forest |
From Sandpoint we drove along the lake to the start of the Bull River Scenic Drive which would take us further north through the mountains. We had a slow trip though as the ongoing fire crisis in the area meant that the traffic was slowed from 70 mph to 45 mph. Fortunately the scenery was pretty so it wasn’t too much of a problem, but we did see smoke rising in a few spots. Next stop was the Kootenai Falls and Swinging Bridge. The falls were low key but the bridge was the real deal, I couldn’t face it but Neil bravely stepped out across the span, despite the distinct wobble and the fact that you looked down through the slats to the rocky torrent flowing beneath. I don’t know what’s got into him on this trip!
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| Kootenai Swinging Bridge |
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| Daredevil Neil |
The day had turned pleasantly summery and warm, so we stopped here for a tasty lunch of pulled pork sandwiches and batted away the bees that were keen on the BBQ sauce. The lady at the snack counter said it had been a shocking year for bugs, yet more evidence of climate change maybe? It was a pleasant spot to sit under the trees, breathing in the fresh piney scent. With full tummies we continued north winding along the shoreline of the Koocanusa lake. The lake winds back from Libby Dam all the way up into Canada. Man-made , it was christened Koocanusa after the dam was built – Koo for Kootenai river, Can for Canada and USA for…well you get the picture!)
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| Our hotel right on the lake |
It was almost eerie driving up the lake as there was hardly any traffic at all, a real novelty for us in the USA. We stopped a couple of times and all we could hear were the sound of crickets and the lapping of the water. Heaven! We passed through the small back country town of Eureka, crying its name out loud as this is the furthest north we’ve ever been in the USA. We were only 7 miles short of the Canadian border. It was all downhill from there ( latitude-wise, but not altitude-wise!) to the entrance of Glacier National Park. Our stop for tonight is in a quaint little hotel/lodge maintained by the National Park Service right on the shores of MacDonald Lake.
I don’t think we’ve ever had a hotel room with a lovelier outlook. The lake in the evening was very still and the light on the mountain soft and hazy ( mainly from the smoke of nearby fires) We ate in Eddies Cafe next door , a very American, easy meal of BLT and Club sandwiches washed down with Huckleberry Iced Tea. As the light faded ( late, the sun didn’t set til nearly 9 pm) we wandered along the pebbly shores and just absorbd the scene. Back at the hotel we were entertained by a local chap with an Alpenhorn who blew ( only slightly off-key) melodies out across the late. It would have been pefect except for the loud American down stairs who was complaining about life at the top of his voice. It jarred because everyone else in the hotel and vicinity spoke with hushed tones – it just seemed right to drop your voice with all the gentle lakeland scenery in front of you. Tomorrow we head east across the park.
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| Lake MacDonald in Glacier National Park |
Wednesday 2/9/2015
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| Another waterfall and bridge but not so scary this time! |
We had planned a bit of a sleep in this morning which was a nice change. Breakfast was a quickie meal on our verandah of muffins , apples, coffee and juice purchased the night before at the nearby store. The smoke from the wild fires hung low over the lake and had a strong smell this morning that hadn’t been there last night. The fires really have been bad this year.
We checked out and headed east along the Going-To-The-Sun-Road winding around the lake and stopping at a few scenic spots along the way. The road follows MacDonald Lake for several miles but then starts to climb rapidly into the peaks. It’s an engineering marvel, in places barely wide enough for one car and lined on the cliff edge by granite stone fences. Some people don’t fancy the drive and choose to tour in the parks cute Red Buses.
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| The Going-to-the-Sun Road |
The Buses have been a feature of the park since the early 20th century and on fine days the tops comes down for an open air drive along the highway. We passed several of them along the road as well as a few other vintage vehicles. The weather deteriorated as we climbed and when we stopped at the highest point of the drive we were glad we had our down jackets and rain-jackets, it was bitterly cold! We parked at the visitor center of Logan Pass, which is right on the Continental Divide. The Divide snakes its way from North to South all the way down the Rocky Mountains and marks the point where rain falling goes either west to the Pacific Ocean, or East to the Atlantic.
The popular walking trail from here is only 1.5 miles to the Hidden Lake overlook but it climbs nearly 2900 feet in the 1.5 miles. We set off, but had a small hiccup shorty after leaving the visitor centre when we came on a knot of people with cameras and binoculars trained down into the valley. They were looking at a Grizzly bear! Neil had to head back to the car to grab his telephoto lens but by the time he retunred the bear was heading away – our photos of this bear were no more than a tiny black blob! So we carried on up the steep slope, and eventually came across another knot of people gazing up the cliffs at some bullhorn sheep. The sheep was sitting quietly on a rock ledge probably wondering what all the fuss was about 🙂
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| We’re part way up here. |
We finally arrived at the lake overlook, huffing and puffing a bit but very glad of our jackets because it was blowing a gale up there! I couldn’t feel my fingers and Neil had to hang on tight to his cap. Under the grey, moody skies the lake was dark and not showing its usual turquoise colour but it was still worth the climb. But, boy it was nice to turn around and head all downhill for the remainder of the walk.
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| It was so cold! |
It was also all downhill for the drive from Logan Pass and the rain started to fall. Our ears popped as we headed down to the shores of St Mary Lake which has been most badly affected by the wildfires. The only good thing about the acres of blackened forest is that it makes it easier to see the lake from the road. By the time we arrived at the bottom of the mountain and the end of the lake the sun was shining.
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| Mama Grizzly and Baby bear |
The park is so huge that there are several sections only accessible by road in from separate entrances. We had to leave the park for a while and had north again to reach the Many Glacier Entrance. This took us back West again and up into the mountains ( and the clouds!) to the shores of Swiftcurrent Lake. We were nearly at the lake when we stumbled on another not of cars and people , all gazing up the hill – this time we could see the mother grizzly bear and her cub quite clearly. They have lots of advice for walkers in the parks and forests about what to do to avoid an unpleasant encounter with the bears. I’m happy to see them from a distance but I hope they don’t decide to get too friendly.
Our home for the next 2 nights is Many Glacier Hotel. This is the grand old Dame of the park accommodation, celebrating her centenary this year. It was built along the lines of a Swiss Chalet in what was then known as the “Switzerland of of America” . We felt very sorry for the bellmen whose uniform consists of Lederhosen and short sleeved shirts , not really ideal on this very, very chilly day!
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| Many Glacier Hotel |
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| The Great Hall Lobby |
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| The bed was dreadful… but the view from the window was sublime. |
We checked in and took our bags up to the 4th floor to our cute little room tucked under the eaves of the roof. A sign on the door by the lift doors said that the “lift is historic and so are it’s response times, please don’t press the buttons repeatedly” After our stately and dignified ride ( and slow!) ride to the 4th floor we found our room – the window is small but we have another fine view out across the lake to the mountains beyond – much closer mountains than last night. The great hall lobby is another classic National Park building with a 4 storey high log-cabin atrium and a huge fireplace. We were a bit surprised the fire wasn’t burning today, the gale force wind had arrived with us and it was bloody cold outside!
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| The view from our room |
We’d skipped lunch so headed down for early drinks in the Interlaken lounge ( not far from Heidi’s Cafe – they really play up the Swiss bit!) before dinner at a window table in the enormous dining room, the Ptarmigan Roon. Local Montana smoked trout and tender Prime rib filled the spot as we looked out over the grey and blustery lake. Those Americans really love thier fast food though, we were still eating our trout when the prime rib arrived! Our server ( “Hi, my name is Cory, I’ll be your server this evening…”) was apologetic.
We sat in the lobby for a while and tried to connect to the Wifi but they’d warned us when we checked in that the WiFi was “really, really…..REALLY Bad” so we weren’t surprised when we just couldn’t log in. There’s no phone signal here either, it feels really strange to be so completely “off the grid”, but I think we’ll adjust. We’re sitting up on our cozy double bed ( I’m sure its even smaller than a double, just as well we have a good marriage!) both typing up our blogs for when we are back on the air. The wind is blowing like crazy outside but toasty warm in here. We’re hoping to see an improvement in the weather tomorrow, but if not I’ll try to persuade Neil to try a little of that strange thing called “relaxing” – not sure if he’ll go for it though!
Thursday 3/9/2015
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| Bear spotters |
It was very grey and foggy this morning. The winds had died down overnight but it really did not look like a great day for a boat trip and a walk. We slept in a little later than usual and then had a leisurely breakfast before trying once again to connect to the hotel’s Wifi – without success! We toyed with driving north into Canada to visit Waterton Lakes National Park but we didn’t have any Canadian currency and couldn’t be bothered with the border crossing, so instead we set off southward to visit the “Two Medicine” section of Glacier National Park.
As we were leaving we stumbled on another bear-jam. These form along the road wherever anyone has spotted wildlife. A crowd of keen animal spotters and photographers rapidly develops, but this one was being monitored by a couple of park rangers making sure that nobody blocked the road and that no-one went to close to the bear. This time it was a lone black bear feeding on the last of the seasons huckleberries. The ranger said they’d had a very lean year for huckleberries this year.
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| Two Medicine Visitor Centre |
The Two Medicine area is quieter and more off the beaten path than the other areas of the park and gets fewer visitors. The drive down took about an hour through a greyish-greenish landscape of mountain foothills. We dodged a few cows but didn’t see any other wildlife. As we drove back in to the park we saw the peaks climbing up higher ahead of us and by this time the clouds had lifted enough for us to see that there had been a scattering of snowfall on the peaks during the night. We stopped at the attractive visitor centre for coffee and a little souvenir shopping but the drizzle came back in and stopped us exploring further.
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| Two Medicine Lake |
By the time we returned to Many Glacier the sun was peeking out through the clouds .At he hotel we wandered down around the lake, exploring a little further than we had yesterday in the biting winds before heading down to the lounge for a drink before dinner. Our waitress tonight was a lovely girl from Oregon who had lived and worked in Sydney for several months before traveling around Australia. We swapped travel stories with her and enjoyed a lovely meal, again at the wide windows, overlooking the lake.
It’s been a nice low key day and we’re refreshed and ready to head south to Bozeman tomorrow.
Friday 4/9/2015
Neil has set the alarm for 6.30 in the hopes that he could record a time lapse video of the sunrise over the mountains and the lake, but it was no-go. The cloud had blown in again overnight and was hanging low over the peaks, very low indeed! We counted ourselves lucky that we’d driven over the Logan pass on a day when we could see the mountains.
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| Last view of the hotel |
Breakfast in the restaurant we once again managed to be ushered to a window table, there’s a lot of competition for the window side tables and we managed to get one for every meal . I think it must be a “I haven’t had my coffee yet” thing but it’s at breakfast that you seem to notice more petulant Americans than you do generally. They get very fussy about their muesli ( “ I don’t want uncooked Granola!”) and sending the waitress off to find them a better table when “this one isn’t good enough!” . Most of the time we quite enjoy eavesdropping on nearby conversations, they’re an interesting and polite bunch most of the time.
We really felt the chill when we checked out, not only had the cloud rolled in but the temp had also dropped considerably. At one stage along the road we were down to around 2 degrees Celsius! Brrrrrrr! I’m afraid the Weather Underground website has let me down a bit on this trip, it’s climate averages for this time of year were a lot warmer and I’m a big stretched in the warm trousers department! I guess I’ll just have to do some shopping, what a pity 😉
They call Montana the “Big Sky Country” but for the first hour of our drive , the state was not living up to its nickname, as we were adrift in a sea of white! Visibility was down to a few feet in places and once we got stuck behind a couple of slow moving caravans we were stuck doing 55 in a 70 zone until it was finally safe to pass.
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| Whiteout! |
After the fog cleared we were back in those wide, golden brown rolling hills that we remembered from our 2009 drive in Montana. The big sky went on and on and it wasn’t til after a brief coffee and restroom stop at Great Falls that we passed through a change in the pretty, granite canyon near Tower Rock State Park. The Missouri River meandered through the canyon and it looked like a popular vacation spot for fishermen. We detoured off the interstate here so Neil could see the Bridge that featured in one of his all time favourite movies, The Untouchables. In the movie the bridge is supposed to be on the Canadian border, so they took a bit of licence with its location.
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| Big Sky Country |
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| Neil at “The Untouchables” Bridge |
Today was really just a getting from one place to another day, from Glacier National Park to within cooee of Yellowstone National Park, so there’s not much to report in the way of sightseeing.
Our plans for the next couple of days are a little fluid. Our main aim is tro drive the Beartooth Highway into Yellowstone Park in the best weather possible, so we’ll wait til tomorrow to see if we drive it tomorrow or the next day. We just need to re-arrange our route a little.