Yesterday we were walking between 6ft snow walls up at Logans Pass and today we were playing in the water at City Beach in Whitefish, just 10miles up the road from Kalispell.
Gotta love summer in Montana! We went to the parade Main St, Kalispell this morning and the kids waved and waved to all the siren blaring fire trucks, miniture horses, big horses and the truck loads of kids going past. We got a good spot at the end of the parade, it wasn't too crowded so it was a great experience. No marching bands which we thought a bit surprizing.
There was a thunderstorm in the afternoon, so we waited for that to pass before heading back up the road 10 miles to Whitefish. I had read that the fireworks over whitefish lake for 4th of July are really pretty, and they were right. Lovely locale. The mountains in the background, tree'ed shoreline - spectacular sunset as we waited for it to get dark. Finally around 10.00pm the fireworks were launched from a pontoon about 500 ft out from the shore and with the dusk pink sky in the background it looked fabulous.
Then the entire drive home we were treated to an ongoing fireworks show as in every direction there were fireworks. At one stage looking through the front windscreen there must have been 5 or 6 different fireworks going off at once. It made a great trip back to the camper (and then the fireworks in the campground continued for another hour at least!)
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Showing posts with label montana. Show all posts
Showing posts with label montana. Show all posts
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Friday, July 4, 2008
Going to the Sun Road - Up is good - Down is Bad!
They say you have to experience this to believe it - well - experience can be a scary thing. This road is literally just tacked to the side of a mountain and you are a very long way up. Whats even scarier is they are doing road works halfway up and for a while you are driving along a one lane stretch with the other lane clearly missing or under construction.
Oh, the scenery - the views - well, the road is impressive - somebody with a lot of imagination got it up through that pass. Speaking of the pass - it was a balmy 80 degree F most of the way - then it dropped to 70 as we went through the snow walls to get to the top of Logans Pass.
So that was fun to be in your plastic crocs with the kids in t-shirts playing with walls of snow. We all put our hand print in the snow - as it was a veritable snow graffitti wall up at the information center at the top of the pass.
Really wanted to see moose - but not too be. Saw a couple of wolves in the meadows down the bottom before you get to St Marys. So that is another animal to add to our "seen in the wild" list.
Lots of ground squirrels running around up the top out the windows of the information center too. We got the kids National Park Passports stamped and got a few souveniers - gotta love a NP shop!
It was a long day. Leaving from Kalispell late (at about 11.00) got to West Glacier within 30 mins - stopped off and did the Trail of the Ceders - which had a nice stream, boardwalks - great mossy forest with giant trees for "magic forest" photos with the kids. Then it took over an hour - maybe almost 2hours to get to Logans pass - with a 20min delay with the road works.
We did the circuit - rather than driving back up and over again. The driver (with her fear of heights) had had enough doing it once! Our big fat butt on our truck (we have dual wheels at the back) made some of the road very narrow indeed. So we drove out through St Mary - then past some beautiful rolling hill country onto East Glacier - then back to West Glacier and home to the camper in Kalispell by 10.30pm - just as it got dark.
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Oh, the scenery - the views - well, the road is impressive - somebody with a lot of imagination got it up through that pass. Speaking of the pass - it was a balmy 80 degree F most of the way - then it dropped to 70 as we went through the snow walls to get to the top of Logans Pass.
So that was fun to be in your plastic crocs with the kids in t-shirts playing with walls of snow. We all put our hand print in the snow - as it was a veritable snow graffitti wall up at the information center at the top of the pass.
Really wanted to see moose - but not too be. Saw a couple of wolves in the meadows down the bottom before you get to St Marys. So that is another animal to add to our "seen in the wild" list.
Lots of ground squirrels running around up the top out the windows of the information center too. We got the kids National Park Passports stamped and got a few souveniers - gotta love a NP shop!
It was a long day. Leaving from Kalispell late (at about 11.00) got to West Glacier within 30 mins - stopped off and did the Trail of the Ceders - which had a nice stream, boardwalks - great mossy forest with giant trees for "magic forest" photos with the kids. Then it took over an hour - maybe almost 2hours to get to Logans pass - with a 20min delay with the road works.
We did the circuit - rather than driving back up and over again. The driver (with her fear of heights) had had enough doing it once! Our big fat butt on our truck (we have dual wheels at the back) made some of the road very narrow indeed. So we drove out through St Mary - then past some beautiful rolling hill country onto East Glacier - then back to West Glacier and home to the camper in Kalispell by 10.30pm - just as it got dark.
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Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Wild Moose Chase
We were told our best bet to see moose would be to take a drive up the North Fork road from the back of Columbia Falls up to Polebridge. It was a part gravel road.
We left at about 7.00pm - it is daylight till after 10pm this time of year so we thought if we travelled up and back the same road we would be double the chances of seeing a moose.
Well, with the round trip taking 3 hours - we saw heaps of deer, a few squirrels, 4 humans rafting down the river, some unusual and pretty wildflowers, a million misquitos, a few log cabins and NO MOOSE.
Now, besides the fact we have met numerous locals who say they have only seen a moose once in their entire lifetime, it really isnt fair they just dont come out on to the side of the road in full view for a few tourists driving down the road.
There was a light ( or a bakery ) at the end of the road. I had never tasted huckleberrys before, so the huckleberry bear claw we bought to share was quickly not shared by me and a second was bought and quickly eaten before I could get my hands on it too.
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We left at about 7.00pm - it is daylight till after 10pm this time of year so we thought if we travelled up and back the same road we would be double the chances of seeing a moose.
Well, with the round trip taking 3 hours - we saw heaps of deer, a few squirrels, 4 humans rafting down the river, some unusual and pretty wildflowers, a million misquitos, a few log cabins and NO MOOSE.
Now, besides the fact we have met numerous locals who say they have only seen a moose once in their entire lifetime, it really isnt fair they just dont come out on to the side of the road in full view for a few tourists driving down the road.There was a light ( or a bakery ) at the end of the road. I had never tasted huckleberrys before, so the huckleberry bear claw we bought to share was quickly not shared by me and a second was bought and quickly eaten before I could get my hands on it too.
Polebridge is this very small - one bakery and northern lights saloon town. To my surprise there was a live band playing at the saloon. And the place was buzzing - with people - kids - dogs.
Nice scenery, plenty of land and ranches for sale on the way up. There obviously had been a major fire through the area in the last couple of years. So it was a bit like a "ghost forest" - but we got to see the river through the burnt out trunks that normally would have been obscured by dense foliage.
Nice scenery, plenty of land and ranches for sale on the way up. There obviously had been a major fire through the area in the last couple of years. So it was a bit like a "ghost forest" - but we got to see the river through the burnt out trunks that normally would have been obscured by dense foliage.
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