WANDERING WITH THE WRIGHTS

September 13, 2021

We spent several days visiting the East side of Glacier National Park

The first day we opted to take a Red Bus Tour and learned the history of the park.  These busses were built back in the 1930's.  They have had several overhauls and are in excellent shape.  The black cover on top rolls back so the occupants can see out the top and when the driver stops and says it is okay you can stand up and take pictures.  We had a great driver and learned a lot - the only problem was we picked a particularly chilly and windy day to go!

Brrrrrr

Right off the bat we saw a bear - he is climbing that little tree - only bear we saw

We saw this little guy on one of our stops - he is a Columbian ground squirrel.  They start hibernation in July, staying underground for around 8 months so this guy was way off schedule.

It was a cloudy and overcast day but still beautiful

Waterfall

If you look real close the two white spots on the hill are sheep

We went back the next day and it was much sunnier and a more pleasant 

On September 3rd we drove 65 miles over to camp on the West side of the park.  

We took a day off from visiting the park to drive to the Izaak Walton Inn for lunch - 

The lodge was built in 1939 next to the railroad yard.  

View from the restaurant out the back of the Inn

They can barely be seen but up the side of the mountain are caboose's and one engine that serve as "cabin's" for people to rent and stay in.

The Inn is famous for its Huckleberry Peach Pie and they even had Gluten Free for Jerry!!!

We only had roll-ups, chips, water and dessert and it was $70.00!!  

But we ate outside and it was a beautiful day so maybe they added a fee for it being a perfect day!

Been awhile 

Saw this T shirt in a West Glacier store!

Have to be vigilant all the time - they just walk out right in front of the car

Drove to a town just a little way from West Glacier, called Hungry Horse 

this is the front of the post office.

More beautiful scenery in GNP

We hiked a few different trails.   

This trail was all on a beautiful wooden boardwalk - easy to hike and was so beautiful actually being in the woods - We hadn't brought bear spray and felt safe without it as although not crowded there were other people around.

See how shallow the root system is on this tree?

Beautiful crystal clear water

Then we decided to do a little more strenuous hike and I swear it was ALL uphill!!

As we got deeper into the woods, minding you going uphill all the time - LOL - we saw several dear and then realized there was no one else around and we didn't have bear spray.  Thankfully we never saw a bear but won't go off again into the woods without it.  About half way through the trail there was a wonderful waterfall.  We stopped and rested and enjoyed the beauty.

The water came rushing out under a bridge and I casually said I bet the water flow out from under the bridge is beautiful - next thing I knew down Jerry went to get me a picture!!

And here it is - thank you Jerry

So when we were ready to finish the trail and get back to the car we realized a couple of things:

1) we were getting tired - remember all the uphill climbing

             2) the rest of the trail also went deep into the woods - no bear spray

So no big deal we will just walk the roadway back to the car - two problems with that

              1) we started out but then there was no where to walk but in the road

                         2) roads built many years ago and only two lanes both very narrow and busy

so figured we would be taking less of a risk with the bears than with the drivers on the narrow curvy roads.  But alas, not known for being bashful, I asked another family viewing the waterfall, that had pulled over in their car if we could catch a ride.

They took pity on us and were so sweet and said sure.  

My dad was a policeman and riding with strangers was a huge - don't ever do that - but sometimes you just have to take a chance.  They were a lovely couple with their 10 year old daughter.   

After all dad never told me what to do about bears!!

Once safely in our car we decided to stop at the McDonald Lodge and enjoy a spiked huckleberry lemonade while overlooking the lake

McDonald Lodge

Inside the lodge

Another experience we had at Glacier - this year they had a pass system to try and control how many people were in the park at one time.  We had a pass and got in whenever we wanted.  After Labor Day the passes were no longer needed as the crowds thin on their own.  I thought as of Labor Day no passes were needed so tossed our pass in the garbage.  We put the trash bag in the back of the car to drop in the container on our way out of the campground.  Thankfully we forgot to toss the trash so when we arrived at GNP and they wanted to see our pass (it wasn't needed after 5:00 on Labor Day but needed during the day) we told the Forest Ranger we had it but it was in the trash bag in the back of the car.  She gave us a funny look, told us where to safely pull over and retrieve the pass and in we went!!

So it is now the morning we are to check out of the campground.  Check out is at 11:00 and we were almost ready about 10:30.  We have 4 slide outs on our coach and the first three came in like always but the fourth one started to come in crooked so we stopped, Jerry tried a few more times, still crooked. 

 He claimed under neath the slide on the outside and one of two drive gears had broken.  It is now check out time.  Went down to the office & asked if we could stay another night to figure out how to fix and they said no.  They were sold out and someone was coming into our site.  Check in was at 1:00 so even though they were nice they made it clear we had to be out by 1:00  We called a mobile tech but he couldn't come til the following evening.  

The broken shaft

It took Jerry about 2 hours but he got it fixed!!  Thank You Jerry!!  The couple coming for our site came in a little early about noon but couldn't have been nicer.  If you spend much time in these big rigs you know this type of thing just happens once in awhile.  they gave us their phone number and asked us to call them when we were heading out.  We pulled out about 1:30.

Fortunately we had a short drive to where we were spending the next three nights in Kalispell, MT at an ELKS lodge.  The lodge was right at the end of an airport so Jerry saw lots of planes take off and land - and we even saw a balloon go up.

All of the air traffic stopped at dark so didn't keep us awake

The reason for spending time in Kalispell was to visit my cousin and his wife who live in Bigfork.  They had us over for dinner and we had the most delightful evening.  I haven't seen them in years so it was great to catch up.  They raise and show Leonberger's and currently have nine. 

They were good and well behaved but dogs everywhere :-)

The puppy

We decided to take a selfie

But one of the dogs felt left out - I love the look on all of our faces!!

We ate out on the patio and this is the view - unfortunately there was some low hanging smoke over the mountains.  

We have had minimal issues with the smoke from the fires but even though we couldn't smell it it was obvious in the sky that night.

We left Kalispell and spent two days on the road to our next destination - Yellowstone National Park.  On the way we stopped at the National Bison Range.  It was a couple of hour drive through the range - we unhooked the car from the RV and drove the Jeep around.

This extensive grasslands are perfect for the bison hearts to roam free in

We are now settled in a beautiful National Park Campground for awhile - not sure how long we will be at Yellowstone but at least til the end of the week.