Glacier National Park (East Side) 6/14/2007

6/14/2007
Today we decided to drive over to the east side of the park. Peg had a sleepless night but decided to go any way. It's about a 100 mile trip one way with all the side trips, at least it is all black topped not gravel. You still can't drive the whole Going to the Sun Road on the east side you can only go 12 miles up. The drive around the south end of the park on route 2 is very pretty.
On the way you do drive through a small part of the park and there is a pull off in the park called Goat Lick.

This is the view from the Goat Lick overlook. I'm sorry the goats don't show up any better but that's the best my telephoto would do. You really need to expand this picture to see the small white goats on the hill side. Small because of how far away they are, they're across the river.

Another interesting place on the way to the east side of the park on route 2 was this pass called Marias Pass at 5214 feet and is on the continental divide. I know you all know that it means any drainage on the east side goes to the Gulf and on the west side to the Pacific Ocean. This is the view from the rest area. There are some pictures of the signs at the rest area telling more about this pass in my Glacier Album.

This is called Running Eagle Fall and was named for a Blackfoot Indian women. Apparently she was a warrior and a heroine to her tribe. These falls are on the way to Two Medicine Lake.

This is Yellow Columbine. I have seen Red Columbine in the Smokies but never yellow. These were on the path to the above falls.

These are called Showy Jacob's Ladder and were also on the path to the falls.

This is the view at Two Medicine Lake as you can see it was a cloudy overcast day and cool, temperature was in the mid fifties.

This little fellow who was not shy at all is called a Columbian Ground Squirrel. He is not afraid of people in fact he ran Peggy off. She was afraid he was going to run up her pant leg.

This view is from the Going to the Sun Road on the east side of the park. The water is part of the St. Mary Lake. The really interesting thing about this view is the way the valleys are rounded. This means they were formed by glaciers. As you can see there are no glaciers there now.

Another view from the Going to the Sun Road. The lake is the St. Mary Lake.

Just another view along the Going to the Sun Road of St. Mary Lake and the beautiful snow covered mountains in the background.

This is one of the tour buses they use in the park when the road is open. These buses were free to ride until the Going to the Sun Road was open the whole way then there is a charge. Be sure to click on the link http://www.seriouswheels.com/cars/top-1930s-White-Glacier-National-Park-Red-Bus.htm for the interesting story of how these buses came to be. The park is starting a shuttle service that is free. http://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/shuttles.htm This is a really good idea to reduce traffic in the park. The Grand Canyon NP has been using it for awhile now and when we were there it worked great. The date when the road is suppose to open is July 1st but as the lady at the entrance gate told us "that comes from government officials and you know how they lie." She also showed us pictures of the damage the avalanche had caused. It took a large chunk of the whole road out and will require a lot of filling back in.

This is the only glacier we have seen so far in Glacier National Park. It's name is the Jackson Glacier. This was where we had to turn around. By this time it was getting late. We had wanted to go to the Many Glaciers drive but it was to late. We had a long drive back to the west side over some windy roads with no guard rail and steep drop offs. I didn't want to be driving them in the dark so we headed for home vowing to come back Saturday.

Glacier National Park (West Side) 6/12-13/2007

6/12/2007
We finally made it to Glacier National Park. We also found out that we are early. Most things don't open until July 1. The ranger talks, the boat rides on the lakes, the Going to the Sun Road and the gondola rides in White Fish. Actually the reason the Going to the Sun Road is not open is not because of the date but because of avalanches. They had 60 feet of snow on the mountain and avalanches have about wiped out the road in some places. They are working to repair it as fast as they can but apparently the damage is extensive. They keep moving the opening date back. As for the gondola rides in White Fish they are remodeling this year and the rides won't be open at all this year. White Fish is a ski resort and the gondola ride takes you to the top of the mountain for a beautiful view. In the winter the ride is to the beginning of the ski run. Every where we go there are roads still closed. So we are going where we can. Today we drove up the part of the west side of the Going to the Sun Road that is open. It is open to the Avalanche Camp Ground 16 miles up the mountain. It runs along McDonald lake for about 10 miles. McDonald Lake is the largest lake in the park.

We try to get a picture of the entrance sign to each park now. I understand the stone work for this new sign was $60,000.00.

Once past McDonald Lake the road goes along the McDonald Creek which is the river that feeds McDonald Lake. As you can see it is a fast flowing river and has many rapids, very picturesque.

The mountains across the river have side streams feeding into the McDonald Creek with many beautiful falls.

This is Bear Grass. Right now it is at it's prettiest.

6/13/2007

Today we drove the west side of the park. Most of the road is gravel and very rough. We drove 11 miles on the west side of the park on a black top road, then drove out of the park into the Flathead National Forest on to a gravel road. The road is gravel for about 7 miles then it's black top for about an other 6 miles. We stopped at a small bar for a pit stop and to get a pop as they call it here. The owner was a retired real estate salesman from Cincinnati, Ohio. He told us they have any where from 2 to 8 feet of snow a year and at times it gets to 55 below zero. They have no electricity. They run on a diesel generator that uses 8 gallons a day. At $3.00 a gallon that's $24.00 a day or about $720.00 a month for electricity. So I guess we don't need to feel bad about our power bill. From there Polebridge was only a few miles up the road but back on to the gravel road. Peggy really wanted to see the pole bridge. Unfortunately the fire of 1988 got the bridge and they replaced it with a iron one. At Polebridge we went back into the Park on our way to Bowmen Lake. It was 6 miles of curvy, rough gravel and it seemed like 12 miles. At 10 miles an hour it takes a while to go 6 miles.

This is the view when we got to Bowman Lake, very beautiful. There is a campground on the lake and there were people camping. On this lake you are aloud up to a 10 horse power motor on your boat. From there we had to go back the 6 miles and head north to Kintla Lake. Don't ask me how to pronounce it. I just got an e-mail from a camp host in the park, he told me it is pronounced (kint-la). That's simple enough. It was 15 miles further north on a road that was even worse, rougher and rockier. There was no way to avoid the potholes.

This view of the field of flowers and the log cabin was on the way to Kintla Lake. Most of the houses we saw on the way were built of logs. The flowers are little more yellow than show up on this picture and are every where in these prairies. We were not able to figure out the name of these flowers.

We saw deer every where along these roads in the park. Peggy got a video of a deer with a young fawn that must have been recently born. It still had it's spots and could hardly walk while trying to follow it's mother.

Indian Paint Brush. It is just starting to bloom but the red really shows up along the road.

We finally got to Kintla Lake and this was the view. There was a campground here, also, but there wasn't anyone camping. There were three men with a chain saw working in the the park but that was all. You are not allowed any motors on this lake.

We had our picnic lunch here with this beautiful scenery in the background. By the way for those of you suffering from the heat the temperature here was about sixty and the breeze was cool. Of course there were mosquitoes but not bad. At least none of the bears came for lunch. The only problem was that we had to return over the same rough road we came in on. But it was really a good day. The weather was great for me but Peg would like it a little warmer. She also would prefer a little less day light. It doesn't get dark here until after 9:30 PM. We had originally planned to go to the east side of the park today (Thursday, 6/14/2007) but as I write this at 4:30 AM, Peggy hasn't been asleep yet. So I guess we will do something less tiring today.

Hiawatha Bike Trail

6/09/2007
This morning we drove to the Hiawatha Rail to Trail bike trail. It is 100 miles west of Missoula just off interstate route 90 on the border of Montana and Idaho. All of the other pictures are located in the Idaho album because once you are through the first tunnel you are in Idaho even though the trail starts in Montana. It cost $9.00 to ride the trail and $9.00 to ride the shuttle bus back up to your car. Actually they take you to the west side of the first tunnel and you have to go back through it again to get to your car. The trail is 15 miles long. All down hill, thank goodness. You go through 11 tunnels and over 9 trestles. The first tunnel is 2 miles long and pitch black as are some of the other tunnels. The rules for the ride are that you must wear a helmet and your bike must have a light. The weather was great for the ride it was in the mid seventies. The tunnels are much cooler. The first one is in the mid thirties and wet and damp with water dripping on you at times. They do have travel marshals on the trail to check for any problems.

This is the beginning of the trail in Montana. The first tunnel is right behind us. At our age I should have know better. Even with the bike light and the one on my head as soon as we hit the dark I couldn't see a thing. Instead of stopping until my eyes got accustom to the dark I kept trying to push on. The tunnel has drainage's on each side with water running in them. You can hear the water dripping all over the place. It didn't take me long to lose my balance and ended up against the wall and in the drainage. Fortunately I only tore my good Pendleton wool shirt and scraped my little finger and my arm just below my elbow.

This is just on the other side of the tunnel. So you can see I wasn't hurt bad, just my pride. Some times it's tough getting old and like they say getting old is not for the young.

This is one of the views from the trail. The trail you see below is part of our trail that we will get to later.

A view of one of the many trestles we crossed.

This trestle is called the Turkey Creek trestle and is 146 feet high and 494 feet long. The views down in the valley from these are great. You are at the top of all the trees. Peggy got to see the start of the cones on the spruce for the first time since they are at the very top of the trees, along with the western white pine and other pines, Balsam fir and western hemlock. Looking at these tall trees from the top certainly gives you a different perspective.

We found these Lilacs right along the trail, notice there are both lilac and white ones.

Lilacs are one of my favorite flowers and these smelled wonderful.

This is another flower we found, it's called Hound's-tongue. We also saw these flowers at the National Bison Range. The worst part of the trip was the ride back to the top in an old school bus. The road was a curvy, dirt and a narrow road. The bus driver had to keep radioing to tell the other buses where he was so that we didn't meet one at the wrong place. Half way up we met a bus that was on it's way down but had been waiting on us at a place where he could pull over. Two things I learned was that if I ever ride a trail with long tunnels like this in the future I will have a much better light on my bike and secondly to walk in the first part until my eyes got accustom to the dark. After the bus dropped us off and we had to go back through the 2 mile tunnel to get to the car, we walked our bikes in the tunnel for quite a way before we started to ride. That helped a great deal because by then our eyes had adjusted to the dark and we could actually see fairly well. In spite of the mishap we really enjoyed the ride. The scenery was beautiful and the weather could not have been better. We did get through just in time. Just as I finished loading the bikes on to the car it started to rain. It rained half of the way back to Missoula then it stopped. Missoula had not had any rain. We are going to stay in Missoula one more day so I can get a prescription filled at a Walgreen. Then Monday we are going to Glacier National Park.

National Bison Range

6/7/2007

It was a great drive up to the National Bison Range. The range is located on a Flathead reservation but operated by the Federal Government. Right now there is a controversy going on, the Indians want the control turned over to them. So far the federal government has refused. There is a nice visitor center with a short video and a stuffed buffalo as you come in the door, also displays about the range. As you can see from the sign next year they will be celebrating their 100 year anniversary. The road through the park is 19 miles long on well maintained gravel. It is very curvy, no guard rails and steep with some slopes over 10%. Since we drove very slowly through the park it wasn't bad at all. Peggy never got scared once. :-) The weather was great, pleasant with a cloud cover but none of the rain they had predicted.

Sign at the Visitor Center.

Stack of antlers in the visitor center parking lot. Reminds me of the arch of Elk antlers in Jackson Hole.

View of the Flathead River and the valley below as we went up the mountain to start the tour.

This is called Common Toadflax and is very prolific on the range. Looks a lot like the butter and eggs flower at home or a snap dragon.

Wild Geranium.

Harebell, most of these flower name we are pretty sure of but please if anyone knows different let us know. We also saw a lot of Wild Rose plants. Their flowers were almost gone and not very pretty at this stage.

The Buffalo or Bison which ever you prefer are so use to cars that when a heard moves it may block a road for hours. They keep the herd at the carrying capacity of the range which is about 500. The number and method of reducing the herd is the same here as it was on Antelope Island, UT.

As you can see they also have herds of Antelope on the range as well as deer, bears and they are a bird sanctuary. We could hear many birds singing beautiful tunes. We really enjoyed the ride through the range and enjoyed the wild flowers as much as the animals. We didn't see any deer but did see the damage they did to the trees around the visitor center. I always thought it would be fun to travel and see this great and beautiful country but I had no idea how wonderful it would be. Life is great just not long enough to see all of God's beautiful creations. I have always felt I was in a cathedral when I was in the forest.

Missoula

6/6/2007
It was a rainy day today so we decided to go and take the Smoke Jumpers School tour. The school was only a few miles from our campground but a little difficult to find. We found out latter that all the signs directing you to the school were for coming from the other direction. The tour is free and last about an hour. There is a visitor's center with a short video and some displays. The tour guide first explains the type of clothing the jumpers wear. She then takes you to another building were they are actually making and repairing their own equipment. All Smoke Jumpers must learn to sew. They have a room full of commercial sewing machines. When we were there, there were two people working on making and repairing some equipment. The next room was the one below.
This is where they hang the parachutes to straighten them out to get ready to fold.

They use different color chutes for different things. The blue chutes are the primary shoot. The red chutes are the reserve chutes in case the primary shoot doesn't open. They didn't have any red chutes hanging there today.

This young lady is a Smoke Jumper and a licensed rigger. You must be licensed to pack a chute. She looks too small to pass the strenuous training they much go through to be a Smoke Jumper, but apparently she is strong enough to make it. One of the requirements is to walk 3 miles with an 80 pound backpack and do it in 90 minutes. There are other requirements that are just as demanding. Thirteen percent of the Smoke Jumpers are women.

In this view she is just starting to pack the chute. After the tour it was still raining so we drove down town to get some information on the bike trails in the area. We went to the office of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Department. It was located in the back corner on the second floor of the City Hall. He showed us on a large map where all the trails were in Missoula and gave us a small copy of the map. He also gave us a pamphlet about a trail that is about 80 miles from Missoula. It's called the Hiawatha and is a Rail to Trail bike trail. It is suppose to be one of the most beautiful in the country. It is 13 miles long, has some very high tressels on it and some tunnels, one of which is 1.6 miles long. There is a shuttle service to take you back to your car. The trail cost $9.00 to ride and $9.00 for the shuttle service. It will be the first time we have ever paid to ride a trail. Since it was still raining we went back to the motorhome and had lunch. Latter we found the Wal-mart and got some supplies. Tomorrow is suppose to be another rainy day so we are going to drive up to the National Bison Range. It's about 40 miles north of here on route 93 and 200. Route 93 is the route we will take to go to Glacier so it will give us a chance to check out the road.

Idaho, 6/4-5/2007

6/4/2007
We left Salt Lake City this morning heading for Glacier National Park. We knew it was too far to make in one day, 625 miles, so we had planned on stopping at the Wal-mart in Blackfoot, Id. When we stop at the Wal-mart in Blackfoot the parking lot was so small and crowded we just got some groceries and left. On the way north on route 15 just a little way past Pocatello, Id. we stopped at this rest area. It had a visitors center, rest rooms and this informative walkway behind the visitor center.

View of some of walkways on this informative trail about the lava field. It explained that this lava field was not a result of a volcanic eruption but just from a crack in the earth and the lava oozing out.

The lava rock.

Some of the lava looked like it was a collapsed lava tube. From there we drove to the Wal-mart in Idaho Falls. It had a much bigger parking lot, in fact there was already a motorhome there parked for the night. We parked in front of them. I found out where the post office was and drove a few miles into town to mail some packages. The directions I got were great and very easy to follow the only trouble was that the post offices aren't marked very well. I drove done the correct street, Capital, but never saw the post office. When turning around to go back down Capitol, I got turn around, which I never use to do in my younger days. By the way Capitol is a one way street. Believe it or not I did ask for directions and finally found the post office and my way back to the motorhome. It was still about 400 miles to Glacier so we planned to stop in Missoula, Mt. the next day for a day or two. I knew they had a Smoke Jumper's school there that I wanted to see. I had read about it when I was doing my thesis on forest fires in Pennsylvania. I called ahead and made reservations for two days at Jim and Mary's campground in Missoula.

6/5/2007

We left early Tuesday morning because we had about 325 miles to go and we usually don't drive that far in one day any more. On the way to Missoula we stopped at a small town called Spencer which is just a little way south of the Montana boarder in Idaho. The main attraction here is opals. There are opal mines in the area and of course a lot of places that sell opal jewelry.

They had some really beautiful stuff but expensive. Peggy however couldn't resist and bought a pair of earrings. When we got to Missoula we found our campground and registered in. It is a nice neat campground with lots of trees. Unfortunately trees are a no, no to those of us with satellites. How ever the gentleman that made the reservation the night before had asked me if we had satellite, so he had assigned us a site with a clear view to the southern sky.

Kennecott Utah Copper Mine

Today's adventure is the Kennecott Cooper Mine in Bingham Canyon Utah. I have said it before but pictures don't do places like this justice. This place is so much more massive that these pictures show that it's a shame to think that they represent the area. This hole is only one of one other man made thing that can be seen from space. The other of course being the China Wall.
Here are a few interesting facts about the mine.
It is the world's largest man-made excavation; over three quarters of a mile deep and covers 1,900 acres and currently 2 1/2 miles across at the top.
Over six billion tons of material have been removed since open-pit operations began in 1906.
The mine has yielded more than 17 million tons of copper, 23 million ounces of gold, 190 million ounces of silver and 850 million pounds of molybdenum.
Approximately 450,000 tons of material are removed daily. ( About 1/3 is ore and 2/3 waste rock.)
It takes a ton of ore to produce 12 pounds of copper. The ore in this mine is only on the average 0.6% copper.
The Kennecott Utah Copper produces approximately 320,000 tons of refined copper annually, plus molybdenum, gold and silver.

Well, I finally got myself into a picture were something made me look small. As you look at these pictures remember how large these tires are, so that when you see these little toy trucks on the roads you will realize how far away they are. The trucks can haul 255 tons, boy wouldn't they do a job on the roads if they got out and we think 18 wheelers beat the roads. How would you like to meet one of those bad boys coming at you. :-)

This is the storage area and repair shops.

Remember what I said about toy trucks. You can see them on the road and in the bottom of the pit.

Look at the row of little toy trucks going up the road.

I zoomed in on the deepest pit.

They are working on all the sides to expand them as well as going deeper. The copper smelter is the worlds cleans. The company spends millions on reclamation. On the way out we saw a deer browsing along the road side. After we drove past she walk across the road. As with all my pictures there are more on the picture album and these are still in the Utah album.

Tomorrow we leave for Idaho.