Glacier Park Visit - Aug 2014

Saturday - off to explore the west side of Glacier Park.  We drove northeast to the park entrance and purchased our seven day pass.  We stopped at the Apgar Transit Center to find the check-in area for our tour the next day.  Then on to Lake McDonald and it's historic lodge.  We walked around the grounds and through the lodge - a lot of history.  The lake was beautiful and calm, we decided we would bring the kayak the next day to try it out.  We drove a little further on the "Going to the Sun Road", stopping here and there to see the river and rapids.  We saw the Sacred Cascades and found some young men diving in to one of the turquoise pools.  We drove to the Sprague Creek campground and day use area to find a launch spot for our kayak.  We drove back in to town, had lunch and went to 5:00 Mass in Kalispell.  Afterward we went to supper at the Mackenzie River Pizza.

Glacier silt colors the water

Stromatolite fossils found in Glacier Park

Lake McDonald Lodge

View from Lake McDonald Lodge dock

Glacier stream

Colorful glacier stream rocks

Water and rocks together

Sunset in Kalispell

Sunday - headed to West Glacier Park for our 9:30 Red Car Tour.  We drove north from the west entrance, the area that was destroyed by the forest fires in 2003.  Sad to see all the trees as sticks, but the underbrush is growing back and there is color.  At one of our stops, we found a huckleberry bush.  The Red Cars have been in Glacier Park since the early 1930s, the same type of cars are in Yellowstone - they are yellow.  Our car and driver, Jamie, (called "Jammers") arrived, we loaded up and headed up the "Going to the Sun Road".  We stopped at the Lake McDonald Lodge to pick up more tourists, at that point 'Jammer Jamie' rolled the roof cover back so we could see out the top of the car and stand up at the "Kodak" stops.  It was worth the money to hear the history of the park and road from her and to see the grandeur of the mountains as we proceeded up the road.  Gary thoroughly enjoyed being able to see everything and not driving the tight, winding road. Our turnaround point was at the top of the Continental Divide, the Logan Pass Visitor Center.  We had a half hour there to look around and walk up on the trails.  We saw mountain goats in the meadow up above the center and while we were there they munched their way down close to us.  Before we boarded the Red Car again, we also saw mountain sheep up on the slope above us.  With my camera, I was able to zoom in enough to get pictures.  Back in the car, we drove back down the road we had come up on.  It was amazing how we saw different things on the same route and even the position of the sun changes the look of the massive peaks.  After the tour was done, we drove up to the Sprague Creek Campground for our picnic lunch and boating.  On the lake, we enjoyed the views from the water, the expansive scenery and the clear, clear water.  It was a warm day too, so we beached the kayak and spent time in the water cooling off.  We enjoyed picking up and looking at the different colorful rocks from the water.  Gary wanted me to keep one or two, but one leads to another and I kept thinking about the Lucy/Desi movie about pulling a camper and her rock collection.  The afternoon passed and we landed and put away the boat.  While I was changing clothes at the bath house, Gary visited with the camp host there.  This was their 6th year hosting in the park, they work July and August each year, looks like a good job for us someday.  They had a full hookup, but the rest of the sites were primitive - no hookups.  We saw many tent campers at the parks, I could not do that, considering bears have been seen in those areas.

Fire damage in Glacier

Huckleberries

Blanket emblem on our tour

Red Car at Glacier Park

Roadside waterfall on Going to the Sun Road

Where we came from on the road

Tight corner

Going to the Sun Road

Historical road

 

Mountain goat family

Upper meadow at Logan Pass

Curly horn mountain sheep above Logan Pass

Glacier creek

Swimmers in West Glacier

Picnic in the park

Lake McDonald view from our kayak

Cooling off in the glacial waters

The blues were incredible

Glacier Park peaks

Late afternoon shadows from Apgar Village

Monday - Another hot day.  We ran errands and did laundry in the morning and then took the boat out on Flathead Lake, south of Kalispell.  The lake had many homes and parks around most of it.  We found a launching place at one of the day use parks and set sail.  We paddled around the area, seeing swimmers diving/jumping from the rocks and some of the marina resorts.  We kept hearing birds and saw that they were young eagles. They were really loud, almost obnoxious. As we watched, an adult bald eagle landed at the same tree, but would not turn to let me get a good picture.  We stopped for lunch, paddled some more and then dried the kayak off and went home.  We cleaned up for our supper date and headed to Whitefish.  We enjoyed our evening of good food and visiting with Giuseppe and Jamie at the Tupelo restaurant.

Young bald eagle

Rock divers at Flathead Lake

Oldest dude ranch resort along Flathead Lake

Tuesday - we packed up early and drove around the south side of Glacier Park and up the east side.  We arrived in Browning, MT about noon, to boondock camp there the next two nights at the Glacier Peak Casino.  After setting up, we drove to the park, first to the Saint Mary entrance, in to the Rising Sun Lodge and then further up to the Many Glacier entrance.  This entrance is the east end of the "Going to the Sun" road and this year was under construction.  The road was pretty rough and gravel sections at times, but the view of Lake Sherburne and the mountains and finally the Many Glacier Lodge and Swift Current Lake were worth it.  It was an overcast day, so we did not get great pictures.  We drove up to Logan Pass, a shorter route than the west side. We had seen people on the High Line Trail when we were on our Red Car tour and decided we wanted to try it.  We finally found a parking spot in the lot at the Visitors Center (it is a popular place for tourists and a lot of trail heads begin there).  We went out on the trail and hiked along the cliffs above the road and then on the meadows portion of the trail.  From the trail along the cliffs you can see the road and cars down below.  After hiking back, we went up by the visitor's center and again were very close to the mountain goat family. We drove back down to the Many Glacier Lodge and then bought tickets for the next day for the Grinnell Lake boat and hike tour.  Back to Browning and the motorhome, we spent the evening watching people come and go from the casino and watched the amazing sunset colors all around us.

High Line Trail at Logan Pass

Rock colors on High Line Trail

High Line Trail stop

Alpine meadow flowers

Narrow walkway on trail

Road below the High Line Trail

Meadow area of trail

You can see the corner turns on the trail

Going to the Sun Road traffic

Natural habitat

Many Glacier Lodge complex   

Visit to British Columbia

 Sunday, Aug. 3 - We closed up the motorhome as we were leaving it at the Chewelah campground and taking our car to Canada. (Praying there would not be more storms and it would be safe while we were gone.)  Heading northwest to the border, we could see smoke from the western Washington forest fires in the distance.  We crossed into Canada at Midway, BC - the smallest border crossing into British Columbia.  West on Hwy 3, then north on Hwy 33 to Kelowna.  As we got closer, we came over the ridge and saw the Okanagan River valley, very beautiful for miles and miles.  Then down, down into the city of Kelowna.  With the help of our Garmin, we drove right to Brian and Krista's building.  (Brian & Krista Komar are friends we met in Arizona - they had lived in Winnipeg, but retired and sold their home there in June and now live in Kelowna.  They had been there just six weeks and we were their first visitors)  Krista made lunch for us and showed us around their new home.  Afterward, we went for a drive in the area and visited three wineries.  Then back to their home, we had a delicious supper with smoked ribs, salads and sweet corn. A long, warm day - we all went to bed early.

Canadian border crossing

Monday - After breakfast, we headed to the Mission Hill Winery, an European style architecture on a hilltop above the lake. (It reminded us of our visit to the Melk Abbey in Austria) Mission Hill is also known for its new sculpture collection by Icelandic artist Steinunn Thorarinsdottir. Here, the Komars' had arranged a private tasting for us with one of the sommeliers.  Carl was very knowledgable and taught us more about the grapes and the winery.  He gave us a short tour of the grounds and the barrel storage room.  Afterward, we looked at all the sculptures and the beautiful view of the river from there.
Our next stop was at an orchard known for their fruit jams, syrups and ice creams.  Nearby, we stopped at the Dirty Laundry winery.  Their property was once a Chinese Laundry Service that added a brothel to get business to them, so their themes and decor played on that business, "Madam Vines" and women's lingere.  Afterward, we stopped for lunch, a nice Italian style restaurant, we ate outside under the canopy of vines at Zia's. Heading back toward town, we stopped at a goat cheese dairy - goats were everywhere.  There we tasted many kinds of goat cheese and they had goat milk ice cream.
At 5:00 we had a winery tour at Quail's Gate Winery.  Here Pierre gave us the tour, first we were out among the vines full of grapes and this is where we saw the helicopter land nearby on one of their wine tour stops.  (Made a short trip of going across the large lake for those people) Pierre then took us inside, showing us the crushing machine, stainless steel vats and shared with all the steps they go through to make their wine.  At the end of the tour, he gave us a tasting and taught us the proper way to really "taste" the wine.  (Appropriate to learn wine tasting from a French gentlemen!) It really made a difference in experiencing the different fruits and flavors of each wine.  A very beautiful winery, again on a hillside above the lake. We headed back home and had grilled sausages, salads and gobbled up the left over ribs.

In the cellar with our sommelier

View from Mission Hill Winery

Sculptures on left and right

Copy cats!

Reminded us of Melk Abbey views

Brian wants to put a Battleship Game in the middle

Winery view

Dirty Laundry winery gate

Goat cheese farm

Afternoon tour

Our ride (we wished) at Quail's Gate

Quail's Gate grounds

Okanagan Lake valley view

Tuesday - a wonderful breakfast by our hostess again and then off to a "private virtual winery tour" at the Sandhill Winery.  Here we sat at a tasting bar in front of a large TV screen and the sommelier touched the screen like an IPad and showed us maps of their five winery locations, showed us the soil from the different regions and taught us a lot about the huge Okanagan Lake area. At this winery, they also make and distribute the Wayne Gretzky label of wine.  While we were there, other visitors told us about a brewery next door, with fruit beers.  We walked over and tried the beers, specifically grapefruit beer (which was very refreshing) and raspberry porter.  Interesting.  For lunch today, our hosts took us to one of their favorite winieries - favorite because of the picnic grounds there.  Krista had made us a gourmet lunch with deli sandwiches, watermelon soup, cheeses and crackers.  Picture perfect in all ways.  Very refreshing on the hot day.  Because it was hot out, we headed back home and all took a nap.  When we woke, we walked across their block to the lake and the boys took a dip, while Krista and I visited and took pictures.  Afterward, we played cards for a while and then walked up town for supper at the Mission Pub.  A great way to end a wonderful day.  We all slept very well.

Cedar Creek winery view

Picture perfect picnic lunch

Our picnic view

Grapes are plentiful

Swimming beach view near Komars' home

Wednesday - our time in BC has ended.  After breakfast, we packed up and said goodbye to our dear friends and fantastic hosts.  We left Kelowna about 9:30 that morning, and returned by our same route.  About half way to the border, we could see wildlife ahead in the ditch and going by saw a moose next to us in the ditch.  Too much traffic to stop and get a picture, we think she had two calves that had moved up into the tree line.  We were allowed to cross the border back in to the United States, they questioned us more than the other way and one guard opened the back hatch to look at our luggage.  As we got closer to Chewelah, we could see smoke hanging - we found out there was a forest fire about 30 miles west.  We found our motorhome had stayed safe and sound, there were a couple new campers in the lot.  We unpacked, picked up a few groceries and rested.  We would be leaving the next day.

Thursday - we leave Washington, drive through Idaho and enter Montana on Hwy 2.  Beautiful scenery in the forested areas of Idaho. After crossing the border of Montana, we passed Kootenai Falls and drove on in to Libby.  Here we were camping at the Elk Lodge in Libby.  They did not have hookups, but invited us to park behind their lodge and would have run a electrical cord to us if we wanted.  We ran the generator to keep cool, later that evening we were able to turn it off and open the windows.  Once parked and set up, we decided to drive back to the Falls - we had looked it up and found out there was a hiking trail and rope bridge.  On the way, we stopped at the visitor's center in Libby and got more information on the trail and places to eat and information on Glacier Park.  The volunteer there strongly advised us not to take Hwy 2 to Kalispell the next day because of heavy construction with delays.  Thank you!
We drove back to the Kootenai Falls, located between Troy and Libby.  This is one of the largest free flowing waterfalls in the northwest.  As the trail began, we crossed over the Amtrak railroad tracks on a pedestrian bridge then followed the trail to the swinging rope bridge which overlooks the falls.  Very beautiful, unfortunately a hot, humid day to hike.  Back in town, we rested and then went into the Elks Club for our supper.  We had a nice visit with some of their members and they invited us to stay for their kareoke night.  We declined, we went back to the motorhome and read until bedtime.  With our windows open, we heard most of the singing - they certainly enjoyed it!

Kootenai Falls

Swinging bridge

Swinging bridge view from the trail

Our camp spot behind the Libby Elks Lodge

Friday - Up early, we headed to Kalispell hoping to find an available site at the Kalispell Elks Lodge campground.  We used the alternate route given to us by the visitor's center, so went north on Hwy 37 past the Libby Dam and along Lake Koocanusa and then down Hwy 93 from Eureka to Whitefish and then Kalispell.  Pulling in to the Elks lot, we found three open sites, so parked and got set up for our stay.  (By the end of the day, all sites were full and several were parked in the lot, boondocking).  This Elks Lodge has an exercise center, locker rooms, hot tub and outdoor swimming pool.  However, the pool was closed because the ground level water has risen with all the rain and the health department made them close it.  Unfortunate for us, because it was still hot out.  We ran errands that night and planned our visit to Glacier Park for the next several days.

Lake Koocanusa

Sunset from Kalispell

Another direction - same evening