In Camp

Quinn and I spent the day in camp.  She met another sheltie, Lily, and twice we have let them off leash and they have run and played together-mostly run!  She's hoping to play with her again tomorrow.  Quinn has met more shelties on this trip than in her whole life!

It has rained off and on all day here at the camper and apparently it snowed at only slightly higher elevations!

I spent the inside time roasting some vegetables, lit the oven for the first time this trip.  I'm  bit gun shy of that!

Tomorrow is clean up and laundry.  Boy does this trailer need a good cleaning.  I think I say that every week!  Plus I need to find a post office or the UPS store as I have goodies to send the grandkids!

Polebridge

 The drive to Polebridge today changed everything I felt about Glacier National Park!  For the first time I could see the mountain range in all its glory!  That's Lake MacDonald in the foreground.

There are two roads to Polebridge, one inside the park and one outside.  The inside one has a section closed so we took the outside, although that one begins in the park.

The park section is paved, a true blessing because most of the rest of the way isn't.  Many holes, much teeth jarring stuff.  Worth every minute!

At Polebridge there is a small mercantile that sells, among other things, cinnamon rolls and bear claws!  Yum!  You can read more about Polebridge here,  there's photo there as well.  You can also drive from there back into the park and to a couple of small lakes.  Which we didn't do.

Had to stand on the trailer hitch to get this show over the trees!

Instead we headed back via the Columbia Falls road.  Just as bad a the other one!  With the river next to you.

Another great backroads adventure-without a single wrong turn!

Glacier National Park

Lake MacDonald, Glacier National Park, Montana

Finally, the sun is shinning and the clouds are making their way to the east!  I took the day to go into the park.  Glacier National Park that is.  Often called the Crown of the continent.  Maybe.  I've been here twice before and it is beautiful, but I've always come away a bit disappointed.  I think I figured it out today.  Roughly 90% of Glacier is visible ONLY if you hike in.  Some of it would take several DAYS to hike in to.  I'm okay with some hiking, not sure about days though.  That said, I will not hike alone.

Also Lake MacDonald, Glacier National Park, Montana

Glacier is home to a great deal of wildlife.  In particular, bears.  Meeting a black bear would get your heart rate up but they are mostly more afraid of you than you of them.  Meeting a grizzly bear might mean the end of you.  They are huge and unpredictable and at a time of the year when they are busy storing fat for winter and food supplies are beginning to dwindle it is especially dangerous.  I wouldn't mind seeing one from the safety of my truck but on foot, no thank you.

The West side of Glacier must get a great deal of moisture.  There is moss everywhere! The lodgepole pines are so thick most places you could not walk in a straight line through them-the zig zag would be needed!

The Clouds still drifting across the mountains.

I bought some gifts at the shops, and rode the shuttle part of the way up Logan Pass on Going to the Sun Road.  Seems to be a few glitches -and some serious waiting lines to make Logan Pass.

Snowberries

Tomorrow, we're headed to Polebridge and possibly a lake inside the park depending on what the road looks like!  (The weather should hold for at least one more day so pictures!)

Whitefish

This is what the sky has looked like the past several days.

Do not let that tiny bit of blue sky fool you!

It started raining again about 5 minutes later.

We went to Whitefish.

(About 30 minutes from where we are camped.)

It's much bigger than I expected!

Nice little downtown area with cute shops-

You know the ones for the tourists?

Quinn did a fine job walking the streets.

Then waiting in the truck for me.

It was 40 degrees F

I think she can manage that!

They have a lovely dog park there.

Quinn always takes a bit of time to warm up but once she does

she's running all over the place

checking out the other dogs!

We had managed our tour of downtown without rain

but

almost as soon as we hit the dog park

it began to sprinkle.

Then rain lightly.

Then rain harder.

Quinn got wet.

I got to share the truck with Eau de Wet Dog!

The sun did come out about 5pm and we went for walks!

Quinn made friends with an Aussie for a bit of play.

Here's hoping that tomorrow is sunny!

We are getting cabin fever.

The trailer is 23'long and about 9.5 ' wide.

That's 172 square feet before you take out

the bed/couch

the table and benches

the kitchen (such as it is) 

the bunks and the bathroom.

That's leaves about 10 square feet of floor!

Tiny.

Moving Day and SNOW!

It began raining on us while we were out on Sunday and rained for 24 hours, I think.  Not hard rain just steady light rain.  The clouds were quite low-we were "Socked in" as my Mom used to say.  When the rain stopped and the clouds began to lift there was SNOW on the higher peaks.  This morning the highest mountains still had quite a lot of snow which I enjoyed as I drove up I-90.

We moved from Butte to the West side of Glacier National Park and the Kalispell/Whitefish area today.  Started out as a gorgeous sunny day.  Drove on more highways than I can remember but at the southern end I saw one beaver slide after another and lots of haystacks made by beaver slides.  I have no idea why I get so excited about beaver slides!

Also along the way there were two accidents, one quite recent.

One mama bear HBC (Hit by car and killed) with her two cubs looking down from the tree line.  The looky-loos had parked all along and were out taking photos-potential accidents there! (So Sad-I don't know if the cubs are old enough to make it on their own or it some wildlife organization will rescue.)

A cow running-odd that but especially as it was chasing a coyote!

Then it began raining.  And we began the long "Tree tunnel" part of the drive, along lakes etc.  I sure it was gorgeous but again the clouds were so low that I couldn't really see anything.

Long day-I'm beat.  Quinn wants to play and it's raining.

Adventure?

 

The next time I see a sign like this I am totally turning around,

Right there,

Right then!

I had heard about a ghost town near Philipsburg 

I had figured out where Philipsburg is-

It really helps if you are looking for a place anywhere near where it is!

Today, I decided we'd go back and try again.

Saw the sign for Granite

Turned right.

Not too long after that we came to that sign.

Wish I'd listened.

It felt like we drove FOREVER on washed out, 

rocky, narrow, twisty roads

all while praying we didn't meet another car!

Finally, with no end in sight I found a relatively wide spot

and after about 5 times jockeying back and forth

managed to turn around.

Never saw Granite.

Did see this:

Was the view worth it?

NO!

Then Philipsburg was a wash as well as there was no parking to be had.

There was a Santa standing on the street corner though.

In September?

Drove back north to I-90 then east towards Butte.

Stopped off in Deer Lodge

on the off chance the Quilt shop was open on Sunday.

It was!

So I petted some fabric.

Bought a little bit.

Then came back to Butte.

I think I'm getting so used to Montana that I'm not taking it in.

When driving it's sort of

Mountains

Beautiful valley

Stream or river

Cows

Hay

Horses

Repeat, repeat, repeat.

It's all beautiful but I can tell that if you lived here you would become so familiar

with it that you wouldn't even look out the window.

Another Wrong turn adventure!

 Today, we set off to see Anaconda and Philipsburg, MT.  Both on the same circle Butte, Hwy 1 to both and back to Butte.  Simple right?  Nope.  Should have come to Philipsburg first but all of a sudden we were in Anaconda!  Hum, I read signs pretty well and the map showed Philipsburg right on the highway.  Anaconda has some pretty cool old building so camera around my neck and Quinn in hand we started walking and taking pictures.  Quinn found flowers to smell!  She ALWAYS stops to smell flowers-about 10 steps further she stopped to smell geraniums, those she didn't linger over!  A couple of doors away was a quilt shop, and Quinn got to go in-they said she could.  I asked them about Philipsburg and they said I had to turn off to the right to get there.

A collage of building in Anaconda-neat ones!

We drove back up the highway to look for Philipsburg, still didn't find it and finally gave up.  Decided to take the road to Wisdom.  I confused Wisdom's location with that of Wise but I am so glad I did.  I've just about decided that there is no wrong turn in Montana!  Gorgeous mountain valleys, beautiful, clear blue skies-NO SMOKE!   The aspen are turning yellow on the higher slopes of the mountains, the willows and cottonwoods by the streams as well-fall will be here soon.

Came to this wayside for a state recreation area-56,000 acres- and stopped for photos.

This abandoned farm was at that site as well.  Someone once lived in a very pretty place!

We came to a T in the road, to the left Divide, to the right Wisdom.  Showing no wisdom on my part and still having Wise and Wisdom switched in my head (I've actually been to Wisdom before) I turned right.

I was so excited to see this beaver slide and the haystack close by that I pulled off the road for photos.  

(you can see a video of a beaver slide in action here)

There was a wonderful river next to the road, and for the first time I saw no one fishing, no one floating.  I think it must have been private land.

As I kept on traveling I kept seeing more and more beaver slides and more and bigger haystacks.

Then I crossed the river-Big Hole River. (Really all the beaver slides should have been a clue as I've rarely seen them out of the Big Hole.)  At that point I realized that Wisdom was in the Big Hole valley and not on the Wise River (where Wise is-go figure!) And soon realized that I either had to go back the way we'd come or go on to Dillon to pick up the interstate about 60 miles south of Butte.

Really though I drove much further than I expected I love the Big Hole Valley-it's one of my favorite places in Montana.  I also had the best cheeseburger of the trip in Wisdom!