Friday, September 12, 2014
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Post 9-6-2014 Glacier National Park
Post 9-6-2014 Glacier National Park
Wow-a-whee!! We are in the Glacier national Park for a few days and are enjoying the absolute beautiful and wondrous glaciers, the forests and the lakes on the Western side of the Park. The Eastern is more open, hills, huge lake (St Mary Lake) and uninteresting. Unfortunately, there are only 25 glaciers remaining and they are too far away from any highway or trail to get to them. We could only drive up the mountain and see them from afar.
Good news: the Antarctic is growing and it makes Al Gore look the stupid ass he really is. But, that means that maybe these will start growing again too.
I think the drive from West Glacier to St. Mary’s on the Eastern side is probably the most scenic and breath taking of the entire park. It’s a two lane highway with a speed of only 35 and 40 the entire length except for dropping to 25 in some areas where congestion is. There was a 20-25 mile stretch of construction that had dirt/gravel road and looked like we were back in Alaska where that was the norm. We had to drive the truck since they don’t allow anything longer than 21 feet to go through the park. We got a campsite in the park in a wooded area and it’s really nice and quiet.
As we approached “Logan’s Pass” we encountered three mountain sheep on a ledge just above the highway. Looked like they were posing for us. And of course, we had our usual ground squirrels running around begging for food at the visitors center.
Tourist a bunch everywhere you look and parking is at a premium or non existent in all the parking lots. It’s like “we got to get there before winter”. Most seemed to be visitors to America and many were bikers, hikers and people genuinely interested in the history of the park.
As mentioned, the drive was just gorgeous. Slow yet extremely scenic. A six percent climb over 5-6 miles to get to the “Logan’s Pass” gave us some really beautiful sights and glaciers to see even though they weren’t very big. I think Jackson’s Glacier was the largest we saw.
The park offers presentations every day for interested persons and especially for the children. There’s an ongoing effort to expose them to as much as possible while they are young. They have a Jr. Ranger program that earns them a certificate and badge and it’s exciting to watch their faces when it’s presented. Of course, seniors can participate too. We have been able to sit in on some interesting presentations on the history of the park as well as about the wildlife.
Tomorrow, we are driving around the park to the Eastern campground for one night and hopefully will visit the “Many Glaciers” section of the park and have
Wow-a-whee!! We are in the Glacier national Park for a few days and are enjoying the absolute beautiful and wondrous glaciers, the forests and the lakes on the Western side of the Park. The Eastern is more open, hills, huge lake (St Mary Lake) and uninteresting. Unfortunately, there are only 25 glaciers remaining and they are too far away from any highway or trail to get to them. We could only drive up the mountain and see them from afar.
Good news: the Antarctic is growing and it makes Al Gore look the stupid ass he really is. But, that means that maybe these will start growing again too.
I think the drive from West Glacier to St. Mary’s on the Eastern side is probably the most scenic and breath taking of the entire park. It’s a two lane highway with a speed of only 35 and 40 the entire length except for dropping to 25 in some areas where congestion is. There was a 20-25 mile stretch of construction that had dirt/gravel road and looked like we were back in Alaska where that was the norm. We had to drive the truck since they don’t allow anything longer than 21 feet to go through the park. We got a campsite in the park in a wooded area and it’s really nice and quiet.
As we approached “Logan’s Pass” we encountered three mountain sheep on a ledge just above the highway. Looked like they were posing for us. And of course, we had our usual ground squirrels running around begging for food at the visitors center.
Tourist a bunch everywhere you look and parking is at a premium or non existent in all the parking lots. It’s like “we got to get there before winter”. Most seemed to be visitors to America and many were bikers, hikers and people genuinely interested in the history of the park.
As mentioned, the drive was just gorgeous. Slow yet extremely scenic. A six percent climb over 5-6 miles to get to the “Logan’s Pass” gave us some really beautiful sights and glaciers to see even though they weren’t very big. I think Jackson’s Glacier was the largest we saw.
The park offers presentations every day for interested persons and especially for the children. There’s an ongoing effort to expose them to as much as possible while they are young. They have a Jr. Ranger program that earns them a certificate and badge and it’s exciting to watch their faces when it’s presented. Of course, seniors can participate too. We have been able to sit in on some interesting presentations on the history of the park as well as about the wildlife.
Tomorrow, we are driving around the park to the Eastern campground for one night and hopefully will visit the “Many Glaciers” section of the park and have
people in river. Brr.
Jamie and me
A motorcycle-wrecked He had made a aluminum cover
Weeping Wall
One of many
Mountain goat or sheep?
Badger
Security guard
Jackson Glacier
Crystal clear water
Weeping Wall.
Weeping Wall--seeps water through rocks
Wet from seeping water
Sunday, September 7, 2014
Post 9-7-2014 Many Glaciers (Glacier Park) & Browning, MT
Post 9-7-2014 Many Glaciers (Glacier Park) & Browning, MT
Leaving West Glacier we drove to Browning, MT and parked the Boomer Bus and drove up to “Many Glaciers’ which is in the Northern Entrance of the Glacier Park and where (supposedly) the majority of the glaciers are located. This area is called “the heart of Glacier Park”
After a 50 mile trip (one way) we were quite disappointed. There are no glaciers to see, except for one or two small ones visible from the main highway. There were some miles away on a hiking path. It was even a 2.5 mile hike to view the lake where moose may be. Too much for us and this park is not handicap accessible so we didn’t even try to do it.
We must say that the West Glacier part of the park is by far the better part. It has forests and more wilderness than the Eastern which is more plains and hills instead. Taking a different route back to Browning, we passed a Bison Ranch with several in the field. A small herd but healthy looking.
Driving through Browning, we observed it to be a classic Blackfeet Indian town. The entire area, hundreds/thousands of square miles, is Blackfeet Nation Reservation. The town is run by the tribal council as is the territory. It was noted that like Alaska, the older the farm houses, the more junk cars and broken down equipment on the property. They don't recycle anything. All in all, we weren't impressed with the town.
Here's a couple good photos:
We had a bad experience in the “Lone Wolf” RV Park at the Northern edge of the town. We parked the bus there and drove up to Many Glaciers. Being Sunday, the office wasn’t open so we left a note on the bus and planned on paying Monday morning. When we returned, an Indian (probably Blackfeet) approached us around 7 PM and introduced himself as Joe, (had “Jordan” on a black T-shirt) claimed to be the night watchman, demanded we pay him or else leave. We paid him and it turned out to be a double payment. After we talked about it, we decided to leave for our safety in case he showed up again in the middle of the night. He did appear to be that type of character. I don’t have my guns with me because of traveling through Canada.
Monday morning I went to the office to report the incident and settle up with them. A meeting was in session with other town/National Park officials and after explaining what happened, I got a response that it apparently has happened before. The owners secretary interrupted the meeting and said to the owner, “we must do something about (his real name)”. THEY KNEW HIM!!!. I got the feeling that “Joe” must be a relative or someone they know very well. The owner said “I’ll take care of it and try to get your money back”
Thinking back, the mannerism of Joe, the “rip off Indian, ” indicated he had done it before. He was smooth and cool about the way he did it. I got the feeling that it will happen again to a camper in the area where we were. And, I got the feeling the owner won’t take any action either. I can see the headlines now: “LONE INDIAN ROBS JESSE JAMES AT THE LONE WOLF RV PARK”.
BOTTOM LINE: I recommend you STAY AWAY FROM LONE WOLF RV PARK. OR, AT THE LEAST BE AWARE OF THIS. I will be reporting this to my website travel evaluation company. There is a very nice RV park just a few miles north on Highway 89 that has a gorgeous scenery and looks to be very nice. And, it’s on you way to St Mary entrance to the park and Many Glaciers entrance.
We spent the night in the parking lot of a Holiday Inn Express Hotel /gambling casino that’s open until wee hours. (Just can’t see giving away money.) We are now on our way to West Yellowstone city located near the West Yellowstone Park entrance.
Leaving West Glacier we drove to Browning, MT and parked the Boomer Bus and drove up to “Many Glaciers’ which is in the Northern Entrance of the Glacier Park and where (supposedly) the majority of the glaciers are located. This area is called “the heart of Glacier Park”
Porsches' on the road
After a 50 mile trip (one way) we were quite disappointed. There are no glaciers to see, except for one or two small ones visible from the main highway. There were some miles away on a hiking path. It was even a 2.5 mile hike to view the lake where moose may be. Too much for us and this park is not handicap accessible so we didn’t even try to do it.
We must say that the West Glacier part of the park is by far the better part. It has forests and more wilderness than the Eastern which is more plains and hills instead. Taking a different route back to Browning, we passed a Bison Ranch with several in the field. A small herd but healthy looking.
Driving through Browning, we observed it to be a classic Blackfeet Indian town. The entire area, hundreds/thousands of square miles, is Blackfeet Nation Reservation. The town is run by the tribal council as is the territory. It was noted that like Alaska, the older the farm houses, the more junk cars and broken down equipment on the property. They don't recycle anything. All in all, we weren't impressed with the town.
Here's a couple good photos:
A business in town
Visitors Center
We had a bad experience in the “Lone Wolf” RV Park at the Northern edge of the town. We parked the bus there and drove up to Many Glaciers. Being Sunday, the office wasn’t open so we left a note on the bus and planned on paying Monday morning. When we returned, an Indian (probably Blackfeet) approached us around 7 PM and introduced himself as Joe, (had “Jordan” on a black T-shirt) claimed to be the night watchman, demanded we pay him or else leave. We paid him and it turned out to be a double payment. After we talked about it, we decided to leave for our safety in case he showed up again in the middle of the night. He did appear to be that type of character. I don’t have my guns with me because of traveling through Canada.
Monday morning I went to the office to report the incident and settle up with them. A meeting was in session with other town/National Park officials and after explaining what happened, I got a response that it apparently has happened before. The owners secretary interrupted the meeting and said to the owner, “we must do something about (his real name)”. THEY KNEW HIM!!!. I got the feeling that “Joe” must be a relative or someone they know very well. The owner said “I’ll take care of it and try to get your money back”
Thinking back, the mannerism of Joe, the “rip off Indian, ” indicated he had done it before. He was smooth and cool about the way he did it. I got the feeling that it will happen again to a camper in the area where we were. And, I got the feeling the owner won’t take any action either. I can see the headlines now: “LONE INDIAN ROBS JESSE JAMES AT THE LONE WOLF RV PARK”.
BOTTOM LINE: I recommend you STAY AWAY FROM LONE WOLF RV PARK. OR, AT THE LEAST BE AWARE OF THIS. I will be reporting this to my website travel evaluation company. There is a very nice RV park just a few miles north on Highway 89 that has a gorgeous scenery and looks to be very nice. And, it’s on you way to St Mary entrance to the park and Many Glaciers entrance.
We spent the night in the parking lot of a Holiday Inn Express Hotel /gambling casino that’s open until wee hours. (Just can’t see giving away money.) We are now on our way to West Yellowstone city located near the West Yellowstone Park entrance.
Thursday, September 4, 2014
Post 9-4-2014 Libby, MT
Post 9-4-2014 Libby, MT
Arriving in Libby, we planned to stay just overnight and continue our journey, but after learning what there is to see here we decided to wait until tomorrow.
Libby is a rather small city with a population of about 3,000. It appears to be a busy place and has several good organizations here such as Lions, Rotary, American Legion and VFW. It’s clean and everyone has been friendly to us. The logo of the city is the Eagle. Everywhere you look, there is a Bronze Eagle mounted on a pedestal much like the dolphins in Norfolk and the Blue Heron in Chesapeake. I saw the Rotary Club Logo on most of the mounts. Would be nice to attend a meeting with them but it was held on Tuesday.
We drove out to Kootenani Falls on the Kootenai River that had a swinging bridge across the river. The falls weren’t very tall , yet they had some rapids with a lot of rocks and were very beautiful. We walked down to them but it was a bit too hilly and rocky to get to the bridge. We did see it from the highway.
There are white crosses mounted along the highway by the state where someone lost their life. We counted over 20 in a 10 mile corridor. The speed limit is 70 on a two lane highway that also has a lot of semi-tractors on it to make it more hazardous. . I feel it is too dangerous to drive that speed and certainly in the BoomerBus. We drive around 55 most of the time.
Later we drove to Ross Creek Giant Cedars, a National Forest that had giant Cedar trees in a rain forest area. They were extremely tall and very huge. As big as the giant sequoias in CA, they were just beautiful.
Nita cooked another of her scrumptious southern meals and we are stuffed. Baked pork chops, corn on the cob, Yam with all the trimmings and cornbread. BOY, was it ever delicious.
Arriving in Libby, we planned to stay just overnight and continue our journey, but after learning what there is to see here we decided to wait until tomorrow.
Libby is a rather small city with a population of about 3,000. It appears to be a busy place and has several good organizations here such as Lions, Rotary, American Legion and VFW. It’s clean and everyone has been friendly to us. The logo of the city is the Eagle. Everywhere you look, there is a Bronze Eagle mounted on a pedestal much like the dolphins in Norfolk and the Blue Heron in Chesapeake. I saw the Rotary Club Logo on most of the mounts. Would be nice to attend a meeting with them but it was held on Tuesday.
We drove out to Kootenani Falls on the Kootenai River that had a swinging bridge across the river. The falls weren’t very tall , yet they had some rapids with a lot of rocks and were very beautiful. We walked down to them but it was a bit too hilly and rocky to get to the bridge. We did see it from the highway.
Not much of a falls
Swinging Bridge.
There are white crosses mounted along the highway by the state where someone lost their life. We counted over 20 in a 10 mile corridor. The speed limit is 70 on a two lane highway that also has a lot of semi-tractors on it to make it more hazardous. . I feel it is too dangerous to drive that speed and certainly in the BoomerBus. We drive around 55 most of the time.
Later we drove to Ross Creek Giant Cedars, a National Forest that had giant Cedar trees in a rain forest area. They were extremely tall and very huge. As big as the giant sequoias in CA, they were just beautiful.
lots of woodpecker holes
Nita cooked another of her scrumptious southern meals and we are stuffed. Baked pork chops, corn on the cob, Yam with all the trimmings and cornbread. BOY, was it ever delicious.
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