It's Thursday and we're STILL in Montana.

We left West Glacier this morning and followed US-2 through the Rockies for the last time.  The first 30 miles were the usual woods and waters.

That gave way to the eastern slopes of the mountains.

Which became the foothills before we arrived at East Glacier.

And then the HOURS of flat land across Montana.

This state is endless...and we've still got another hour or so until we get to North Dakota.  Now there's another place to get excited about.  It's good that all that land exists for agriculture, but man, is it ever a monotonous drive.  The biggest change from mile to mile is the yellow to black stripe in the middle of the road.  Yellow, black, yellow, black, yellow, black...  Oh look!  Another pasture.  You'd think they would at least plant a tree here and there.

So we're headed east now and probably won't have much opportunity at blog posting for a couple days.  Because of the holiday, state parks were our only choice at campsites anywhere east of Duluth so we're park hopping the state parks across Michigan this weekend.  Not that that's a bad thing.  We've just been spoiled by all the amenities of commercial camps on our trip.

I'll do a wrap up of the journey in the next post.

Wednesday at Glacier National Park.

We were real limited in our activity here at Glacier.  The main scenic road through the park is called the “Rising to the Sun Road’.  It has been closed much of the distance…until today.  When we entered the park at 7:00 am this morning the road was still closed.  After our 3 hour hike, we noticed very heavy traffic into the park.  Turns out they opened the rest of the road today at 8:05 am.  It really didn’t matter to us as our vehicle is too large to proceed any further than we did.  Once we found out the road was open, we checked into a tour car going over the route, but that was all booked and the park shuttle buses don’t begin to run until July 1^st.

So we made lemons out of lemonade…or vice versa depending on if you ask me or Kathy and took a little walk in the woods…straight up.

This was very early in the morning and the lighting conditions weren’t the best so the pictures are of varying quality…sorry ‘bout that.  I did my best.

We started out at the Avalanche Campground where Kathy had planned a little half mile hike along the “Trail of the Cedars”.  A stream ran along the path.

Then we came upon a waterfall area in a narrow gorge that was real scenic.

There was also another trail head there that indicated it lead to a lake some 500’ higher in elevation and a couple miles away.  OK, I was game figuring this waterfall had to be a little indicator of what had to be up the trail.  So off we went.

It was heavily wooded and quite dark.  We were by ourselves for the most part and there were bear warning signs everywhere.  Kathy said to make noise so I tripped along singing the “Day-O” tune.  I think others on the trail were probably expecting the Jamaican bobsled team to appear.

Anyway, after two miles of uphill agony, here’s the payoff.

Avalanche Lake.

The shade difference running diagonally across the frame is the sun ray over the mountains to our left.  The three white streaks coming down the mountain sides are waterfalls.  It was stunning and hard to photograph.

Here is a selection of shots I took.  I think a little later in the day might provide better light, but I wasn’t waiting and certainly not up for an afternoon excursion.

Kathy even made it all the way there.  She kept wanting to turn back after about the first mile of the climb, but I wouldn’t allow that.  We were going to get to that lake if it killed me…and that seemed a distinct possibility a time or two.

There was even a rest area on the trail. 

 So with the goal met, we headed back DOWN the trail. 

The lighting was a little better so I snapped a few shots on the way back DOWN the trail.  Do you get the sense I’m elated that we’re hiking DOWN the trail for a change?

We got back to the motor home and headed back down the road toward West Glacier since we couldn’t travel any further into the park in that size vehicle.

We stopped along the road to view the cascade rapids and falls above McDonald Lake.

Then took a couple shots at McDonald Lake.

We left the park and headed south on US-2 to go to a place called Goat Lick.  The campground host said we would see goats there.  The road parallels the Flathead River.

We happened to catch some rafters passing by.

This one has a “she” skipper.

When they get into the heavy rapids, it becomes a group participation event.

Finally, we arrived at Goat Lick.  It’s not particularly scenic.  There’s a train trestle there and the river on the floor of the gorge.

But we did spot a mountain goat.  It was on a ledge a bit off in the distance. 

So that was Glacier for us.  It’s a postcard kind of place.  I’m sure the trip over the mountain through the park is worth the effort but our timing isn’t going to let that happen.  We’ll catch that on the way to Alaska one day…maybe.

Tomorrow we’ll point the Minnie toward the rising sun for the first time in over three weeks.

I think we’re ready for that.

Tuesday…and we’re on the road again.

We left Garrison, MT on wet roads after a rainy night, but clearing skies overhead (yeah, where else would the skies be, eh?)

That’s the first rain, other than a brief afternoon shower in Jackson, that we’ve had in the last three weeks.

We delayed our departure out of Garrison for a couple hours so that we could arrive at our first tourist stop after it opened at the crack of 10:00 am.  Geez, that’s noon on my eastern time zone clock.  Sure hate to get these folks out of bed too early.

But back to the tourist attraction…what else would we drive three weeks and 4,000 miles to go see?

The Deer Country Quilt Shop in Seeley Lake, MT.

My navigator needed some more souvenir cloth to haul around.

I get a kick out of all the shop clerks asking if Kathy wants to be on their mailing list.  Of course, we’re going to be back through here next month or as soon as they finish plowing the snow off the roads.  When they discover we’re travelers, the next comment is always “we sell on-line”. 

So that was today’s highlight.

Continuing north was much like driving in Michigan’s UP. 

Only difference is there was always a mountain ridge along either side of us…

…or on the horizon.

We arrived in West Glacier, MT the middle of the afternoon and will relax in the campsite for the rest of the day.  It’s a real nice campground with a little seclusion for a change.  Time will tell how buggy it gets as the evening progresses.

Tomorrow we’ll go into Glacier National Park and see what we can accomplish.  I’m not expecting too much as parts of the park are still closed due to snow.  We also learned the shuttle system doesn’t begin to run for a few days yet.  Talk about a short season.  

We’ll see what we can from our house on wheels.