Day 14 – Rain and Snow

There was rain, sleet, wind, and believe it or not, snow at elevations not too much higher than we are.  Certainly not good hiking conditions so we took a road trip.  My brand spankin’ new Garmin GPS went black a day ago.  There’s NO WAY I’m going to rely on Kathy’s map reading skills for the next month and a half so I went in search of a replacement.  Closest town that might fill my need is Kalispell, MT just over the mountain.  Problem is, that road is closed due to the fire so we have to go around Glacier NP.  It’s about a 150 mile trip each way.  Oh well, it’s crappy weather anyway and we’d just sit in the RV all day.  I found a Cabela’s in Kalispell and they had what I needed.  My shopping was complete.

But wait…this town has a quilt shop!  Imagine that.  So after a lunch at a local eatery, Kathy guides me to Glacier Quilts.

Funny how she has an issue directing me to a town, but has no problem finding all the alleys to get to a quilt shop.

It was a big store with lots of stuff.  This is going to take a while.

I noticed some of the wall hangings.  I thought they were real nice.

This one gets my “best of show” for some reason.

Look at this, an Edyta Sitar design!  One of Kathy’s idols.

After I chatted with another husband in the store for maybe 30 minutes and then went and had a telephone chat with my mother for another 20 minutes, Kathy finished shopping and we were on our way back to the east side of Glacier.

It’s partly cloudy and clear over on the west side of the park.

Based on the smoke we had a day ago and the news reports, you’d think the whole park was on fire, but that’s not the case.  While there are some large fires, it’s just a drop in the bucket for the millions of acres here.  We saw lots of greenery.

We passed the west entrance to the park and pulled into the little village there.

We saw that there was an Alberta, Canada travel office there and I need a map to get me through the next leg of the trip.  Got the map and a bunch of advice from the agent there.

Sounds like the smoke and fires in Canada may be even worse than we have here.  Oh well.

We continued on our way through the southern part of the park along US-2.  Everything is still green here too.

It’s a scenic drive and much more wooded than the rugged terrain near where we are camped at St. Mary.  We did pass one small fire, perhaps 10 acres or so on a hillside, and saw a chopper with a water bucket in the air.  Outside of that, we didn’t see any other evidence of fires.

Back on the east side and approaching St. Mary, the weather is completely different.  It’s 20 degrees colder and still raining a little now and then.

Last night’s snow fall is apparent.

Then like magic, the clouds parted and it actually warmed up a degree or two.  The sun on the mountains was beautiful.

After two days of low clouds, rain, drizzle, and smoke haze, this was a welcome sight.

So that was a day.  Not the original plan, but we’re re-equipped and ready for more of the Glacier experience.  Low tonight is forecast at 35°.  No need to get going all that early.  We’ll let it warm up to at least 40°.

Tomorrow is the area called “Many Glacier”.

PS:  These postings are a couple days behind and it isn't likely to improve quite yet.  Internet is spotty at best.  The last two posts occurred beginning about 4:30 am local time.  That's not going to happen very often...I do sleep now and then.  Hope you're enjoying the journey.

Stay tuned.