Monday - Sept. 19 - On to Yellowstone National Park.

This was a travel day. We took an alternate route back and stopped in
at Helena, the Capitol.It is a quaint, little city. Easy to drive
around with minimal traffic. The Capitol area is perched high on a
hill with great views below. We headed south east from there between
mountain ranges and through some of the most beautiful golden
grasslands interspersed by rivers and creeks. After a while, we could
discern various ranches with their enormous alfalfa grasslands are
harvested and bundled into giant wheels of hay and used on the ranches
to feed cattle and horses or loaded onto flatbeds for shipping and
sale. The other prominent feature was the railroad that traversed
every imaginable terrain and obstacle. We bypassed Bozeman and headed
to Gardiner, Montana, which is the northern entrance to Yellowstone
and checked in at the motel. The Gray Wolf Motel, where we stayed that night, had the obligatory mounted
trophy heads of elk and antelope. People really like to hunt game in
this part of the country. Even the receptionist bragged about bagging
an elk using a bow and arrow.

We went into town for dinner at a Rose's, which is on the road just
around the corner to the entrance to Yellowstone and we could see the
famous arch that is entrance to the Park from our table. Teddy
Roosevelt gave a speech right at that very arch in 1903 dedicating
Yellowstone as the first National Park. Engraved at the top of the
arch are the words from part of his speech - "For the benefit and
enjoyment of the people," which is the title of this blog.

My Artsy Shot of The Yellowstone Arch

Famous Roosevelt Arch Entrance to Yellowstone

Montana Capitol Building

Heading To Helena

Rainbow over Glacier NP on a Blustery Day

Sunday - Sept. 18 - Second Day at Glacier NP

The next morning, we headed back through Glacier Park to stay at the
lodge at the south end on a big glacier lake. The weather had taken a
turn for the worse and it was windy, foggy, rainy, and cold. We braved
one hike to water falls and gorge. We were now dressed for the
weather. Only one hike was pretty brutal where we were a couple
hundred feet above a lake and heading directly into the gusty, wind
driven rain. It was nice getting back into the heated car after that
and heading back over Going To the Sun Road. The trip along the
highway was even more fascinating going through bad weather. You could
see the dark clouds, winds, and fog roll iin almost at eye level and
the heavens open up. Made me feel like Zeus or Thor. We passed Logan
Pass and the winds really picked up and blew a cold wipping fog
across the valley through a pine forest. I felt sorry for those
pines. They looked huddled together and leaned into the cold, wet,
blustery wind like the Imperial Penguins in Antartica.

We made it to the lodge at the south end and spent some quality time
in front of the big fireplace. See pic.

Warm Toasty Fire

Cold Misty Waterfall

Big Pools Compared To Two People In Red

Bevy of the Tour Buses

Lake McDonald Lodge

Lake McDonald

Cold but Invigorating

2nd Day at Glacier NP

Saturday - Sept. 17- On to Glacier National Park

We got on the road around 9:00 a.m. which is good timing for us and
entered the Park at the south west entrance at West Glacier. We had
made reservations that night at the Park inn at the northeast side
near Many Glacier. So we spent the morning hiking through some 500
year old cedar and hemlock forests that looked like middle earth. We
then went on to drive the world famous Going To The Sun Road. 50
miles of a spectacular road where major portions are built into the
side of mountains at death defying elevations. The drive was alot of
fun with many turnoffs for picture taking with many mountain peaks
above 10,000 feet. So many breathtaking scenes. I felt like a kid in
a candy shop. My camera was the gum ball machine and each snap of the
shutter revealed another kind of sweet. Each picture and scene
outdoing the previous.

By afternoon the winds picked up strongly and we stopped at the
visitor center, roughly midway, at Logan Pass which is on the
intercontinental divide at elevation 6,800 ft. We froze our butts
(mid 40's with wind gusts to 40 mph) just walking from the parking lot
to the building. The relief map there shows one mountain that has
three sides with one side draining to Pacific, one to Atlantic, and
one to Gulf of Mexico.

After that we headed out of the park on the east side and re-entered
further North to get to the Many Glacier area. We had a cabin waiting
for us near Swift Current Lake! not more than 10 miles from the
Canamiles province of Alberta. We checked in and then went for our
first real hike where with some steep climbs up to a waterfall. We
were in the heart of grizzly country. The signs on the trail tell it
all. See pic.

We were pooped after that and went back to the lodge. In the parking
lot, a park ranger had a telescope pointing to grizzlies and mountain
goats up the side of the mountain behind the lodge. Very cool. The
grizzly was big and plump, getting ready for winter. Unfortunately the
boat/hike to Many Glacier ended a week earlier so we had to forego
seeing that glacier.

Wicked Weather

Slate

Crystal Clear Water

Can't Forget The Wildflowers

Grizzly. - Didn't Want To Get Any Closer

Here's The Closeup Shot of the Falls

Lucy and I Hiked Through Rough Terrain in Bear Country For this Pic

Many Glacier Lodge

Another Mountain

Topographic Map of Glacier NP

One of Many Waterfalls in Glacier

I Carried Good Sized Rocks Just In Case

Whitetail

Jackson Glacier

Mountain Peak

Tour Bus On The Go

Restored Park Tour Buses

Heaven's Peak, 9000 ft on a Very Raw Day

Cool Tunnel

Going To Sun Sun Road - Glacier NP

Macdonald Falls

Moose Carcass, Only Indians Allowed to hunt for Subsistence

Flathead Lake, Near Kalispell, MN, on the ay to Glacier NP

Friday - Sept. 16 - Drive to Hungry Horse, Montana.

After standard motel continental breakfast, we packed up the Durango
(with Axim and Navi, sweet). Lucy pulled out a climbing clip to secure
the keys to by belt loop so I wouldn't lose the keys in the middle of
nowhere Montana.

We headed out through Big Sky country. It was about a 6 hour drive to
our next motel just outside Glacier National Park. The weather was
noticeably different than in Florida. 60's and dry air. Quite a relief
from hot, dripping humidity we are used to.

When we punched in Glacier NP into the navigation console, Jeannie our
digital navigator directed us to take the shortest route thru Helena.
We nixed that because a friend suggested we take a more western route
to travel on the west side of Flathead Lake. That turned out to be
great suggestion. We made stops at Montana State University in
Bozeman and University of Montana in Mezoulla. We took in a natural
history museum which reminded us that we were in dinosaur country (see
pic) and that this part of the country was under the ocean before
that, the reason for much sedimentary rock visible in the mountains
that were raised by tectonic plate action.

We drove northwest on the interstate and then due north heading toward
Kalispell. The ride was pretty with huge grass prairies turned golden
as fall sets in with beatiful mountains in the background. Many were
treeless which made them look like camel backs.

Most scenic was the gateway to Flathead Lake where you rise up over
a hill and then suddenly the lake appears with mountain vista on both
sides. The lake is 30 miles by 15 miles and 300 feet deep. The lake
just went on and on with various forks and fingers and beautiful
scenes around every turn. We then headed further north thru Kalispell
which is a cute little city for dinner. Then on to Hungry Horse where
we arrived about 8:00 pm.

Temperature was in the low forties by then. It's a small little one
light town, whose only fame is it's proximity to the Park. The best
thing about the town was that after 10:00 pm. the entire town goes to
sleep. We didn't here one car sound all night and we slept like bugs
in a rug; not used to such peace and quiet, it was almost too quiet.

Thursday - Sept. 15 Travel Day to Bozeman, Montana.

Sorry for the delay in posting but we were off the grid for themlast
few days in Northern Montana.

Took us 14 hours to fly from West Palm, Florida to N.Y. to MInneapolis
to Bozeman, Montana. Arrived at 2:00 a.m in the morning. We were
very tired and I thought I was hullucinating from exhaustion when I
saw a tyrannasuasus head in the airport. See pic. We mustered our
last bit of energy to pick up the rental. Luckily the motel was only
10 minutes from the airport and we collapsed into bed.