Down The Road and Around The Corner

We hopped the bikes and tootled four miles along CR 49 then turned west into Two Medicine area of Glacier National Park.  

Our river companion of the day was, of course, the Two Medicine.

It is impossible to look anywhere without seeing something wondrous.

Our lunch goal was the Two Medicine Grill, but we found this little corner of the gift shop.  We found out that there is no town of Two Medicine with a Grill, but that the restaurant of that name is actually in East Glacier Park Village.  This place suited our purpose.  

Two Medicine Lake is two miles long and 1/3 mile wide.  It was created for recreational purposes by damming the river.

View of kayakers below Rising Wolf Mountain.  This is a sacred place for the Blackfeet.  I could find no info as to why it is called Two Medicine.   Perhaps there is another 'sacred medicine' place nearby.  Just guessing.

The river rises in the National Park on the Continental Divide and runs across the Blackfeet Reservation to the Cut Bank River.

Crystal clear, shimmering in the sunlight.

Leola and Brock messing with my view of the scenery.

Duane in a moment of contemplation of 

this mountain.

To work off our Gouda soup (Brock and Leola) and buffalo sausages in flaky croissants (Duane and me),  we needed a hike.  This is actually a nice walk, 1/3 mile long and handicapped accessible, but we decided that it would do.

Running Eagle was quite the woman!

Wildflowers were everywhere.  

There are two falls here.  The lower one drops through the rock into the cave and gushes out from there.

There is a closer view across this footbridge and a short walk to a viewing platform.

We thought we add a little video to this one.

The water flows out of the pool, joins the stream we crossed via the footbridge, and runs on downstream,

keeping us company on our return journey.

What shall we do for fun tomorrow?

Louise and Duane

Kaleidoscope

Kaleidoscope is what the guys called it because that came to mind before Kalispell.  We went there in search of a Cosco and a Walmart.  US 2 took us (in Brock and Leola's truck) from East Glacier Park Village south west and north west around the end of and through part of Glacier National Park, then south west again to the city of Kalispell.  The 160 mile ride took us two hours each way.  Kalispell is the closest city with all of the national big box stores and national chain restaurants.  It is the norm around here for a once-a-month stocking-up trip. We could have shopped closer to home but we wanted to see more of Montana.  The scenery in the Flathead Range and Flathead National Forest was not as spectacular as that in Glacier National Park, but it was just as beautiful.

Our river companion on this trip was the Middle Fork of the Flathead River.  Like the rivers in the National Park, the Flathead is a glacial snow melt river of beautiful turqoise and sea green clear, cold water. 

Kalispell, (pop.20,000) is spread out in an upland valley surrounded by mountains on all sides.  We were able to find our stores without any problem, and even found an rv store for a 50-30 amp adapter.

Beautiful over-sized metal sculptor.

 This could look very good in your yard.  Think about it--it's for sale!

I captured this bored looking mule to comment about how unsafe it is for its head to be out the window.  When I selected the picture I noticed the printing and got curious.  Wikipedia informed me that Skijoring is a winter sport where a person on short skis is pulled by dog or dogs, a horse or by motorized vehicle.  The work is Norwegian meaning ski driving.  When using dogs the person wears a belt with a rope attached to the sled-dog harnessed dog.  The skier carries poles and steers the dog by voice commands.  When using a horse, the skier wears no belt and holds onto a tow rope (similar to a water skier) attached somewhere on the saddle or breaststrap on the horse, which is guided by a rider.  Since 2009 the World Championships have been held in Whitefish, Montana during its Winter Carnival.

Sorry about the color quality.  I was sitting in the back seat shooting out the windshield.  Not all that bad considering.  I wanted to show the luxurious new growth of trees after a burn.

Last view of the Flathead, deep blue in the afternoon sun.

See you tomorrow,

Louise and Duane

Glacier National Park

Warning--there are a lot of pictures of beautiful scenery, but they show only a fraction of the excellence of Glacier National Park.  This one you must see for yourself!

Our route starts in the lower right hand corner of the map.  We took CR 49 through the squiggle, picked up US 89 and entered the park at St. Mary.

Two Medicine Lake

At the Visitors' Center we saw that we would be crossing the Continental Divide,

and about the shrinking glaciers and 

Going-To-The-Sun Road is one of the world's most spectacular highways.  Bisecting the heart of Glacier, the 50-mile-long road follows the shores of the parks two largest lakes and hugs the cliffs below the Continental Divide as it traverses Logan Pass.

St. Mary Lake is a deep glacial lake which filled the bottom of a large glacial valley.  The lake is 9.9 miles long and 300 feet  deep with a surface area of 3,923 acres.

Lunch at Rising Sun picnic area.  We had to sit in the sun away from the lake because a bear was in that vicinity. 

Glacier views

Two of the dozens of glacial melt waterfalls.

Beautiful clear St. Mary River.  Thiose four people in the water just jumped off at rock.  I'll bet they're freezing!

Lake McDonald, shorter than St. Mary.  This lake is 500' deep!

Bird Woman Falls--492 feet from a hanging valley (where a small mountain glacier joined a larger valley glacier).

Weeping Wall

Logan Pass sits on the Continental Divide at 6,646'.  Alpine meadows filled with wildflowers carped the hillsides.


The only wildlife we saw was this Columbian ground squirrel.

Snow skiing in shorts and a Tshirt.

Skiing, sliding, just walking around enjoying the snow in June.

Yes he really threw it.

On both sides of this snow patch were green grass and tons of flowers.  The skiers are to our left.

Leaving Logan Pass, headed back the way we came.

Tame life

The town of East Glacier Park is bisected by the railroad tracks.  This side caters to tourists with lots of eating places and a lodge and lots of cabins.  This is the first place we saw.

To get to the main town we went a bit further east and under the rr tracks.

Other stuff to do tomorrow.

Louise and Duane