East Glacier

Sunday
We packed up and left West Glacier so that we could have a look at the Eat side of the park. As the road through the park was still closed (we have heard that the snow is still more than 20 ft thick at the top, with one area 80ft deep) we could drive round to the south on US 2. This is a very pretty stretch of this road, which also took us across the Continental Divide.
We arrived at our pretty campground in East Glacier before lunch, even though we had stopped for a coffee at a wayside cafe on the way. Just to show you how late summer arrives here, the cafe had only opened for the season on the previous Friday - June 6th.
As we had the rest of the day we decided to make the drive up to Many Glaciers today, so tht we could move on tomorrow, giving us a day in hand for the next part of our trip to Yellowstone.
we had a wonderful drive up 49, past Two Medicine Lake and onto 83, through Johnson and then into Many Glaciers. The views were spectacular and we really enjoyed just sitting looking at the mountains, lakes and waterfalls in this pretty area.
On the way back we stopped at St Mary's, taking a very pleasant meal in the Snowgoose Grill.

The Road to Avalanche

Sally and I took a day trip up into GNP today. The weather looked set fair, though it was chilly in the shade (plenty of that with tress around). The road is still closed further up, but we were able to drive the first 14 miles to Avalanche. The road takes up along MacDonald lake, where we were able to stop and get some nice pics, particularly as the lake was fairly still and I was able to get some interesting reflective pics.
Then on to Avalanche Picnic area, where, surprisingly, we had our picnic lunch, then we walked the Cedar Trail, which is handicap accessible,it was lovely walk among the big Cedar and Hemlock trees, across a small tumbling stream rushing between a narrow gorge.

The road is closed to vehicles beyond the Avalanche Picnic/campground, but you can hike and mike all the way up to Logans Pass on the paved road, so we thought 'What the heck' and took a stroll up the road. The road runs alongside the MacDonald River, which is fast flowing and full of melt water, and enabled us to get up to Cannon Mountain and also see the Garden Wall up close. We found some snow near the road, with it's own little ice cave, with really cold air blowing out of it! Saw a couple of deer, but no bears. We actually walked 3 miles up and 3 miles back. I was knackered and Sally's chair had lost all its green lights, but we really enjoyed walking among these mountains.
On the way back we stopped at the Apgar Village for a well earned meal, Sally had trout and I had steak.
Sorry there are so many pics, but we did enjoy ourselves. No colour enhancement, the sky and water really were that shade of blue.

MacDonald Lake from Agpar Village

Thursday Not much to say about this, just wonderful views of mountains

National Route 2

We have been on Route 2 for most of the way since Leavenworth and will stay on it until we come out the other side of Glacier National Park. Though it is mostly a single lane highway it is an excellent road, mostly quiet and very dramatic in many places.

This is one of those great American Highways (not designated as one though), like Route 1 (all the way up the East Coast), Route 101 (all the way up the West Coast), and Route 66 (Chicago to Los Angles), This road crosses the country practically from coast to coast, hugging the Canadian Border and actually crossing into Canada in the East. It starts in Everett, just north of Seattle and finishes in  Boston and Halifax, Nova Scotia. Along the way it runs alongside many beautiful rivers and mountain ranges. The Skokomish River and the Wenatchee river take it across the Northern Cascades and  it then follows the Columbia River across the Washington Scablands, after briefly crossing the Spokane River in Spokane it follows the Pend Orriele River of Northern Idaho, then the Kutenai River through the Bitteroot Mountains into Western Montana. It is the most accessible crossing of the mountains of Glacier Park. On the plains of Montana it runs alongside the Milk River for 185 miles, before briefly following the Missouri River. Skirting the shores of Lake Superior and Lake Michigan. It strangely disappears at Lake Huron to become Route 23, and Route 20, which hug the shores of Lakes Huron and Erie. Which takes you to Buffalo and Niagara Falls, before it reappears at Albany, where it can be traced East to Boston, where it starts/finishes on Commonwealth Avenue, a distance of around 3300 miles across the USA.

It also re-appears further North, at the confluence of the New York, Vermont and Canadian borders in the North, where it then winds through northern New England before crossing into Canada at Houton, Maine, it then runs East to Nova Scotia where it meets the Atlantic Ocean at Halifax, a distance of 4071 miles. I am sure that it would make a fascinating road trip, however we will not be doing it at this time. Once we cross Glacier Park we head South for Helena and Yellowstone Park,

Logan SP to Fish Creek MPS

Wednesday
We managed a good start from Logan SP, thankful that we were able to get an electric hookup and then clean out the tanks ready for our four night trip into Glacier National Park, without hook up.
We had a pleasant drive to Kalispell, where we loaded up with supplies and petrol before having a great meal at Bojangles Diner - a fifties style diner, great fun, good food at a reasonable price.
Now we could see the mountains of Glacier National Park (GNP) completely filling the skyline to the East.
We arrived and once again we had a pleasant site in the forest next to a beautiful lake, were able to set up easily before taking a short walk to the lake. Nice and quiet, looking forward to a couple of days relaxing and looking at the mountains of GNP.

Libby and Montana

Tuesday

This morning we moved on Eastward and about 5 miles down the road we lost an hour of time as we passed into Montana and the Mountain Time Zone, Land of the Horse Whisperer,  bigger mountains, faster rivers, bigger lakes and lots of trees. We turned north from route 200 onto the Bull Creek road (Route 56) and drove through some awesome countryside. The 56 feeds us back into Route 2, which is now following the course of the Kootenai River, never heard of it? Neither had we until now, but it is bigger/faster/wider than any river in UK, with a number of dams which make a whole string of lakes along it.

The first town we came to on Route 2  in Montana was Libby. Libby was the Montana equivelant of Erin Brockovitch, but without Julia Roberts. The town had a massive legal fight with a mining company over their exploitation of the towns people in mining asbestos in the 70’s. Not just those working there but the whole town was affected by asbestos. It took more than 20 years to settle the case, in the meantime the company was forced to remove and replace all the contaminated topsoil in the town. We stopped there for a coffee and chatted to one of the locals, a dear sweet lady of about 70 who wanted to have a revolution and shoot every politician, in particular Obama , and sweep Sarah Palin to power at the next election.

We have now arrived at Logan State Park, another pretty ca­mpground, set in a forest, next to another beautiful lake.

So since Sunday we have really been motoring, three campgrounds in three days and towed our trailer more than three hundred miles.

Old style Drug Store and Idaho

Monday

We stopped on the border of Washington and Idaho at a place called Newton, lumber and railhead are it’s history. We happened on a drug store which had been owned by the same family for four generations, complete with the original ice cream parlor bar and stools, installed in 1915, so we had to have an ice cream Sundae,  a ‘grizzly’,  a two scooper. Mmm nice.

Across the river was Idaho, land of the potato (though we haven’t seen any growing), big mountains, fast rivers, big lakes and lots of trees. The northern part of the state is quite narrow, called the Pan handle. We followed the course of the Pend Oreille river for a while. Never heard of it? Neither had we, but 400 miles from the sea it is still bigger/faster/wider than any British river. It has been dammed in a number of places to provide a number of huge lakes as well as HEP. We stayed for another one nighter in Sam Owens Park, a Forestry Campground, now run by American Land and Liesure (?). It was very pretty, in a pine forest, on the side of the lake, got some good pics of an Osprey and some average ones of a heron.

Whirlwind strikes Spokane!

Monday

Leaving Spring Canyon we traveled across more Scabland. Fairly flat, straight roads general agriculture, nothing fancy. Stopped for coffee at a town I think is called Wilbur at a Cowboy Café, full of thirties artifacts, whether original or bought in we couldn’t work out. A small place, but full, where as I walked in the door I felt that everyone stopped what they were doing and turned and stared. If there had been a piano there it would have stopped I am sure. Still the staff were pleasant and we had a nice drink before moving on.

We pulled into Spokane, The Alderwood Resort, rated 9.5 by Good Sam, rated 0 by us. The sites were 8ft wide, our trailer is 10ft wide with the slide out, so it was very tight, we had to  alk through the next door site to get in our door. Still I did see some Waxwings,  which is a new bird to me. I didn’t get a really good shot of one as the damn things keep moving! 

This was a one night stop and we had lots of jobs to do. Sally had her hair done, I shopped at Safeways, filled up with petrol, Sally did the washing and she cut my hair I found the post office and picked up mail and we had time to eat out at the Golden Corral before leaving for our next one nighter. (that was the whirlwind bit).

The Grand Coulee Dam Plus

Thursday, Friday and Saturday
Spring Canyon is a National Reclamation Service campground, it has no hookups, but is a beautiful site, next to the Roosevelt Lake, from there you can see across the lake to the Grand Coulee Dam. Having driven across the Scablands (like our moorlands) we started to appreciate the scale of the Grand Coulee Project. The dam holds back water for Lake Roosevelt which is 151 miles long, that is like a lake that stetches from London to Sheffield! It is actually four times the size of the Hoover Dam across the Colorado near Las Vegas. It just reinforces to us how big the Columbia River Basin is.
We stayed on Spring Canyon Camground for three nights and really enjoyed just relaxing in the sunshine, even more when we were only paying $5 a night for the site. It was sunny and getting warmer by the day however there is plenty of pleasant shade and we stayed cool. We have seen lots of different birds here: Orioles, King Bird, California Quail and the inevitable Robin.
On Friday evening we took a ride to Steamboat SP, not really expecting much, but were once more staggered by the variety and scale of the scenery. Steamboat Rock is an island in another reservoir. This lake is only 25 miles long, but is bounded by a huge cliff face about 600 ft high and running the whole length of the lake. We only drove down about 5 miles of it, before turning back in time to watch the Laser Display which is projected onto the face of the Grand Coulee Dam, depicting the story of the dam and its surroundings.
 

Farewell The Cascades

Friday

On Wednesday we took a day trip up into the mountains from Leavenworth to the Wentachee Lake. The drive up the Route 20 gorge was very beautiful, but the lake itself was a trifle disappointing, if only because there is so little access to it as it is very built up. We may have been better to have driven to Stevens Pass for the day, but it seemed a bit far.

Yesterday we packed up and moved on, we followed the Columbia River North and East, within 10 miles of Leavenworth, as we dropped down out of the mountains, we were once again in desert, even though the road is right on the river bank. We took the 97 Alternate, which is on the West Bank. Lake Chelan was an unexpected find, a beautiful, almost Italian style lake in the middles of the desert. This natural glacial lake is 55 miles long and very pretty. We stopped for a coffee at a small, but expensive, bakery in Chelan. Lots of orchards and grapes here, supported by the Columbia River waters. 

We stopped at Chief Joseph Dam for a picnic lunch. Here we crossed the Columbia and the road to Coulee Dam cut across what they called wastelands , a rocky upland that had been stripped of its soil by glaciation. Very similar to our moorlands, but with sagebrush rather than heater. High, lots of bare volcanic rock, all the little delves filled with marshes and grasses. The view of the Grand Coulee Dam and the Roosevelt Lake as we came down from the high plain was quite exceptional. We stopped at Crown Point to admire the view. Here were amazed at the profusion of meadow flowers. We also met some very nice people from Auburn in California, which is where Sally bought her Mother Of The Bride Dress last year, as well as an equally nice couple from Boise, who immediately offered to make us welcome when we arrive there in July, which was very nice of them.

We then moved on to find our campground, it is a National Forest Service Campground, no hookup, so we were a bit nervous about what we would find. What we found was a beautiful site with a view of the lake, where we are surrounded by trees, from which there is a constant sound of birds. There are many orioles, though they are tricky to get good pics of. We plan to stay here for three nights, hoping to relax and enjoy the sunshine before we move on to Spokane and the Glacier National Park.