Montana

Daily Mileage= 320; Trip Total= 6648
Today we drove from Idaho into Montana, more specifically into Glacier National Park. We drove quite awhile through and over at least three mountain ranges and of course the road took you through beautiful places. When we entered Montana, there always seemed to be a rather wide river running through some fantastic mountain scene. It’s the way we always thought Montana should look. We saw several bald eagles’ nests along the way. How cool is that?

When we finally got to the park it was late afternoon. In the first half hour after we entered the park, we saw a beautiful blue clear glacier lake, surrounded by mountains that still had snow on them, glaciers and a bald eagle sitting on the top of tree right by the side of the road! Is this heaven, or what? How could the trip get any better? It was magnificent.

Now, we must admit that some folks, namely our friends the Lesczynski’s, have told us that Glacier is beyond comparison in beauty, and they may be correct. We have been travelling for a month today, and we are in beauty overload! Each place, (especially the National Parks), is more than/at least as beautiful as the one we’ve just seen. It has become too intense in some terms. We are no longer comparing them to each other; that is almost impossible. However, the awestruck feeling we have as we see each one is just overwhelming at times. How can we say that the magnificence of Zion’s canyon is better or worse than the sunset at Bryce or the ocean spray on sea stacks of the Washington Peninsula or the image of Mt. Rainer floating over the horizon? We can’t. And, I guess we don’t really have to do so. We just soak it in and it becomes a part of us forever. I think that is what our government, with all its faults and attributes, has given us. The opportunity to experience the wonderment of our natural beauty while preserving these “wonders of the US, and maybe the world” for prosperity. Thank God they have done something so right!Our recommendation is to just pick one of these gardens of Eden and go see it. We think they are at least as good, if not better, than the places we’ve seen around the world!

OK so now back to the regular travelogue. We had a long ride with a few stops and saw some fantastic sights on the way to our “motel” in the park. We are right on Lake McDonald although we don’t have a view from our front door. The lodge was built back in the early 1930’s. It’s quite charming, lot’s of wood, comfy places to sit, a huge fireplace and the appropriate animal heads strategically hung. We had a delightful dinner of all of those animals as well. We tried elk, bison and venison sausage, duck and trout. So now we are officially outdoors men(?), although thank God we don’t have to hunt these things we’ve eaten!

We then had to try some of the micro brews from the area. The one that I tried for all of you micro brew aficionados was, Moose Drool (Rich kept ordering the Moose “Snot” so that the in the end the bartender was even calling it that). I explained to Rich that snot comes from a nose and drool comes from a mouth and to a moose that might matter. I don’t think Rich got it (after all that chardonnay he was drinking). Anyway, it was actually pretty good. It’s like a Guinness only not as heavy (which is OK for me). I also tried the Grizzly Pale Ale, which was also very good. Thus far, Montana gets an A+ on the micro brews.

Of course while we were sitting around drinking all of this stuff, we met several people who were nice, interesting and gave us a bunch of local information (including our waiter and bartender). See it does pay to talk to the locals. The only thing Rich began to freak out about (me to a lesser degree), was when one guy told us he didn’t believe the glaciers formed the lake we were looking at but rather he believed the bible’s version of creation. It was time to go to sleep anyway. Here's our sunset for you to share.


Once again Rich met a friend he had to have a photo with. This is at our local camp/general store. Now you know what we’re dealing with here. Rich is saying, “Are you sh---ing me or what?” Once again I say, “What can I say?”
Good night. Love & Joy, Mare & Rich

By the way we finished a wonderful book entitled, Endurance. It’s a historic novel written from the diaries of men who actually took an expedition to Antarctica back in the early 1900’s. It was exciting, interesting and astonishing what these men went through as their ship was ice locked, destroyed and they had to fight to stay alive for over two years! I don’t know where Steven Spielberg is, but this would make a great adventure movie and it’s real! Get Russell Crowe to star in it and you have a hit!