Bigfork

We only stopped in Bigfork as it was on an angled path from Glacier NP toward Jackson. We’re heading to Jackson to meet Ron and Teresa and to take in the once in a century total eclipse. Hoping for a clear sky!

Established in 1911, Bigfork lies where the Swan River flows into Flathead Lake. Flathead Lake is the largest naturally formed lake west of the Mississippi River. As you would imagine there are watercraft everywhere. The lake even had a few other amenities that I found particularly pleasing.

The Woman was hit by a gastro bug, so I took the pooch for a stroll along the Swan River Nature Trail. Originally built in 1914, this road linked the young Bigfork with other communities in the Swan River Valley. In the 40’s, a new higher speed highway was built on the other side of the Swan River and this road was essentially abandoned. It fell into disrepair and became essentially unusable.

In the 90’s, it was cleaned up a bit and became a multiuse trail. Starting just outside downtown Bigfork, it leads walkers and bikers to the start of Swan Lake above the dam. The trail is even open to equestrian use. Along the trail I came upon this memorial tree locals seem to be caring for.

Given the Woman’s condition she holed up in Colectiva most of the day and just did the white trash thing. It seems she was in good company in the campground we stayed at. Just exactly how many RV’s and how many cars and how many handmade structures are on this one site?

Talk to you soon!

Glacier II

The Woman impressed me. I picked a hike of just under 3 miles one way to Ptarmigan Falls. It had a pretty steep grade, gaining 800 feet on the way. I packed a lunch and figured we’d eat at the falls, and then head back.

Well, we got to the falls, and the Woman wanted to continue on to Iceberg Lake. That was another 2 plus miles, making our round trip well over 10. But she had seen some pictures of the lake in the Park brochure and really wanted to go.

So, we slogged our way up, and had our lunch looking out over a lake filled with icebergs. And it’s mid-August! The lake is still filed with icebergs in mid-August – how cool is that (actually, it’s quite cold)! I was impressed by the Woman’s stamina. We walked 10 miles daily in Spain, but didn’t generally climb 800 feet in the process!

The next day I assumed there would be no hiking. I was wrong. Not only did the Woman hike a couple of miles to St. Mary Falls, but she hiked a mile past it to get to Virginia Falls. Again, I am totally impressed by the stamina!

We have managed to bypass all the major forest fires ablaze in Glacier – all around in the West actually. But the Woman is getting totally fed up with the no campfire bans!

Talk to you soon!

Glaciier National Park

We’ve been to Glacier National Park long ago, but only saw the main scenic drive – Going-to-the-Sun Road This time around with our newfound passion for hiking, it is a different experience.

I have to admit that, while pretty majestic, I liked Waterton Lakes National Park more. It has all that Glacier has to offer (minus the glaciers of course) but is in a very compact area. Also, with the quaint servicee based village in the center, Waterton is very compelling. All the trails and attractions are within 10 or 20 minutes of Colectiva. In Glacier, its 3 hours from end to end. However, in Waterton, we nary caught sight of a moose!

While it’s called Glacier National Park for a reason, the present-day Park is a far cry from when it was established. In 1850 the Park boasted 180 glaciers. Today there are only 25. And Park scientists indicate that in a little over 10 years, that number will be zero. I wonder what they might change the name to!

You really can’t reach the glaciers to explore them – all 25 are now just hanging glaciers on very high peaks. We managed to hit all the overlooks to be able to take in the main visible ones. They don’t look much larger than the sections of snow pack still left over from winter. There is really only one difference between a large snowpack and a glacier – glaciers flow. If the ice isn’t thick enough and heavy enough to move, its snowpack. If it moves (flows), it’s a glacier.

I think we hiked to pretty much every waterfall in the Park. The Woman likes her waterfalls a great deal, so they end up being high on the list of possible destinations.

But the Woman might just put waterfalls into a second-place status when it comes to historic and famous trails. We knew that the Continental Divide Trail went through Glacier National Park, and spent our day on the Going-to-the-Sun Road looking for it, but were skunked. Who knew that when we set out to find Red Rock Falls that we would stumble into it. The Woman was ecstatic as we ended up hiking over 5 miles of it.

We didn't plan particularly well. It turns out that the folk in St. Mary Montana, the Eastern entrance into Glacier National Park, are very dedicated to the local native American nations. August 10 - 17 is the Heart Butte Indian Days celebration. In deference to the event, local retailers have voluntarily banned alcohol sales for 4 retail days. Ouch!

We’re glad we paid a return visit here. While we attempt not to hit the same destinations over and over, I really don’t think you can ever get too much Glacier National Park. Even if there were no glaciers left, it would still be totally awesome!

Talk to you soon!

Waterton Lakes National Park

With their 150^th birthday, the Canadian National Park system offered free annual passes to anyone who applied, so we decided to take them up on that. Waterton Lakes is an interesting park. It lies in a valley filled with glacially created lakes, with immense rocky peaks surrounding you in every direction. In the center lies Waterton Townsite, a hub of activity with shops, restaurants and plenty of rooms if you don’t bring your own.

There are thousands of miles of hiking trails in the Park. While we aren’t carrying 25-pound backpacks here, we are pleased that we are at least hitting some of our daily distances we were used to in Spain. The last few days we put on over 10 miles in our various adventures. We had become so out of shape in our idleness while in Minnesota that we weren’t sure how long it would take us to achieve that. Not too long as it turns out.

We witnessed a new record for both the Park and the Park Service. In the summer months in Canada they have Monday national holidays just because. This Monday is what the locals call “August Long Weekend” national holiday. Between that and the free annual passes this year, we witnessed the largest crowds in Waterton Lakes National Park in its entire history. We were heading out of the Park to see a bison herd when we saw the lines of cars waiting to enter – appeared more than a mile long – so we turned around and just stayed in the Park. It turned out that Rangers were at the entrance and had to turn people away who wanted to visit because the roadways and parking areas could not handle the crowds!

Waterfalls were prolific in the Park. We found all the trails to the falls that we could find, and sought out the reward. All in all, I think we managed to hike to 4 different falls, each pretty spectacular on its own, but together was really special!

Deer are everywhere in the Park, roaming the campground sites as well as just nibbling on the lawns in town. Spring must be baby time, because there were lots of Bambi’s running around being carefully protected by their mothers.

We weren’t blessed with any moose, but we did see bears galore. We even saw a bear one morning crossing the car bridge in the campsite that crosses the creek.  We saw mostly black bear, but we also saw one huge brown bear on one of our hikes to Lake Crandell. It just ignored us and foraged among the trees, which was just fine with the Woman.

We got one additional bonus that we thoroughly enjoyed. Unlike Parks in the US, Canadian Parks embrace geocaching. US Parks prohibit the placing of caches, but in Canada, Park Rangers set up their own series of caches and provide a passport to visitors. We managed to find the 5 caches that Park Rangers hid as a special 2017 150-year anniversary hunt. 3 of the 5 caches took us to places we might not have otherwise seen. Each cache had a unique paper punch in it, and when we collected all 5 punches on our passport, we were awarded a wonderful geocoin – bonus!

Talk to you soon!

Havre Montana

Our first time to Havre brought us to several gems. Fort Assinaboine was built near present day Havre in 1879 – 108 brick buildings were built in about 6 months – and for the next 30 years was the largest military installation in the US. After the Civil War and the US Government’s continued encroachment on the lands promised the native nations, the military believed that the various nations that dodged US control by moving back and forth between Montana and Canada would amass and launch a thunderous attack on US forces. Accordingly, this Fort with over 700 soldiers and at least as many civilians, was built and maintained until early in the 1900’s. It was eventually abandoned as it never in its history had a single skirmish with any of the native nations.

Of the 108 original buildings, only about a dozen remain – a noncommissioned officer family duplex, an officer non-family residence, an officer family duplex, the original guard house, the officers club, the brig, and several Calvary stables and related housing. We got what might be the best personal tour of the old fort by Kirt, a local music teacher that conducts tours when school is out. Kirt did his research and told us dozens of stories about the times when the Fort was occupied and drove the economy for this part of the state. He told us how the Buffalo Soldiers occupied the Fort as its importance was winding down, and even got out his banjo and sang us the Buffalo Soldiers song he had found in doing his research.

It’s impossible now to grasp the magnitude of this military installation given that only around 10% of the buildings remain. According to our guide, the parade grounds between the officer and enlisted quarters was over a mile long. As an example of the scale, when the base had to communicate with all its members, they had to run flags up a 50-foot-tall mast near the end of the parade grounds. That mast still exists today.

We learned about underground Havre. In 1904, a massive fire destroyed nearly the entire downtown of Havre Montana. As in our travels to Alaska, the early buildings were all wood construction. The town passed an ordinance that any buildings from that time forward had to be made of brick or stone or concrete to reduce the chance of destruction by fire. Accordingly, it would be many years before any significant buildings in downtown Havre would exist.

Due to local custom, all existing buildings had basements, and most basements survived the fire devastation. So, while the slow process of replacing the downtown was undertaken, most businesses set up in their basement until a permanent alternative was available. We toured barber shops, butchers, saloons, opium dens, and brothels, all connected by underground passageways as the buildings above ground were being constructed. The city operated underground for many years before resurfacing.

Finally, we visited the Wahkpa Chugn Archaeological Site. 1,300 years ago, native Americans harvested buffalo by herding them into a bowl, and then killed them in large numbers using arrows and atlatls. Then the natives would process the buffalo, hides for clothing and shoes, meat for eating, bones for boiling and then skimming the residue to make 

The excavations show the extensive remains of the buffalo bones in layers. As the natives processed massive amounts of buffalo, the sediment would cover the existing base of bones. The next layer would then develop. In addition, the soil would redden as a result of the saturation of buffalo blood into the soil layers.

Apparently, the last inhabitants of this site left in around 1,500 – around the same time as Columbus was flirting with the East Coast. A 14-year-old kid, John Brumley, discovered this site in 1961, and has dedicated his life to excavation and documenting its history. While several hundred “buffalo jump” sites have been discovered in Montana alone, this remains one of the more notable.

Talk to you soon!

Makoshika State Park

We visited part of the Montana Dinosaur Trail in Makoshika State Park. Located in Glendive Montana, the park is a fascinating geological wonder.

Long before the dinosaurs roamed Montana this area was an ocean floor between two tectonic plates that eventually collided to form the North American continent. Because of that, the park is littered with oceanic fossils. Just about every rock you pick up has a scallop shell fossil embedded in it.

As the plates moved together the earth’s crust rose, creating a wet tropical climate where Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus Rex flourished. While most of the fossilized bones are in universities and more prestigious museums, some of the local dinosaur remains are on display in the nice and compelling visitor center.

An ice age descended on this area after the dinosaurs became extinct. Therefore, glacial carving exists, as well as gulleys created by the water from the glaciers as they melted. The effects are multicolored gulch walls and well-balanced cap rocks. While being August and really too hot to hike, we managed to get out early in the morning and get up close and personal with the geology. What a treat!

Talk to you soon!

Back on the road again, again

Having completed much of what was needed to get Robin’s dad’s estate in order, we set out to try to regain our spot in the western US. Other than it was a good distance, I can’t say why we set out for Jamestown North Dakota, but there must have been some destiny involved.

When we got to town, we learned quickly that there would not be stunning attractions – not even a micro-brewery anywhere in the area. We did, however, manage to find the world’s largest buffalo. Built in 1959 by local businessman Elmer Petersen, the buffalo is 26 feet tall, 46 feet long and weighs over 60 tons.

We also learned here about how white buffalo were considered sacred by most native American cultures. Usually albinos, white buffalo are legendary in native cultures, who didn’t know the genetic abnormality that caused their coats to be white, and their eyes to be pink. Outside the National Bison Museum in Jamestown is a small herd of buffalo, and one of them is stone white. In the shadow of the world’s largest buffalo, it was an eerie sight.

So, here’s where the destiny part comes in. It turns out that Robin’s father, James, had an all-time favorite author – Louis L’Amour. Louis L’Amour wrote novels about life in the West, and was once called “the most interesting man alive” by John Wayne. L’Amour was born in Jamestown ND in 1908, and at the time of his death in 1988, all 105 of his works were still in active publication.

We visited the elementary school in Jamestown where the foundation was laid for this prolific writer’s career. Franklin School, built in 1909, was L’Amour’s first school. The school building still exists, but is no longer in use as part of the Jamestown school district.

Near the National Buffalo Museum, we discovered the writers loft where some of L’Amour’s early works had been penned. While his boyhood home no longer stands, we did make our way to the site and found a geocache someone had placed to remind visitors of the history here.

Talk to you soon!