After leaving Mt Rainier we spent a night in Spokane. There are some charming historical buildings in their downtown. This is the Review Tower that was built in 1891.
We saw these large steam pipes and were curious about them. We learned that until the '90s they had been used to heat 200 downtown buildings.
Now the Steam Plant has been turned into a brewery with the same name. After having draft beers there, we bought a growler to take with us. It was a deal at $13 for a half gallon.
Leaving Washington we drove east about four hours to get to a tiny town in Montana called Hot Springs. We walked to the main street and had dinner at Fergies.
We stayed in a rustic but charming little resort with sulphur hot springs water piped into our room. We took turns soaking in an old fashioned bathtub like this, and the water felt great!
We rode our tandem along the Clark Fork River, which was pretty and had very little traffic.
Along the road we noticed bird houses about every 300 feet.
We didn't want to leave this cute little town with its relaxing hot water, but we had camping reservations in Glacier National Park waiting for us.
Glacier became a national park in 1910, thanks to the untiring efforts of George Bird Grinnell. A committed naturalist, he would later establish the Audubon Society. About Glacier, Grinnell coined the phrase "The Crown of the Continent". One of the remaining glaciers is named for him.
We found the geology in Glacier fascinating. The Rocky Mountains were created by overthrust faults when 1.5 billion year old Precambrian Belt rocks were forced over 100 million year old Cretaceous rocks that are significantly softer. Then the glaciers sculpted the mountain peaks into sheer and rugged cliffs with beautiful belts of red and green mudstone interspersed with white sandstone. These are called Grinnell formations, another tribute to George Bird Grinnell.
We all know about global climate change, and Glacier National Park is experiencing it dramatically. Of the 150 glaciers that existed in the 1850s, less than 25 remain, and even these are predicted to be gone by 2020. The park environment is changing radically as the glaciers disappear and it is calling itself a laboratory for understanding climate change.
Our introduction to the park was via the Going to the Sun Road, which is an engineering marvel of a road that winds 60 miles through extreme terrain and offers incredible views.
We were happy to find a local beer named in tribute to this impressive road.
We learned that Canada had protected an area adjacent to Glacier in 1895 by creating Waterton Lakes National Park. In 1932 the two parks were united as the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, an International first. Today aspects of the parks are still jointly managed and the Peace Park includes the longest undefended border between two countries.
There is so much interesting history here. This is a "Red Jammer", a refurbished 1936 convertible touring bus that is an icon of Glacier National Park. The red color of the Jammers is Mountain Ash Berry Red. Apparently actual mountain ash berries grown in the park were sent to a color lab to have this custom color created.
The park's mascot is the mountain goat. We felt fortunate to come upon this fellow lounging on the snow.
While our visit here was too early for berries, we did see lots of berry blossoms like these blooming thimbleberries.
We were alerted that this was prime grizzly and black bear country.
We made noise as we hiked so as not to surprise a bear ahead of us on the trail. We saw evidence on the trails that there were bears around, but thankfully we didn't see any bears.
This bear grass has been chomped. We thought it might have been eaten by bears, but we're not sure.
We camped in the Saint Mary's campground and saw Cedar Waxwing birds in the trees of our campsite. We liked the bird's super hero style eye masks and the "tsee tsee tsee" whistle of their birdsong. We learned that the Cedar Waxwings have a courtship ritual where the male passes an insect to his chosen mate. If she is interested, she passes it back to him. This continues until she eats the insect. In the Fall the birds feast on fermented berries and sometimes become too intoxicated to fly.
Kristina's folks had told us about their trip to Glacier National Park a few years ago, and we got some great ideas from them for our visit. One of their suggestions was a highlight of our trip: a spectacular hike out to Iceberg Lake.
We spent three hours hiking the five miles out to the lake because we stopped so often to enjoy the scenery and plants.
Pete photographed beautiful wildflowers like these forget-me-nots that are officially called blue stickseed.
This is a pointed Mariposa lily.
And this is a Queen's cup.
We don't know the name of this type of butterfly, but we saw lots of them. It's on a mountain arnica flower, which you may recognize as an ointment to heal bruises and muscle strains.
We thought these flowers looked like black-eyed Susans but learned they are Gaillardia and also called blanketflower.
There were lots of Showy Fleabane flowers.
The trail to Iceberg Lake was varied. At times we were crossing over streams on log bridges.
Then we hike over rocks.
Then we hike through small streams and even snow.
As you might expect in such a moist environment, there were plenty of insects, including mosquitoes. Pete is taking advantage of this cool stream to ease the pain from a bite on his hand.
After finishing our hike we relaxed in one of the lodges that was built 100 years ago in a Swiss chalet style.
We were not surprised to learn that in 1995 the park was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its natural beauty.
Another day we hiked in the Two Medicine part of the park.
This is Rockwell Falls and its cooling mist was a welcome relief as we hiked.
We think this thinly layered rock is mudstone.
Our final day in Glacier we decided to take a canoe out on Two Medicine Lake.
It was a lot of fun to paddle around the lake, and our legs were glad for the rest.
We didn't want to leave this beautiful wilderness, and we hope to be able to visit again in another season. But it was time for a night in a real bed, so we went to the Laughing Horse Inn at Swan Lake. We enjoyed dinner here.
This fisherman's stew had octopus, prawns, clams and mussels, and was tasty.
We rode our tandem bike on scenic highway 83 that went alongside the Swan River State Forest.
Then we took a gravel side road that went by Goat Creek.
It was a lovely area, filled with Ponderosa pines with beautiful red bark that can withstand forest fires of lower heat.
The proprietor of the Laughing Horse, Kathleen, has put a lot of care into her place, and the grounds are especially nice.
She has three golden retrievers who are pretty well-behaved and have the run of the place. Kathleen also has a library of useful books about Montana, which is how we figured out the wildflowers, birds and geology of Glacier National Park. What a great adventure we've had!
We saw these large steam pipes and were curious about them. We learned that until the '90s they had been used to heat 200 downtown buildings.
Now the Steam Plant has been turned into a brewery with the same name. After having draft beers there, we bought a growler to take with us. It was a deal at $13 for a half gallon.
Leaving Washington we drove east about four hours to get to a tiny town in Montana called Hot Springs. We walked to the main street and had dinner at Fergies.
We stayed in a rustic but charming little resort with sulphur hot springs water piped into our room. We took turns soaking in an old fashioned bathtub like this, and the water felt great!
We rode our tandem along the Clark Fork River, which was pretty and had very little traffic.
Along the road we noticed bird houses about every 300 feet.
We didn't want to leave this cute little town with its relaxing hot water, but we had camping reservations in Glacier National Park waiting for us.
Glacier became a national park in 1910, thanks to the untiring efforts of George Bird Grinnell. A committed naturalist, he would later establish the Audubon Society. About Glacier, Grinnell coined the phrase "The Crown of the Continent". One of the remaining glaciers is named for him.
We found the geology in Glacier fascinating. The Rocky Mountains were created by overthrust faults when 1.5 billion year old Precambrian Belt rocks were forced over 100 million year old Cretaceous rocks that are significantly softer. Then the glaciers sculpted the mountain peaks into sheer and rugged cliffs with beautiful belts of red and green mudstone interspersed with white sandstone. These are called Grinnell formations, another tribute to George Bird Grinnell.
We all know about global climate change, and Glacier National Park is experiencing it dramatically. Of the 150 glaciers that existed in the 1850s, less than 25 remain, and even these are predicted to be gone by 2020. The park environment is changing radically as the glaciers disappear and it is calling itself a laboratory for understanding climate change.
Our introduction to the park was via the Going to the Sun Road, which is an engineering marvel of a road that winds 60 miles through extreme terrain and offers incredible views.
We were happy to find a local beer named in tribute to this impressive road.
We learned that Canada had protected an area adjacent to Glacier in 1895 by creating Waterton Lakes National Park. In 1932 the two parks were united as the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, an International first. Today aspects of the parks are still jointly managed and the Peace Park includes the longest undefended border between two countries.
There is so much interesting history here. This is a "Red Jammer", a refurbished 1936 convertible touring bus that is an icon of Glacier National Park. The red color of the Jammers is Mountain Ash Berry Red. Apparently actual mountain ash berries grown in the park were sent to a color lab to have this custom color created.
The park's mascot is the mountain goat. We felt fortunate to come upon this fellow lounging on the snow.
While our visit here was too early for berries, we did see lots of berry blossoms like these blooming thimbleberries.
We were alerted that this was prime grizzly and black bear country.
We made noise as we hiked so as not to surprise a bear ahead of us on the trail. We saw evidence on the trails that there were bears around, but thankfully we didn't see any bears.
This bear grass has been chomped. We thought it might have been eaten by bears, but we're not sure.
We camped in the Saint Mary's campground and saw Cedar Waxwing birds in the trees of our campsite. We liked the bird's super hero style eye masks and the "tsee tsee tsee" whistle of their birdsong. We learned that the Cedar Waxwings have a courtship ritual where the male passes an insect to his chosen mate. If she is interested, she passes it back to him. This continues until she eats the insect. In the Fall the birds feast on fermented berries and sometimes become too intoxicated to fly.
Kristina's folks had told us about their trip to Glacier National Park a few years ago, and we got some great ideas from them for our visit. One of their suggestions was a highlight of our trip: a spectacular hike out to Iceberg Lake.
We spent three hours hiking the five miles out to the lake because we stopped so often to enjoy the scenery and plants.
Pete photographed beautiful wildflowers like these forget-me-nots that are officially called blue stickseed.
This is a pointed Mariposa lily.
And this is a Queen's cup.
We don't know the name of this type of butterfly, but we saw lots of them. It's on a mountain arnica flower, which you may recognize as an ointment to heal bruises and muscle strains.
We thought these flowers looked like black-eyed Susans but learned they are Gaillardia and also called blanketflower.
There were lots of Showy Fleabane flowers.
The trail to Iceberg Lake was varied. At times we were crossing over streams on log bridges.
Then we hike over rocks.
Then we hike through small streams and even snow.
As you might expect in such a moist environment, there were plenty of insects, including mosquitoes. Pete is taking advantage of this cool stream to ease the pain from a bite on his hand.
After finishing our hike we relaxed in one of the lodges that was built 100 years ago in a Swiss chalet style.
We were not surprised to learn that in 1995 the park was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its natural beauty.
Another day we hiked in the Two Medicine part of the park.
This is Rockwell Falls and its cooling mist was a welcome relief as we hiked.
We think this thinly layered rock is mudstone.
Our final day in Glacier we decided to take a canoe out on Two Medicine Lake.
It was a lot of fun to paddle around the lake, and our legs were glad for the rest.
We didn't want to leave this beautiful wilderness, and we hope to be able to visit again in another season. But it was time for a night in a real bed, so we went to the Laughing Horse Inn at Swan Lake. We enjoyed dinner here.
This fisherman's stew had octopus, prawns, clams and mussels, and was tasty.
We rode our tandem bike on scenic highway 83 that went alongside the Swan River State Forest.
Then we took a gravel side road that went by Goat Creek.
It was a lovely area, filled with Ponderosa pines with beautiful red bark that can withstand forest fires of lower heat.
The proprietor of the Laughing Horse, Kathleen, has put a lot of care into her place, and the grounds are especially nice.
She has three golden retrievers who are pretty well-behaved and have the run of the place. Kathleen also has a library of useful books about Montana, which is how we figured out the wildflowers, birds and geology of Glacier National Park. What a great adventure we've had!
