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Day 12-Montana

We left Helena and drove through the Valley of a Thousand Haystacks, which is the Little Blackfoot Valley. It’s a narrow valley filled with rounded haystacks with lodgepole pine structures near them called beaver slides.  It’s a combination catapult and cage which allows hay to be stacked higher and in the distinctive round shape. It was invented before 1910 and revolutionized haying in Montana by preventing the wind from blowing the hay and cutting stacking time.  So interesting to drive through the valley and see the large stacks.

Fort Owen State Park is a one-acre park in the middle of a private farm that has structures left from the original fort built by Jesuit priests led by Father Pierre Jean DeSmet in 1841 in the Bitterroot Valley. They sold the fort in 1850 to John Owen who turned it into a successful trading post. It’s now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Although small, the buildings and displays are quite interesting and informative and we had fun walking around and reading up on the area.

Our next stop was the Big Hole National Battlefield which is the site of a battle between the US Army and Chief Joseph’s Nez Perce who were fleeing to Canada along what is now preserved as the Nez Perce National Historic Trail.  There is a park with several sites and brochures detailing the auto tour tracing the entire flight.  On Aug 9-10, 1877, troops commanded by Col. John Gibbon surprised an encampment of Nez Perce bands along the Big Hole River.  The dawn attack on the sleeping village resulted in between 60 and 90 men, women, and children being killed by the Army.  The park has tipi poles set up where the encampment was and many individual lodges are marked.  It is a sacred site because so many died there, and it was a very moving experience to walk among the encampment and imagine the troops bearing down on them.

The warriors fought hard for several hours and the soldiers retreated back across the river and up a ridge to a small wooded area where they were under siege and dug shallow entrenchments for defense that can still be seen.

Nez Perce sharpshooters kept them pinned down overnight while their families escaped, and the warriors finally left the field when the families were safely away and other troops were seen to be coming to the rescue. It was interesting to walk the ground and see the way the battle unfolded.

After hiking two separate trails and wandering all over the battlefield, we drove the Pioneer Mountains Scenic Byway, saw an elk herd and stopped at Crystal Park, which is a public mineral-collecting park operated by the U.S. Forest Service.  We had found out about it the day before so we were unprepared for digging, but we found some small quartz crystals just lying on the ground and did some digging with sharp rocks.  It was a fun place and someday we’ll have to go back with trowels and sifters.

Day 11-Montana

After the late night, I was worn out so we took it easy in the morning. Finally got moving and drove to Great Falls where we visited Great Springs State Park which was really cool and so beautiful.

It was a camping site for Native American tribes passing through following buffalo and good for winter camps because the water stays at 54 degrees all year long.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lewis and Clark mentioned the beauty of the springs in their Corps of Discovery notes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over 150 million gallons a day flow from the springs and comes from cracks in the Madison Limestone Formation. The springs bubble up in a crystal clear pool filled with brightly colored plants in lime and kelly green as well as maroon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was so gorgeous that I could have sat there all day in the shade watching and listening to the water. There were fish in the pond and a walkway around it so that you can see into the pool.  

The water spills over in some small falls into one of the shortest rivers in the country.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Roe River is 201 feet in length and flows into the Missouri River, which is the longest river in the country at 2,540 miles. The park also included a fish hatchery with a small visitor center and outside raceways to see trout of different sizes.

We headed south and stopped along the interstate at Tower Rock State Park, which is another Lewis and Clark site. Along Native American trails they were following and at the transition between the plains and their move into the mountains, stands Tower Rock, named by Meriwether Lewis. It’s made of rock fragments blasted skyward from violent volcanic activity then cemented with volcanic ash.  This created a large outcropping one mile long and one-third of a mile wide. We walked the short trail that runs along the base of the rock and parallels the interstate. It got us close to the formation and was interesting but hot to walk. Scott found a bush covered with ants and got a cool photo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We forged on and saw a sign along the road for Gates of the Mountains and decided to check it out because it reminded us of something my mom was describing before we left. We drove down into a valley and saw there’s now a reservoir created by the Missouri River exiting a narrow opening in the high cliffs. Meriwether Lewis on the Corps of Discovery expedition said it looked like a gate and gave it the name which stuck. It was quite an impressive sight and there are boat tours which we need to do on another trip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 10-Montana
We left Cardston and came back to the States; we were welcomed back by the friendly border official. So nice. We headed into the east side of Glacier National Park to explore the Many Glacier area, an area we did not see last summer. The first thing we saw after arriving at Many Glacier was a bighorn sheep trotting down the road.
We purchased tickets for a boat trip to Grinnell Lake, then ate lunch and looked around the fancy hotel there. It’s built like a Swiss chalet. A really large chalet.
We got on the 1:00 boat which crossed Swiftcurrent Lake and deposited us on the opposite shore.

We all disembarked to hike a quarter mile hump between Swiftcurrent Lake and Josephine Lake and heard from hikers going the other way that some grizzlies had been sighted on the trail. Everyone was skeptical and thought they were just fooling with us, and we arrived safely at the lake where we boarded another boat. About halfway across the lake we saw those two grizzlies along the shore and in the water and we were so excited! We got lots of pictures.

Note: this ends our bear sightings for the trip. Total: 5. Three black bears and two grizzlies. Impressive!

We settled back in our seats to finish the trip and at the end of the lake we exited the boat and took off on foot to Grinnell Lake. The trail was easy, wound through forest with streams, and there were lots of bugs.
Even with super bug spray they managed to bite us a couple times. We made it to Grinnell Lake with water draining into it from several small waterfalls and one large, spectacular one. We sat by the shore for quite a while and enjoyed the beauty of the lake and falls. Gorgeous.

On the way back, we took a short side trail to Hidden Falls which was steep, and on the trail we saw fresh droppings that looked suspiciously like bear. Scott consulted a book in a Yellowstone bookstore later and it was! So we narrowly missed being lunch for some hungry bear. Ouch! Hidden Falls were lovely and the trail was by a swinging bridge that warned only one hiker at a time because the bridge couldn’t take a higher load. I tried to walk slow and straight but I still set that thing to swinging.

We took the boats and hike back and the views on the lakes were beautiful. Then we left Many Glacier, drove to the St. Mary entrance and stopped at Sunrift Gorge on the way. The river comes through a very narrow rift in the high rocks then tumbles down some small falls right along the paved path.

As we walked along, we saw the sign for a hiking trail to Baring Falls and since I never see a waterfall sign that doesn’t intrigue me, I prevailed upon Scott and we decided to go for it. It was getting dusk and the trail took us through some pretty tall and dense vegetation so Scott was getting nervous about surprising a bear. He took the lead, clapping and whistling to alert all bears in the vicinity that two defenseless humans were passing through their territory, in case they were interested.
We finally got to the falls and they were well worth the hike although coming out was a constant up grade, and we proceeded out in the same manner described above.
Thanks to Scott’s diligent defensive tactics, we escaped unscathed. Note: Scott lives in a continual conundrum on these hikes-he wants to have a close (medium close) encounter with a bear but he doesn’t want his wife to get eaten. It’s tough. You may have wondered why I am often shown in the photos wearing the day pack. It’s bear protection in case I am attacked from the back. He read this somewhere.

We headed up to Logan Pass, admiring the views along the way, which truly are stunning and spectacular. We were headed up there at sunset because at the beginning of this trip I had read something interesting in an old Sunset magazine I brought along to finally read and recycle. It had some letters to the editor about Glacier and one said there were more animals to see in the parking lot at Logan Pass at sunset than elsewhere. They bring food in a cooler and have dinner and a show. So we decided to check it out. There were only a few cars left and there were bighorn sheep EVERYWHERE. They were all over the parking lot, on the sidewalks, by the visitor center, everywhere.
We walked around and took photos then got in our car to leave and took some close-ups of sheep walking right by our car.

We took some photos of various waterfalls on the way out of the park.


Now began the drive to h*#€. We had not been successful finding accommodations near Glacier, as everything was booked. Scott found a hotel in Shelby which was about 90 miles away. We naively thought this would take us about 90 minutes to get to; oh, the error of our thinking. First, the road from St. Mary to Browning had twists and turns, so that was slow going. To make matters worse, the road was littered with cattle, some of which were actually licking the pavement, so we had to slow even more to avoid creaming our car with a cow. We finally reached the highway to go east to Shelby. We were about halfway across, just outside Cut Bank, Montana, when we pulled up to a portable construction stop light with a sign telling us to stop here on red. The lights were red so we dutifully stopped and waited. And waited. And waited. The portable sign had two red lights on it and after some time, one of them went off while the other remained red. What to do? Go or stay? We wondered if this was a one-way road, but both sides were open and we had been sitting there a LONG time with no cars coming the opposite direction. We waited some more and then the light that had gone out came back on, giving us two red lights again. Another car pulled up behind us and Scott got out in the dark to ask if he was local and knew the situation, but he was from Colorado and was no help. One light turned completely off again, so Scott made an executive decision and we took off on the gravelly, under-construction road. The speed limit said 35 and we still had over 30 miles to go. For the longest time we saw zero cars coming the other direction and were puzzled by this, but then we saw a truck with flashing yellow lights leading a convoy of cars coming toward us. Oops! We were nervous there would be irate troopers after us, but we saw nobody on our side except our Colorado follower and three total convoys coming the other way. It took us about an hour to get across that stretch. We got close to Shelby and I asked Siri for directions to the hotel and she took us off to the fairgrounds, so finally Scott’s phone got us directions to the hotel and we pulled in at 12:30 instead of 11:00 pm, which was already stressing Scott out as being way too late in the first place. Oh my word! Oh, and along the way we saw an alien landing strip of fifty or sixty blinking red lights in the black middle of nowhere. Note: these were actually lights on windmills, but it was a very creepy sight.

Day 8-Canada
We went to the Cardston Temple in the morning and it’s a beautiful building. Then we had some lunch and headed to Waterton while Brian had an all-day rehearsal-the last of the season!
Waterton turned out to be an adventure. We had a map and wanted to hike to Bertha Falls but the map was unclear where the actual trailhead began. Scott tried to ask at a nature association building that turned out to be unattended, so we forged out on our own. Scott says he naively thought the Lakeshore Trail, which Bertha breaks off from, actually laid along the lakeshore, so we started along a paved trail that ran by the lake. It soon ran out at a cove and we were stymied. I sat down declaring I would not walk another foot in the wrong direction because I felt my energy draining quickly. Scott gallantly set off to get the car and bring it to my resting place. Along the way, he asked a passerby and discovered I was actually pretty close to the trailhead but it was up a street. The townsite is businesses in the center, then homes, then campgrounds, then the lake. The Lakeshore Trail goes along the lake but up on the ridge. Oh. So Scott parked the car and we walked a few hundred yards in the other direction to find a small parking lot and the trailheads. Hallelujah!

We started up the trail to Bertha Falls and didn’t get far when we noticed black clouds rolling in and heard thunder. Awesome. We were debating whether to turn back when the rain started and our decision was made for us. We turned around and went back to the car, wet, but not soaked. Then we had to decide what to do next. Scott suggested a drive along Red Rock Canyon road to possibly see some more bears, but they were hiding in the drizzle. We got to the end of the road without spotting any wildlife and decided since the storm had blown through and we were at the canyon, we should just walk the Red Rock Canyon loop trail above the streambed we had hiked previously. It gave a nice view down into the canyon, but the view from down below was definitely better.

Having accomplished that, we got back in the car and headed back out, still hoping to see a bear. We found a ranger standing by the road with binoculars so we pulled over to check it out. It turned out to be a female moose in a pond grazing on water plants along the bottom.

The ranger mentioned that there was a black bear up the road so we moved on to check that out but it had moved over the crest of the hill and was out of sight. Bitterly disappointed, we climbed back into our car to move on. But fate intervened as we got to a pullout and Scott yelled that there was a bear. He slammed on the brakes and jumped out to snap some photos and we got to watch him for a couple minutes before he disappeared. Bear sighting total: 3.
We also saw a beaver swimming to a giant lodge on the river. Plentiful wildlife in Canada. 🙂