GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK

September 7th to 10th, 2009

Leaving Hungry Horse, MT we headed south.  We drove along the east side Flathead Lake and the Flathead Indian reservation.

 

 

We spent one night at the 2 Bar Lazy H RV park in Butte,MT on our way to Rexburg Idaho. It was just a place to spend the night.   We had decided to stay in Rexburg and drive the 90 miles to the Teton's  to avoid taking the RV's over the road there and back again.

The RV park at Rexburg was on a small lake and very pleasant.  We were able to walk the 1 mile around it.

                          

The town of Rexburg was a busy place,  with confusing street numberings but it did have our favorite landmark .....Dairy Queen.

                                 

The drive to the Teton's was a pretty one, over Teton Pass at 8,429 feet with a steep 10% grade.  At the summit you look down onto Jackson Hole. The town of Jackson is there.    

                               

                                   

                                                                The wildflowers were blooming....

We liked the entrance to the park in Jackson, WY.  There were four and each was made out of hundreds of ELK antlers.

                                                          

The Elk weren't in the nearby National Elk Refuge when we were there but we did stop at The National Museum of Wildlife Art where there were bronze statues of some.  It was a very nice display both outdoors and in.

                                 

                                         

                                       There was even a display of wildlife paintings and drawings.

                                     

An interesting thing about the Grand Teton National Park is their lack of  foothills.  Earthquakes caused them to rise as the valley floor dropped.

                                                     

                We finally saw the moose we had been watching for .  There were 3 in among some trees.

                         

                                We enjoyed the scenery on the 33mile drive through the Tetons.

                           

                              We saw several glaciers including the Teton Glacier below.

                                                                                 

                               The  Greg Thomas Discovery and Visitor center had nice displays.

                                        

                                                                                 

                                

                           Across the road from the lodge we took a short hike down to the water.

                                

             Jenny Lake was beautiful.                                             We went down to the water.

                                

                                 

                On our back to the RV Park we took another look at the Elk antlers at the city park in Jackson.

                                               

             Before leaving the park we picked up some willow branches for Ron & Bernice to carve into chains.

                                    

             Time to head for Salt Lake City.

 

                                                

                                        

GLACIER NATIONAL PARK

September 4th to 6th, 2009

It was late when we left Spokane so we spent the night at a rest area in Idaho about 25 miles away.

                                 

There was a nice hiking/biking trail that  ran behind the rest area.  We took a short walk when we arrived and I biked a ways in the morning.                                                  The views as we continued were great.

                               

We were 4 days late arriving at the Canyon RV Campground near Hungry Horse, MT where we met friends Ron and Anita Adamson.  Hungry Horse is a small town just 10 miles from Glacier National Park.  It got it's name when two freight horses wandered away from their sleigh in the winter of 1900 -1901 and weren't found until a month later in belly deep snow nearly starved to death.  They had to be fed and cared for before recovering enough to be led back to safety.    A mountain, lake, creek and later a Dam were also named after them.   Steve and Patty Porter whom we know from Yuma, work as camp hosts there.  It was a pretty park.

                               

Steve is a square dance caller and Patty is a round dance cuer in Yuma.  when we arrived there were enough for a square so we were gently eased into dancing....we hadn't danced since we left Yuma in April.

                                

                                  

                                 

 

The plan was to visit Glacier and than some other National Parks on our way to Yuma, AZ.  We spend the winter at Cactus Gardens RV Park in the Foothills there.  Because of our delay in Spokane getting the radiator and changing weather we spent only one day in Glacier.... driving the 50 miles, Going To The Sun road through the Park.  It was a beautiful drive even though the weather was not as bright as we would have liked.  The weather looked to be heading downhill so we decided we would just do the one day before heading south.

                                                  

WATERTON - GLACIER International Peace Park World Heritage Site started out as Waterton Lakes National Park established in Alberta, Canada in 1895 and Glacier in Montana, U.S.A. in 1910.  In 1932 the two parks became the world's first International Peace Park.  This area of the Rocky Mountain West has been and is sacred to the Blackfeet, Salish, and Kootenai peoples.  We should all  be grateful  for the foresight of those who had a part in preserving this area for us to enjoy today.  I praise God for his awesome creation!

 

                                    

We stopped at the Visitor Center to check out our the information there.  The topography map was helpful.

An interesting feature in the Park is Triple Divide Peak.  Rain falling  less than 6 inches apart on the summit will end up in either the Columbia, the Mississippi, or the Saskatchewan Rivers.

                                                     

 

The road takes you past lakeside forests, alpine meadows with glacier views and than to the prairie. Spectacular is the best word to describe this 51 mile drive.  We drove West to East and had quite a bit of fog.

                                       

                                    

                              We stopped to walk....... and take pictures....... and look at the smaller beauty.....

                                    

                       There were tunnels and construction  and even a number of bicycle riders on the steep road.

                        

                                        

                             Logan's Pass had a nice visitor center.  There were a lot of other visitors there.

                                      

                             Marmots welcomed us....some from a distance and others  close up.       

                                                      

                                                        Wild flowers added color......

 

                    

              Two minutes after this picture was taken the fog rolled in so we gave up our plans to take a walk.

                                   

                                                  

                                                   At Many Glaciers we find an artist at work.........

 

                                                     

                                             Less than 30 of the original 150 glaciers are left.

                                                   

                                There were many creeks and falls throughout the drive........

                                    

                                 

                                    

Because the fog continued we decided to return by way of Highway 2 around the south edge of the Park.  At  East Glacier we stopped for a look at Glacier Lodge built in 1913 and containing 60 Douglas Fir columns 40 feet tall and 36" to 42" in diameter.  It was really something worth seeing.

                                    

                                    

                                   There were some cute things to see at the East Entrance.

                                                         

 

At Marias Pass we stopped to view Memorial Square .... where Theodore Roosevelt is honored on land donated by William H. "Slippery Bill" Morrison a mountain man also honored as well as John S. Stevens railroad engineer who planned the route over Marias Pass for Great Northern Railroad.

                                                  

 

Back at West Glacier entrance we finished the day off with ice cream treats.   We were all reasonable with our treats except for Hoyt.     He had a  Huckleberry Mud Pie, intended to be shared.  He managed the WHOLE thing on his own!

                            

                              

                                                            A good, and tasty  way to end a great day!