The Babbling Brooks

Oh my, that's cute!

 

I just noticed when I was looking through my photos that this guy has a perfect heart on his nose! Love it!

Glacier Park...the east side!

 

In September we finally got over to the east side of Glacier National Park. We hadn't been there since 1993 when we went to Glacier on our vacation. Even though it was July it was cold and rainy and, as John says, we only saw the bottom half of the park cause all the peaks were in the clouds. We did go to Swiftcurrent Lake on that trip so that Brad, Chris, and my nephew, Ryan who was with us could fish. This time was much different. It was cold at night with warm sunny days. We camped at the Swiftcurrent campground and did a little hiking and exploring around the lake.

                                

We were lucky to see a lot of wildlife this time! Mama Bear and her two cubs greeted us just before we got to the park entrance. That evening we saw a moose by the lake. He was pretty elusive as I tried to get a photo and it didn't help that the park rangers kept shooing us out of the wildlife corridor that Bullwinkle was in. As we started back down the road the moose was running in the same direction, so I took a chance and tried to get a couple of shots. The next day we saw another bear while driving in the northeast corner of the park and the last day we saw mountain goats at Logan Pass. (oh, and a bee!)

                        

The last day at the park we dropped our travel trailer at the St. Mary Visitors Center and headed up to Logan Pass. (There are road restrictions on Going-To-The-Sun Road that don't allow travel trailers or large vehicles.)

        

We really enjoyed the fall colors throughout the park and were glad we found the time to make the trip to the east side before they closed the park for the winter!    

Trevor and Grandpa...

had some fun of their own. Here's the pics! (The boating and horseback riding were in Glacier Park. I had to stay in town that day to pick up my photography from the fair at the appointed time.)

        

Catchin' Up!.....Glacier National Park

I have so much to catch up on over the last 5 or 6 weeks! I'm starting here with Glacier Park and I'll be adding posts as fast as I can...stay tuned! We've visited Glacier Park three times this summer. Our last visit was July 8th...the day we left for southern Utah for Shayla and Roger's wedding reception and to pick up Legend for a summer visit. Yes, it was a long day. We left early to make the detour through the park, They'd just opened the Going-To-The-Sun Road two days earlier. It was a beautiful sunny day and Mother Nature was really showing us her stuff. There were record snowfalls last winter and the waterfalls were gushing down the mountain sides. Here's a peek at what we saw...

     

The Going-To-The-Sun road is being repaired and there can be 30 minute delays to get through the construction area. There's our little Beetle waiting patiently to get through. That day we drove to Orem, Utah (instead of Idaho Falls or Pocatello (like we usually do) so that I could visit the new Archiver's scrapbook store at the University Mall the next morning. We got to our hotel and finally fell into bed after midnight, but it was a great day and we didn't have to get up early the next day.

Next...the wedding reception and our visit in St. George...

More Glacier Park...

as promised...here's a few more glimpses of our latest trip to Glacier Park. I can see that we'll be spending a lot of days here and loving it. We had a wonderful visit with Elaine, our former coworker and dear friend, and this trip was part of her week with us. John suggested we take the morning boat tour of Lake McDonald. It was a good choice as the water was calm. Later in the day the breeze had picked up and the reflections were gone. After the boat ride we had lunch at the Lake McDonald lodge, one of the old historic lodges in the park. The road still was only open to Avalanche Creek (they'd had another 2 feet of snow up at Logan Pass on the 10th of June). We parked there and took a walk through the woods on the path along the creek. If you're coming to visit with us, be sure to include a day at Glacier on your wish list!

Sisters Visit!

My sisters were here for their first visit to Mountain Dreams last week!We could have used a little better weather, but we were lucky to get some sun breaks during our adventures. We spent Friday visiting Glacier National Park. The Going-To-The-Sun road was only open as far as Avalanche, but that's far enough to enjoy some great mountain and lake views. When we first arrived at McDonald Lake we could see it was raining on the opposite side. As we got out of the car and walked to the shore we saw lightning strike the shore and the east end. Although the sky and water were very gray, it was gorgeous. I was able to get a photo of the lake and some brightly colored rental boats. It'll make a great subject for our painting classes...John, get out your gray scale!We headed north towards Polebridge first, one of the less traveled roads in the park. We stopped at a small parking area and were treated to a great view of the mountain peaks, then headed back towards Apgar and on up to Avalanche. WE ended the day back in Eureka. Corki requested that we eat dinner in town, so we had a great meal at Jax By Night (Cafe Jax morphs into Jax By Night 4 nights per week).

 

There was more rain on Saturday and we stuck closer to home. We went to visit Deep Creek Quilts and the Antler Gift Emporium (formerly The Antler Inn...Corki was sorry to learn the restaurant was gone, it was a great place for dinner!) Afterward, we came home and Corki baked a raisin pie for me! Yum, it's one of my favorites that our Mom use to make and I am not a good pie maker. I leave that duty to Corki. They started home Sunday morning, carefully watching for wildlife on the road. It wasn't until they reached North Bend, WA that they saw a black bear crossing the road. Go figure!