The Hubster and I took a real vacation for the first time in 7 or 8 years. We went to Montana in May, 2016. We quickly discovered that 5 days was not nearly enough time. Montana was the embodiment of Awe. Spring is Montana is beautiful. The weather was either rainy and cool, or snowy and cold, or sunny and cool. Our original plan was to stay overnight in Great Falls, then drive through Glacier National Park (GNP) along the Going-to-the-Sun road. But when we got there, the road was still socked in with snow. So we drove around the south end of the park and up to Whitefish, and visited the west side of GNP.
If you're ever in Whitefish, eat at the
Buffalo Cafe. They make a fabulous burger and serve it with these delicious, slightly spicy roasted carrots instead of fries.
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| Sunset above the clouds on the way in to Great Falls, MT. |
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| Lake MacDonald at Glacier National Park |
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| Middle Fork of the Flathead River at GNP |
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| Lake MacDonald at GNP |
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| Lake MacDonald |
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MacDonald Creek
(in California, we call this a river, but we've forgotten what real water looks like.) |
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| Ferns, everywhere, growing in every little shady spot. |
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| MacDonald Falls |
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| Trail of the Cedars |
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| Trail of the Cedars, water dripping off the rocks. |
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| Trail of the Cedars, the trees are whispering. |
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Granite canyon, Avalanche Creek, at the top of the Trail of the Cedars.
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| The Hubster making Grumpy Cat Face, and Me, on Lake MacDonald. |
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| Avalanche Creek |
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| Avalanche Creek |
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| Avalanche Lake |
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| Avalanche Lake |
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| Deer, on Avalanche Lake trail |
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| Avalanche Lake |
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| Small wonders growing along Avalanche Lake trail. |
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| Glacial run off into Avalanche Lake |
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| Rain on Avalanche Lake, May 2016. |
We spent 2 days in Glacier, which wasn't anything close to enough. But we decided to continue on down Montana to Gardiner, north of Yellowstone. During the drive south it rained most of the day, and a snowstorm hit GNP and closed most of the places pictured above. On the drive south, we pulled off on a few roads to see what we could see.
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| Van Lake, in the pouring rain. |
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| Van Lake, sporting a stunning, and greatly appreciated, lack of human influence. |
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| Van Lake. Easily, one of my favorite spots. |
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| Seely Lake, with Beaver Lodge |
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| Swan Lake? When I was a kid, it was my dream to live on an island like this in the middle of a lake. |
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Heading towards Helena
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| South of Livingston |
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Gardiner, Montana,
from the balcony of our room at the Absaroka Lodge. That's the Yellowstone River in the foreground. |
The drive south took longer than anticipated (due to our frequent stops), so we could only spend one full day in Yellowstone.
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| Our 2016 Nominee for the Darwin Awards. |
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| Mammoth Hot Springs, from above the lower terrace. |
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Orange Spring Mound (a.k.a. King of the Unimaginative Names Spring)
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| Trees killed by geyser runoff. |
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| Rustic Falls along Golden Gate Canyon |
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| Plains below Bunsen Peak, about 6000 ft |
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| Bunsen Peak, 8564 ft |
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| Obsidian Creek |
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| Forgot to Write Down the Name Lake |
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| Bison! There was a lot of them. Mid-day, they would stay well back from the roads, but at night fall, our roads were their roads. |
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| It started snowing above Yellowstone Falls |
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| Lower Yellowstone Falls |
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Grand Canyon of Yellowstone
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| Tree on canyon wall. |
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| Artist's Paint Pots |
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The hills are bleeding.
Different species of algae live in the superheated water and color it. |
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| Fantastic color. |
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| Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble. |
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| Fire burn, and cauldron bubble. Smaller version of the Grand Prismatic Spring, which was closed for construction when we were there. |
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| At the paint pots. |
The next morning, we left Gardiner and drove north through the Lewis and Clark Forest towards Great Falls. It snowed or rained almost all the way north. When we came out of the forest, and descended onto the plains, the clouds parted and the Big Sky unveiled herself to us.
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| East of Great Falls, MT |
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| East of Great Falls, MT |
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| East of Great Falls, MT |
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| Missouri River, in Great Falls, MT |
We took off to head for part 2 of our vacation early the next morning. Five days in Montana was not enough. Not nearly enough. If'n you ever find yourself in Great Falls, stop in at the
Celtic Cowboy. Shepherd's Pie was really good, and a few beers later, I was a happy camper.
