Craters of the Moon National Park

        Isn't this a beautiful National Park?  Don't you just want to climb up that magnificent black hill?

                                                    That's Roy coming down the path.

                               Roberta checking out the natural beauty of Craters of the Moon.

 

The fearsome four.  Ron, Judy, Carol & Roy.  They went for a cave (really a lava tube) tour but when Judy saw the uneven entrance she dropped out rather than place her new hips at risk.
The 800 acre park was formed about 15,000 years when volcano(s) erupted here and lava flowed.  When the eruptions stopped the lava hardened and formed this National Park.  I imagine that when it was named decades ago man had not yet been to the moon so someone assumes the moon must look like this place. To me, Craters of Hell better describes the area, it is so depressing.  

Off to Idaho!

It was only 197 miles to Arco, ID but it was the most challenging to date mountain tow for our new F350 and boy is that a great truck!  It started with a 7 mile 6% uphill grade with some switchbacks. No problem, we cruised up at 40 and 50 mph and even after a 20 mph switchback we accelerated back up to 40 effortlessly.  The pass was only 6000 feet and going down was just as easy.  Shift into M (manual) and select 3rd gear and we coasted down at 30 mph.  Judy took a downhill picture of the road on the GPS.  The second pass was over 7000 fett and a piece of cake.

    

                                               This is probably someones dream home!

Judy and I both were wondering where the road went, looked like it disappeared into a mountain.  It was niffy, a narrow path between tall cliffs.

                                         Taking a break to stretch our legs on top of a pass.

                                                                The road ahead.

               We stopped at some of the Idaho roadside historical markers and found this one interesting.

We arrived early in the afternoon and the other 3 came in an hour latter, they always stop for lunch which we usually don't.  Here's home for the next 2 days.  The campground also has a small restaurant so we all had a very good BBQ rib dinner.  Judy and I agree that today was probably the most impressive sightseeing day we have had since we started.  The pictures do not do it justice.

Big Hole National Battlefield

It must have been a cold night, our water line was froze this morning with ice cycles on the spigot. We had water in our fresh water tank so I just opened a valve and turned on the pump so we could shower.  Rather than rush to visit the battlefield after we arrived in Sula we decided to stay a second day and have more time to relax and visit the battlefield on Friday.  It was a 25 mile drive to the national park. But first we all had a hearty breakfast at the campgrounds restaurant.

Here's the gang (Carol, Roy, Roberta, Ron, Dee, Mel & Judy) outside the visitor center. 

If you enlarge this picture you can read about the 1877 battle between to Calvary and Nez Perce Indians.  There had been a running battle between the two, the Nez Perce hoped the fighting was over and set up their camp here as they had done for generations.  The Army launched a pre dawn attack on August 9 killing between 60 and 90 Nez Perce men, women & children but suffered 31 killed and 39 wounded when the Indian braves rallied and fought back.

We watched a 20 minute video and the deck behind the visitor center was an excellent vantage point overlooking the entire scene where the army had their cannon snuck up on the Indians camp and the Indians rallied to fight back while the remaining women and children escaped down the valley.  The park is out in a desolate area of southern Montana.

Sula, MT & Big Hole Nat'l Battlefield

We had planned to leave Kalispell, MT on Wednesday but the weather forecast wasn't real good so we all holed up in our HitchHikers Wednesday to wait out the cold rain and wind.

Here's the last look at the Flathead River as we were getting ready to pull out of the campground in Kalispell.  low mist near the ground and low clouds obscuring the mountain tops.

As you can see the day turned out to be real nice for a 200 mile tow to Sula, MT just north of the ID line.

Ron went upstream from the campground to try his luck which wasn't so good, the fish won, he lost.

Dee decided to just walk behind the campground and had better luck, This one was a keeper but as she reached for it it got off the hook.
We arrived early in the afternoon so there was lots of time to relax, fish, soak up some sun and have a campfire.

Glacier National Park

Well, we have been here for 9 days so I guess it's time to take the official tour of Glacier, Judy and the rest of the troops rode the free shuttle bus across the park last week but it doesn't stop to view the park or have an commentary.  We went to the Sinclair Gas Station's cafe with all the rest of our HH friends for lunch first, we ate there last week and I had one of the best BLT's ever so we all went back for more and they were good.  Now that the crowds have decreased and Labor Day is over it's time for the Going To The Sun road trip.

This is Lake McDonald (there are 130 named lakes in the park) and the tour boat, which we did not take,

Here's a picture of the 17 passenger Red Bus at one of the stops.  The buses were built by White in

the late 1930s and restored by Ford in the 1990s.  The drivers are called "jammers" because the buses use to have manual transmissions and you could hear them grinding the gears when they shifted.

A happy happy Judy on the bus.

The canvas top is rolled back so you can stand up to get a better view or picture when the bus stops 

These pictures were on the way up, the tour took 4 hours, from the visitor center to Logan Pass and back.

Here's a couple pictures of the road, there were pretty steep drops on the outside with very little to stop you from going over.  There was only one short tunnel.

                                                          Your hosts!

                                  And the Going To The Sun road continues to go up.

This little fellow, to me a ground squirrel, is called a Whistle Pig for some reason by the locals.

We saw 4 or 5 mountain goats at Logan Pass (~6200 feet) and they are not afraid of people, many were within a couple hundred feet of them.

We saw one black bear, he popped out of the woods near several people who were at a viewing stop, wonder if they pooped their pants?

On the way back down we stopped at this pool.  The water gets it's color from the stones that are ground to powder by the glaciers as they travel.

And finally, here's one of the 25 remaining glaciers, when Glacier National Park opened in 1910 there were 150 glaciers.

Relaxing in Kalispell

                               This was truck wash (and wax for Roy) day for all of us.

              The following day all the HitchHikers were washed.  Roy then waxed his cap and Mels.

   Roy has so much fun washing and waxing he even eats his BLT sandwich up on the ladder.

                       We even have helicopters landing on a stone island in the Flathead River.

                           Here's the planning committee trying to determine where we go next.