Well, as promised, here is Part II........

I have been a bit delayed on this as we have been having a lot of meetings with our Contractor, the Construction Dept. at the Bank and the Loan  Department.  Anyway we closed on the House today!  In Montana, you close on the house BEFORE it is built, so different for us.  Even though there are a lot of meetings and shopping for carpet, tile, floors of all kinds, plumbing, electrical lighting, the list goes on and on, I do hope to get some more blogs written.  But we are enjoying it the whole process!

Before we get started, here are a couple of photos that Debbie took on our trip to Blacktail Lodge on Sunday afternoon.  What a beautiful drive!  We also went Snowshoeing at Glacier National Park Sunday afternoon/evening and it was awesome!

Monday started out as a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky!  So, we decided to drive across US-2 to the East side of Glacier National Park.  Laurie, as well as Debbie and I, wanted to see the snow-covered mountains that we saw in the Summer when we made trips to Rising Wolf Ranch.  This route takes us between Glacier NP on the North and the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex on the South to Marias Pass and on to the small town of East Glacier Park.  Lewis & Clark came close to finding Marias Pass but were interrupted at each attempt and crossed the Bitterroot Mountains, a very difficult route.  Had they found the Marias Pass, I think it would have shortened their expedition and made it much easier as Marias Pass is the lowest pass on the Continental Divide at just 5,213 feet.   Marias Pass was not recorded until the Surveyor for the Great Northern Railroad, John Frank Stevens, found the Pass in 1889, over 80 years after the Lewis & Clark expedition.

Upon arriving at Marias Pass, we found the scenery totally awesome, Little Dog Mountain, at 8610 feet, is directly across US-2 from Marias Pass and Summit Mountain, at 8770 feet, is just North of the Pass.  These Mountains top out at about 3,400 feet above where we are standing.  Elk Mountain is just Southwest of Little Dog Mt.

We talk about 'if you go anywhere in NW Montana, you take US-2' the ONLY road East - West this area is US-2 through Marias Pass.  The closest road to go East - West from the Plains of Montana to Idaho, is Montana 200, which is over 100 miles South of Marias Pass.

Little Dog Mt center and Summit Mt right

Elk Mountain

Skeleton Mountain is much lower and does not show up on most maps.  It is the ridge between Summit Mountain and Calf Robe Mountain, but to us it is Awesome as this is the view coming out of the driveway that leads back to Rising Wolf Ranch.  The straight line along the upper part of the ridge is the Lewis Thrust Fault.  If you are interested in Geology, you might click on this link and read more about it.  Keep in mind, much of the study of Geology is based on theories, so keep an open mind about how and when Geological  Events happened.  But Geology is a very interesting science for me!

Skeleton Mountain

Calf Robe Mountain

The ridge between Red Crow Mt and Bearhead Mt.

Calf Robe Mountain is just North of Skeleton Mountain.  It looks very different in Winter compared to Summer.  Just to compare the difference in Summer and Winter, here is a photo from this area looking Southwest to Summit Mountain.  Little Dog Mt is left, Summit Mt just right of center and Skeleton Mt is at the far right.

We continued on to East Glacier Park and Debbie took a few photos of the East Glacier Park Lodge covered in snow.  It is closed for the Winter, but if you visit this area in the Summer months, this is a Must See place!

East Glacier Park Lodge with the Peak of Dancing Lady Mountain behind it

Just on the outskirts of East Glacier Park the Mountains are awesome.  This is a photo of Dancing Lady Mountain.  The 'Old Squaw' shows up well in the snow.  It is a huge column of Argillite Rock that looks like a person from a distance, but it is more than 100 feet high.

Dancing Lady Mt 

Dancing Lady Mt, Bearhead Mt and Scenic Point Mt

Calf Robe Mt and Dancing Lady Mt

Next was Lunch at a small restaurant in East Glacier Park.  The town only has a few businesses and thankfully the restaurant was open.  After lunch we headed back on US-2 toward West Glacier.  To show some of the equipment they use here for snow removal we added this photo.

They use large road graders with blades and huge front loaders besides their normal snow trucks.  It does not take them long to clear a lot of roads here being they are out at the 'first flake' and have a lot of equipment.

Notice the snow cap!  Ready for an avalanche?

Going down through Marias Pass this is looking up toward Snowslip Mountain and Running Rabbit Mountain.  We are too close to the Mountains to see the Peaks.  Continuing on our way toward West Glacier we stopped at the Goat Lick.  At different times of the year, the Mountain Goats come down here from the high cliffs of the Mountains in Glacier NP and the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex to these almost vertical cliffs to lick the salts that seep from the cracks and crevices.  The section to the right, now with a huge amount of snow piled at the bottom out into the Middle Fork of the Flathead River is sometimes covered with Goats.  There may be two or three dozen or more at one time seen on this cliff.

Since I have waited so long to get this one together, I am going to end it here and do a Part III.  Don't hold your breath, but I should have it in place in a few days, so check back!

Thank you for reading these.  I hope you have enjoyed them.  Joe

P.S.  Debbie has not had time to 'edit' this blog, so blame me for any goofs, you may find several.

Well, we had our First Guest from Indiana here for a few days, AND we survived!!!  AND so did our Guest!!!  Laurie, our guest from Cloverdale, Indiana, and a Great Friend, had been to Montana with us on Photography trips that we hosted at Rising Wolf Ranch on the East side of Glacier National Park. Those trips were in late August and early September so she had only seen Glacier National Park in the Summer and wanted to see it in the Winter.  I don't think she was at all disappointed as you will see from the look on her face in the following photos.
My 'excuse' for writing this Blog is to let our friends know what to expect when coming out for a visit.  We are excited for our friends and family to visit us.  We hope this inspires you to think about visiting us in the future.  We hope our house is built and we will be in it by the end of July.  So, make plans!

We picked Laurie up at the Glacier International Airport, (it is a bit smaller than Kennedy International in New York), and headed over to see our lot as they have cleared some trees and poured the footing.  We stopped at the Night Owl restaurant in Columbia Falls for lunch.

Not much to look at, but it IS exciting to us.  As it was well into the evening, we headed over to Glacier for Laurie to get a glimpse of the Snow Covered Mountains!  We did not photograph much, as the weather was overcast and it was getting late, so we just stopped at a neat little stream coming out of the mountains and running under the road.

These places are beautiful to us.  Notice the snow thrown up on the large Western Cedar to the right from the snow plows.  Laurie and Debbie were talking as I interrupted them for a snapshot.

With them becoming occupied taking some snapshots of this stream, I started across the road to see where the stream went from there and somehow my feet were suddenly UP! not down where they should be!  Of course this almost never happens to me!!!  Fortunately, I was able to 'right' myself before they could quit laughing and get their cameras pointed toward me!

One of the things Laurie wanted to try was 'Snowshoeing', so Saturday morning we headed up to Lone Pine State Park to give it a try.  Debbie and I have our own Snowshoes now as we enjoy it so much, but Laurie had not been on Snowshoes and she rented a pair at the Nature Center. We walked several trails and enjoyed the Overlooks of the Flathead Valley.

You can see the whole Flathead Valley from these overlooks, from Flathead Lake by Big Fork to Columbia Falls (the twin smoke stacks in the distant right) and Whitefish (distant left).  The snow-covered trees give you the feeling you are walking through a Christmas Card.

And we had to stop for photos!

Debbie and Laurie at Lone Pine

Laurie inspecting woodpeckers summer homes

Debbie and some old man?

We had a great 'late' lunch at Sykes downtown Kalispell and spent the evening watching the Olympics.
Sunday we headed up to Blacktail Mountain Lodge as it was overcast in Kalispell and we thought we might get above the clouds up on the Mountain.  The scenery was awesome as we went up to the Lodge. Starting up the Mountain and at the top were both overcast but we found some sunshine about three quarters of the way up.

A few of the trees had 'hats' on!

At the top we again had overcast but the scenery was spectacular.

We just could not help ourselves, we took lots of photos.  Debbie and Laurie posed for a few snapshots.  Have you noticed the Smiles!!!

I thought I would put this one in just so you could see the 'road conditions' up here on the Mountain.  It was a tiny bit slick but we were too busy to notice as the scenery was breathtaking.

To keep from making these too long, as few will get to this point anyway, I am writing another Blog for Monday and Tuesday.  We had two beautiful days and took lots of photos, so don't miss the next Blog which I will have up in the next couple of days................  Stay tuned for part II..........

When the Sun came up this morning, Debbie noticed the Sky was clear!  I had not had my third cup of coffee yet, so I was not noticing anything!  On overcast days we work on stuff around here, Sunny Days we wander! Too bad in the Winter we have a lot of Overcast days........  We prefer the word Overcast instead of Cloudy.  Cloudy sounds 'thick', 'soupy', 'foggy', etc.  Overcast sounds like maybe something overhead, like a 'sunshade', 'roof', 'umbrella', etc.  Not nearly as bad as Cloudy........   Sometimes in the Winter out here we use the abbreviation CCF for Sunny Days.  (CCF is short for Catastrophic Cloud Failure)  But Overcast days just makes us appreciate the CCF days more!

One of our hardest decisions to make, in our 'state' of wandering, is 'What Direction'?   This can lead to HUGE arguments! (Not!)  Debbie says:  "How about West"?  I say: "How far"?  Debbie says: "I don't know".  I say:  "Ashley Lake is out West of Kalispell."  Debbie says:  "OK".  These arguments get intense!  I had to sit down and rest after that one!

Ashley Lake is a beautiful Lake in the Mountains about 12 miles west of Kalispell.  All the roads across the Flathead Valley are clear of snow and ice until you get up to about 4,000 feet elevation (Kalispell is right at 3,000 feet).  Then they are snow covered....or  I should say ICE covered, and a bit slick but with studded tires there is no real concern.   We headed West out of Batavia on Batavia Lane which becomes Ashley Lake Road and goes over the mountains and down to Ashley Lake which is about 4 miles long and 1/2 mile wide.  Not a large lake out here, but a Lake surrounded by mountains is beautiful.  Quite a few people have homes on the lake but many are only Summer homes.  Unlike the larger lakes like Flathead Lake and Lake McDonald, it freezes over and is a stark white level plain.

Ashley Lake

We left Ashley Lake heading South toward US-2.  We're still are on Ashley Lake Road... as there are many Ashley Lake Roads.  Ashley Lake North, Ashley Lake South, Ashley Lake West and Lower Ashley Lake.....   We noticed that out here in Montana they often do not put the name of the road you are ON on the road signs.  The sign post only has the name of the cross road on it. Hmmm!  Maybe these Montanans know which road they are on.  But how do they expect 'new-bee's' to know what road they are on, much less the Flatland Tourists!  Anyway as long as we were on Ashley Lake Road we figured we would eventually get to US-2.  And just before getting to US-2 we noticed many sets of tracks in the snow crossing the road and going up the hill on our left. Deer tracks!  Those things are everywhere!  We saw several before getting to US-2 just standing in the edge of the woods along the road, I could have sworn one of them thumbed their nose at me!  (probably would have if they had thumbs)

Three of the many we saw along this road

So, getting to US-2, we noticed it was 10 minutes after 12.  We are LATE for Lunch!!!  Debbie had not even noticed, but I had! We headed to Downtown Kalispell and had a great lunch a Sykes.

After lunch we decided to go East on US-2 to East Glacier Park just for the Drive.  Another Huge argument! This one, not as bad as the first, lasted only 4-5 seconds.  Debbie said: "Want to go to East Glacier"?  I said: "Yes".  I did not even have to sit down and rest!  We went East out of Kalispell through Evergreen on Montana 35 and turned left on Montana 206.  Our lot we purchased last April is just 10 miles North on 206, just two miles before getting to Columbia Falls.  This is what it looks like at the 206 and 35 junction and it looks like that all the way to our lot. 

 When we came out to Glacier National Park in past years, we rented an old ranch, Rising Wolf Ranch, on the East side of Glacier NP and thought we would drive by and photograph the Mountains across the road that leads to Rising Wolf Ranch.  Very different in Winter..........

Skeleton Mt (right) Little Dog and Summit Mts (left)

Skeleton Mountain

Calf Robe Mountain on the right

This is what it looks like in the Summer!

Little Dog Mt (left) Summit Mt (center) and Skeleton Mt (right)

Summit (far Left) Skeleton Mt (center) and Calf Robe Mt (right)

Calf Robe Mountain

We drove on up to East Glacier Park and reminisced about the past and enjoyed seeing the small town of East Glacier Park again.  Heading back on US-2 (notice if you go anywhere out here, it is on US-2) we could not even see Calf Robe, Skeleton, and Elk Mountains because of a snow squall that was covering the Mountains.  The weather changes so fast out here, we had only gone 8 miles to East Glacier Park and back, less than 30 minutes and it looked totally different!

Heading on West of Maria's Pass, we noticed a Deer on a small island in a stream along the road.  I quickly turned around and went back up past it and turned around again as the Deer was on the right side of the road and I hoped that Debbie could get a couple of snapshots before they fled.  They had no intention of doing the 'flee' thing, that word was not even in their vocabulary!  No one was coming down the Mountain behind us, so I stopped in the road and was able to get out of the car and get a few snapshots while Debbie was snapping a few from inside the car.  We got several snapshots before, in disgust, they turned up their tails and left........  Deer are soooo insensitive!

Goofy Deer playing in the stream

Turn tail and run!

Stopping in to West Glacier, we went to a bridge that crossed McDonald creek on the Polebridge road and checked for Ducks.  There were several Goldeneye Ducks on the creek and we got a few snapshots.  Some shots show their 'footprints' in the water as they 'run' across the water to get airborne.   It was late and the light was too low to set up our tripods and get some good photographs of the Ducks.  We will wait a little closer to Spring to get serious about that.

Goldeneye ducks running to take off

While in Glacier National Park we just could not resist stopping by McDonald Lake for a shot or two of the Lake near Sunset.  We found a young couple out on the dock enjoying the view.

Young Couple enjoying the view

And as it gets a little later the Mountains light up with a golden glow!  The Mountains across Lake McDonald are a kaleidoscope of color from first light in the morning to last light in the evening.

Last light on the Mountains

Another great day in Montana!  Even if it was a little 'overcast' as we returned home, we did not even notice.  Of course, Debbie was asleep on the passenger side!

Well, another ER run on Sunday......NOT to worry!  Seems like we only have health problems on Sunday, as through the years, we have been making runs to the ER on that day.  Finger squished in the Log Splitter, Eye problems, Broken Arm, Gallbladder problems, etc. always on Sunday. I’ve been thinking, (I have been known to do this ’Thinking’ thing!), do you think we could just skip Sundays? If we find a Church that has services on Saturdays, maybe we could just leap into Monday. Since we don’t have to go outside the home to work, we have six Saturdays and a Sunday in our week. So we don’t know what day it is, anyway. So how would we know if it is the Last Saturday in the week in order to skip Sunday?  We don’t even know tomorrow will be Monday until we are already into Sunday..... And Monday is just another Saturday......... Soooooo much to ponder...... My brain is tired and I have barely started writing this Blog. 

The ER run this last week was due to Debbie having the worst headache ever in her life (and this time it was NOT me) and nothing made it go away!  Follow up on that later.

All things considered, we are Really enjoying Montana! We did another Snowshoe trip in Glacier National Park a few days ago and made it back to the car without incident. I never thought that ‘uneventful’ would be good, however age seems to change many things. The snow covered Mountains are breathtaking and we just can’t wait to hike in them again!

Debbie walking in a Christmas Card !

As we were taking off our Snowshoes, we noticed the Sun beginning to turn the snow on top of Mt. Brown a beautiful warm golden color.  From the parking lot at Lake McDonald Lodge we zoomed in on the top of Mt. Brown.  The Small bump on top is the Mt. Brown Fire Lookout Tower.  The Lookout Tower is 4,260 feet above us, but the trail to get to it is 5 miles up, up and up.  Gaining 4,260 feet in 5 miles is one of the most strenuous hikes in Glacier National Park.  Hmmmmm..... Maybe that is why we have never done that trail!  The entire trail is up, not a flat spot to rest anywhere, but those that have made it to the Lookout claim it is one of the most beautiful spots in Glacier NP.  (p.s. the Mt. Brown Peak is still 1000 feet above the Lookout) 

On our way out of the Park after Snowshoeing, we just could not help stopping at Apgar to snap a couple of photos of the Mountains across Lake McDonald.  They are awesome as they glow in the late evening sunshine.

We did get a good snow here after Christmas, but had no trouble getting around. Over a few days, we probably got a little over a foot. They have the equipment to take care of the roads here, so getting around is not a problem. It is just different as they blade the snow off to the sides and into the center. This makes ‘one way’ streets around town, so to speak. These photos are showing the snow in the center of the street.

Most of the snow comes straight down and there is little drifting. Although we get about twice as much snow here as in Indiana, it usually comes down an inch or two at a time. The schools got a Snowday when we got the big snow storm, and it was considered a rarity. That almost never happens.  The temperature has been in the low 30’s and almost all the roads are now clear.

We are just a few minutes from downtown Kalispell and the Post Office.  Albertson’s grocery and UPS are just a couple of blocks from us.  Shopping at Kalispell’s north end, which has been built over the last few years,  has a Cabela's, Lowe's, Home Depot, Bed Bath and Beyond, Walmart, Appleby's, Famous Dave's, Costco, and many more stores is only a little over one mile from us.  We also have a nice mall downtown Kalispell.  So everything we need is easy and convenient to get to.  

 Missoula is the closest ‘Large City’ near us. (I use the term ‘Large’ loosely).  Missoula's population is just over 72,300 and Kalispell's population is just over 22,700).  We have been asked by several 'how big is Columbia Falls?' The population of Columbia Falls is about 5,200 compared to Danville, Indiana with a population of over 9,600.  So, for those of you that like me, that are a bit mathematically challenged,  Columbia Falls is about one half as large as Danville, Indiana.  Easy!

Last Saturday we went to Missoula for the day to pick up a tool chest so I could get some of my tools unpacked and also visit some of the furniture stores there. There are several nice furniture stores in Missoula and they deliver to Columbia Falls.   The drive there is beautiful as we usually go down one side of Flathead Lake and come back up the other. The scenery is awesome. It is about 120 miles to Missoula and takes us about two and a half hours, but we don’t mind as the scenery on entire trip is breathtaking.  The images below Debbie just used her phone to shoot out the windows as I was driving.

A highlight of this trip was seeing a Snowy Owl perched on the roof of a house on our way home.  Debbie snapped this photo with her cell phone and if you just had this photo to go by, you would not know it was a Snowy Owl, but we could see it well in our binoculars.