We decided to "do" the Canadian side first. Armed with our passports we drove and drove until we reached the Waterton checkpoint. After being looked over carefully by the RCMP border agents we were cleared to enter Canada. While we didn't have the roads completely to ourselves; again, due to the time of year, the crowds were much smaller.
We turned off onto one small road and followed it and found a rainbow following us! Michael had some great shots of the rainbow. I picked this one to share with you.
In another section of the park we stopped to visit an outhouse that was part of this little picnic area and had a serendipitous (spelling?) find--see the picture below for the little creek that was splashing along. I loved the coloring of the rocks and the clarity of the water. Michael took this photo to document our stop there.
We also went into town, saw the Prince Edward Hotel, found a hat by the lake, ate an ice cream (and were very thankful that they took VISA since we didn't have any Canadian money) and generally enjoyed ourselves.
GLACIER
While Waterton didn't disappoint, Glacier was different from my memories. After doing some driving in the park, we figured out why...Between the time that we'd visited the park (mid 70's) to 2010 there'd been some forest fires that had done tremendous damage to the forests there. Yes, it was still beautiful, but we were saddened to see the scarred trees on the horizon and up the slopes of the mountains as we drove through the park.
We traveled the Going to the Sun Road, always beautiful. The construction they were doing on the road made it a bit interesting, not hazardous, just "interesting." There were plenty of people in Glacier-we hit it on a weekend. With time on our hands, we didn't complain. (Neither did this park resident we encountered-see below.)
I may write more on Glacier later. We continued going through Montana on the way home and stopped at Kalispell, which reminded us alot of Spokane. It was settled near the same time, is near a river and has areas of town that are very similar. We found a good Mexican food place to eat that was close to the hotel, took a walk downtown and spent an uneventful night.
ALMOST HOME
Sometimes, the memorable stops are the unplanned ones. We noticed a wayside park for Kalispell Falls and decided to stop there. We hiked (mostly walked-it wasn't THAT kind of a hike)to the Falls which were spectacular! Michael took a ton of pictures. The other trail in the area took us over the Swinging Bridge. It reminded me of all those old adventure movies that have a dilapidated bridge between a canyon that the hero and fair maiden must cross to safety. Well, this one wasn't dilapidated and no bad guys were chasing us so that it made it a bit easier to take our time across it. Michael took this picture of me "conquering" the bridge. I highly recommend the stop at Kalispell Falls!
GLACIER PARK Post Script
It seems to me when you're on a trail, there can be a bit of camaraderie with people you encounter coming or going. We ran into these two guys that had also been at Glacier Park around the same time we had been. They mentioned the same Big Horn sheep that we had seen. We teased that perhaps it was a robotic sheep that the National Park Service staked out there every day.
Life is good!
NS
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