Avalanche Lake, Glacier National Park
I’ve heard the comment “When a Texan describes where he lives, Montana is what you picture”
May 31 – June 7. There is really nothing that compares with the grandeur of the Rocky Mountains, and that is plainly evident traveling north up the Flathead Valley in northern Montana. Looking at the mountains surrounding the valley, you don’t see any gentle inclines but sudden towering slopes of the Rockies. The evidence of winter is still visible as the high peaks are still dusted with snow and ice fields. Flathead Lake, which sits in the middle of the valley is the largest freshwater lake in the western United States is 28 miles long and 15 miles wide and is surrounded by home
s and ranches.
We arrived at Hungry Horse and Mountain Meadows RV park in the mid afternoon and got set up. The park and the site were both terrific…site with a view!
It rained most of the Thursday but we took the opportunity to drive into the park and check out the visitors ,village and took a drive along Lake McDonald.
The famous “Going to the Sun Road” wasn’t open all the way through the park so we drove as far as we could. We stopped at the Swiss chalet style Lake McDonald Lodge. This 1913 hotel sits right on the lake and is built so the front door is facing the lake. When the lodge was built there were no roads, so all the guests arrived by boat from Apgar
Village. At the point where the road was closed, there were two trails, a short half mile hike called “The Trail of the Cedars” and a longer hike called Avalanche Trial. The first was a short hike along a trail where much of it was on a boardwalk so hikers didn’t disturb the forest floor.We past a footbridge
over a small gorge, and walked through what could be described as arain forest. We decided to chance the shorter hike even though it was raining off and on. It was truly a Jurasic Park experience. We came back a couple of days later to hike the 41/2 miles round trip to Avalanche Lake (the picture at the top of this segment).
ZIP LINE !! Yep, we went zip lining! It was a nine
station zip line through the trees. Bob had the common sense to sit this one out. Just a thought..we paid to do what guys do in boot camp for free.
This was the last stop with Bob & Jan. They had been traveling with us since we left Bass Lake. From here they continued on to South Dakota to Bob’s birthplace in Winner.
with large trunks of trees that were washed down streams and rivers and deposited on the shore by the tide. Small islands called “sea stacks” once part of the shore but through erosion became separated and are now tall narrow islands. Ruby Beach is the location of not one, but two armed confrontations between the local Quinault Tribe and both the Spanish and British explorers in the late 1700s. The entire north coast or Washington has a rugged beauty but not as much as the coast at Olympic National Park.
anything that could be considered a weapon at the trailer, including my trusty swiss army knife so I wouldn’t get hung up at the security check getting into the capital building. When we got to the capital building we walked right in a side door, past a gift shop and down the hall to the govenors office and the senate chambers! No frisk or body search. I still had my shoes on..take that TSA.
the Spar Cafe in downtown Olympia. The place was right out of the 20’s but the cigar smell was gone.
after a devastating fire in June of 1889 the city fathers decided to raise the level of the city by moving a thousand of cubic yards of earth into the city, building up the lowland and rebuilding the 
city on the fill. Unfortunatly they expected the businesses to pay for this and the answer was no. The businesses started rebuiling at the old grade but the city filled the streets and built them up 10-15 feet above the first floor of the buildings. The “trench” that was left between the height of the road and the level of the building entraces became a no mans land and was covered by sidewalks. This area between the street and the bulilding with the sidewalk on top became “underground” Seattle.
The famous Seattle Farmers Market was pretty crowded even this early in the season. The power had gone out in a large portion of the city so they were using backup lighting. This place has everything! Food, flowers, leather goods, jewelry, and did I mention food? And of course, this is the place they throw dead fish back and 
forth. Yep, one guy hollers something, another guy hollers back and BOOM, here comes a fish!
The other is a picture of Arline’s discussion with Cody regarding what’s up next in Glacier National Park.
Craig & Arline's circle the U.S. trip 