West Glacier, Montana

After serving for 2 weeks at Echo Ranch, we were ready for some R&R.  We flew from Juneau AK to Kalispel, MT, rented a car ( which turned out to be a BRAND NEW 4 Runner with 4 miles on it), and drove to Apgar Village on the West side of Glacier National park.  I had never here, and Steve had been here as a young teen with his family and didn't remember much, or so he thought....

We had the tiniest hotel room I have ever seen, but it did have this nice view of MacDonald creek


The interior of Lake MacDonald Lodge. After the park was formed in 1910 (thank you Teddy Roosevelt!), the Northern Pacific Railroad built several lodges within the park. They all have different themes, and this one highlights the Native Culture.
As we walked in, Steve stopped and said,
"I've been here before, I remember this".  He said nothing much has changed.
There are Native carvings around the fireplace, which was lit and felt good on a cool day.

The stones in the floor had Indian words carved into them.  This is a local tribes word for Water

Lake MacDonald. We took a boat ride in one of the wooden sightseeing boats available.  It was beautiful but cold and windy  The Iconic "Red Buses"  Most of these were built in the 1930's, and have been in service ever since.  The canvas top rolls back on nice days so the views can be fully appreciated.  It was still early spring in Montana, and the tours were just getting started.

 The thriving metropolis of Polebridge, MT.  There was a saloon, a general store(which turned out to have a pretty good bakery/sandwich shop), and some rental cabins.  It was miles from anywhere!

The inside of the general store.  Prices were definitely high!

 We drove even further north, and hiked along the shores of Bowman Lake.What the rental car company doesn't know, won't hurt them!

  Since we were there so early in the season, many trails were not open yet, so we had to choose carefully.

These trilliums are very similar to the ones we have here in the Smokies.  They start out white and turn pink as they age. 

Although the weather remained cloudy,it was still beautiful!Every time I turned around, I was saying, oh my gosh, would you look at that! There was a beautiful scene at every turn of the road.