Buffalo, WY

After Anaconda, I headed to Buffalo, Wyoming for a few days.  I stayed at the Indian Campground and RV park.  While I was there they had a group of 3-wheeled motorcycles (or Trikes).  I was worried that they might be loud, but they weren’t  They were very quiet and nice, even offering all other guest of the park dessert one evening.  They had all kinds of Trikes.  Some just the typical 3 wheel motorcycle and others were one of a kind.  This is not the best picture, but it gives you an idea of the vehicles--

While in Buffalo, I visited the downtown area a couple of times.  Of interest to me was the Occidental Hotel.  This hotel has been in business for 131 years and has had some famous guest, such as Butch Cassidy, Teddy Roosevelt, Calamity Jane and more. 

The hotel has been preserved and invites non-hotel guest to visit some of the areas of the hotel.  The ceiling caught my eye and I later found out that it is the original ceiling, wow it’s 131 years old.  I wonder how many things built today will be standing in 131 years.

One of the day trips I took was to the Crazy Woman Scenic Drive.  I enjoyed this area very much.  Much of the drive is a dirt one lane road, with turn outs in case you meet someone. 

A few places there was room to pull over, which I took advantage of so I could walk around for a while. 

After leaving the canyon area, but before getting back to civilization, I saw several pronghorns.  One fairly close to the road caught my attention.  He appeared to be digging a hole.  After wondering what he was doing it for, I figured it out.

He was taking care of business and I was being rude and watching!!

More scenery from the area --

From here, I headed to Loveland, Colorado.  I’ll blog about that next!

Anaconda, MT

After Glacier National Park, I planned on slowly making my way to Colorado Springs (where I am now).  I had a few weeks for the journey, so I stopped in Anaconda, MT for several days. 

In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s this area was known for it’s Copper Smelting.  One of the places I walked several days was the Upper Works Historic Trail, which was a great walking trail with several stops showing remains from the smelting plant.

The trail overlooks a Jack Nicklaus golf course.  Instead of white sand, they used black slag in the bunkers. Slag is a by-product from the copper smeltering process. 

Behind the golf course, on the hill is the 585 foot brick smoke stack, which is one of the tallest free-standing brick structures in the world. 

I also went to the Warm Springs State Wildlife Management Area to do some bird watching a couple of times.  I didn’t see anything that I had not seen before, but I enjoyed watching the ducks in their daily activities.

Feeding their young -- 

It was interesting watching the parent dive for food then bring it back for the young duck.

Gathering material to build a nest --

Gathering the large family for a family outing???--

Lost Creek State park is a local park that I visited.  There is a very short trail to a small waterfall, but what I found more interesting were the rock cliffs.  Notice the one below --

I did a bit of research after I saw this and all I found was that this is a granitic dike.  Every time I see something like this I wonder what happened thousands of years ago to cause this intrusion into the rocks. 

In this area, there are some towns with interesting names.  I saw the following sign and had to go there to see if I got smarter!! --

Shortly after that, there is another --

Since the drive through Wisdom didn’t seem to work, I didn’t try a drive through Opportunity!!

Columbia Falls, MT (Glacier National Park)–Part 3

Note, I am posting 3 blogs today – all about my stay in Columbia Falls. 

I visited Canada’s Waterton Lakes National Park one day. This park is adjacent to Glacier National Park and together they form the Waterton Glacier International Peace Park. Just after crossing the border I saw a bear just a few feet from the road. I haven’t decided if it was a grizzly or a black bear (which aren’t always black). It seems to have the hump of a grizzly and maybe the ears of a black bear (they are more pointed than on a grizzly). If it was a grizzly it was a young grizzly.

Maybe somebody who knows more about bears can tell me which it is.

More scenery on the road, I think just before the Canadian border --

At Waterton, I decided to take a boat tour. Views from the boat -

The clearing in the middle of the picture is the border of Canada and the US. The boat trip started in Canada, went into the US, where we made a quick stop and then back into Canada.

On the way back, I took a picture of The Prince of Wales Hotel. It is said to be one of the most photographed hotels in the North America. As I’m not into buildings, I included more of the background than the hotel --

After the boat trip, I visited Cameron Falls. This pretty falls is just beside the road so very little walking was involved.

After sitting all day either in the car or the boat, I wanted to walk around a bit, so I headed to Red Rock Canyon in the Park.

I started by hiking the trail around the canyon. The picture below was taken from a bridge over the canyon. You can see the walking trails on each side of the small canyon.

While walking the trails, I wondered if you could get down in the canyon and then I saw several groups of people in the canyon. I eventually found a place to climb down, so I did.

The further I walked up the canyon the closer the walls came together. I had to cross the creek many times and in several places including the one above there was no way to not get your feet wet. I quit trying to figure out how to keep my shoes dry and just started walking thru the middle of the creek.

From Columbia Falls, I headed south slowly making my way to Colorado Springs (where I am now).  My next stop after Columbia Falls was Anaconda, Mt.  I’ll blog about that in a few days. 

Columbia Falls, MT (Glacier National Park)–Part 2

I only went to the east side of Glacier National Park a few times.  One of those times I headed to the Two Medicines area of Glacier which is in the southeast section.  On the way, I stopped at a location that is one of the most photographed places in Glacier – St. Mary’s Lake and Wild Goose Island.  On my first stop there was no wind, so I got some decent reflection shots -

I stopped again a few days later when coming back from Canada’s Waterton park and got a different perspective of the island and surrounding mountains. 

You can make out the tiny island much better in the shot above. 

There were many great views on the road to Two Medicine -

A view as I got into the Two Medicine area -

In the Two Medicines area, I walked to the Running Eagle Falls. This falls is also known as Trick Falls and in the pictures below you can see why.

As you can see there is much more water at the bottom of the falls than at the top.  In the last picture you can see that some water comes from the ground.  From what I read it comes from a sinkhole.  Later in the summer, this waterfall looks quite different as the water dries up, only the bottom portion has water. 

The picture above was taken from www.hikinginglacier.com/running-eagle_falls.htm  I used that site quite a bit during my visit. 

I found and enjoyed a nice lunch spot in the Two Medicine area -

More scenery from Going to the Sun road --

The weeping wall is an area along Going to the Sun road that has lots of small waterfalls (especially with the snow melt) and most of them just run onto the road. If you have your windows and/or sunroof open, you will get wet – take it from me, I know from experience!!

One day, I took a dirt back road into the west side of the park. I enjoyed the views, even when I saw the area where there had been a wildfire in 2003.

I believe the mountains in the background are in Canada, maybe Waterton park (which I visited later).

On another trip, I visited the Trail of the Cedars which is a a short mile or so walk. It is a loop, but I walked it twice just to see the fall area again.

There are some glaciers still left in Glacier National Park, but that is not the big draw to this park. I only saw 2 and they were small. I have read that by 2030 there may be no glaciers left in the park.

Jackson Glacier -

Columbia Falls, MT (Glacier National Park)

I stayed in Columbia Falls, Montana July 9 – 22.    This was about 20 minutes from Glacier National Park.  My first full day out, I headed out early in the morning to explore the west side of Glacier NP.  I made several stops in the car before getting to Logan’s Pass, the location of a short hike I took.

Lake McDonald early in the morning --

McDonald Creek Valley -

Going to the Sun road cuts through Glacier National Park. Due to snow and some construction, the road did not open until  June 21 this year.  A couple of years ago it did not open until July 13 due to the heavy snow.   It is quite a road and in some places seems like there is not enough room for 2 cars to pass.  There were a couple of tunnels on the road and great views everywhere --

My first hike in Glacier was just a short hike in the Logan’s Pass area.  I took so much time getting up to Logan’s Pass that I only walked around for about an hour.

There are waterfalls everywhere along the road.  Some of them are named waterfalls, such as Bird Woman Falls which you drive over --

Others are not named (or I didn’t find the names) and may just be here because of snow melt --

I took this picture from my car and wouldn’t you know a car would go by me just as I was taking the picture from my moving car so I couldn’t take another! But I liked the picture anyway!!

One day I hiked to St. Mary and Virginia Falls, this is one of the easier hikes in the park – about 4 miles round trip. 

St Mary Falls -

While St. Mary and Virginia Falls are the destinations, the cascades, smaller waterfalls and views between the 2 main falls were beautiful.

Virginia Falls -

I found a nice resting spot between the 2 tiers of this falls and enjoyed watching the American Dippers fly around and then dive into the water.  A very interesting bird, but they never sat still long enough for a good photo. 

On the hike back to the trailhead, I passed St. Mary’s Falls again and enjoyed the falls and blue water again.

I saw a few wildflowers on this trail and at some of the stops I made on Going to the Sun road. I am not sure what the wildflower below is, I think it’s in the lily family.

I enjoyed McDonald Creek many times, sometimes from the road or overlooks and a few times from short walks.