We’ve been in Montana for the last few days. We drove from North Dakota, through Billings and onto Bozeman where we stayed at a Walmart – out here Walmarts are few and far between, and this Walmart looked like an RV campground! In the morning we counted 36 RVs in the lot! I don’t know what the average RVr spends at Walmart while staying in the lot, but I believe we have helped improve the average. It took us 3 tries to find a spot big enough in the parking lot so we could fit and not hang out into the driveways. Not glamorous, but it works for an overnight on the road.
We arrived at Columbia Falls RV park in – where else but Columbia Falls, MT – on Friday. It’s just about 15 miles from the west entrance to Glacier National Park. Very nice RV park, the nicest we have been to yet. Everyone has been very friendly, they have a great fenced in dog play area and Gerry has been making friends! He and Ginger the Vizla (which is a cousin to the Weimaraner breed) have enjoyed playing together several times.
Gerry had a vet appointment Saturday morning to get his Rabies vaccine and a couple other vaccine boosters he was due for. I had called ahead and found a very nice vet nearby, they were really helpful with information for taking a dog into Canada, which we will be doing soon. 3 shots later he left with an updated health certificate and documentation for the boarder crossing. He’s 24 pounds now and will be 14 weeks old on Monday!
We took Gerry on a hike to Columbia Mountain Trail later on Saturday – we hiked about 5 miles, he loved it. Columbia Mountain is in the Flathead National Forest. He was super tired after the vaccinations and the hike.
We learned no dogs are allowed on any national park trails….so we made a reservation for Gerry at a doggie day care. We’ve never used a doggie day care before for any of our dogs, but, the vet had recommended this place and we decided to give it a try. So early on Sunday we took Gerry to his play date and we went into Glacier National Park for a full day of hiking.
We had intended to hike a trail called Avalanche Lake, but when we arrived at the trail head they had just posted a “trail closed due to bear activity” sign. A ranger gave us a couple suggestions and we ended up going to the Lake McDonald lodge and taking a hike from there. We hiked the Snyder Lake trail, it was 8.8 miles, and challenging. The first 2 miles were very steep, then a steady incline all the way up. It was a very cloudy, misty, drizzly day all day and with all the snow melt, there were several places on the trail that were covered in running water. Very muddy for most of the trail. Beautiful lake at the top of the trail and made a great place to eat lunch. It took us about 5 hours to complete the hike. We are feeling every bit of it tonight!
The “bear grass flowers” are blooming – tall white flowers – a ranger told us they only bloom every 7 years. We saw 2 mule deer and some prarie dogs, but no other wildlife. Our neighbors in the RV park saw a grizzly bear and a black bear today (along the road) while on the other side of Glacier National Park. We love Montana and it is all so beautiful it is impossible to capture in photos.
John, we didn’t make it over to Logan’s Pass or Two Medince – we are staying near the west side of the park and the Going To the Sun Road was closed about 15 miles into the park due to snow cover. So we couldn’t get to the east side of the park or to Logan’s Pass….so no famous photos yet from Steve!
Gerry loved his play date and was happy to see us when we picked him up. He promptly crashed on the chair when we got home.
We leave early Monday morning for Canada – first to Banff National Park, we are staying for 4 nights, then on to the Alaska Highway or the “Alcan” as it is known. I think we are in for a serious adventure, stay tuned!
