Leaving Montana, for now…
..and onto Washington!
As we left Glacier National Park we headed to Hall, Montana for a much needed rest stop and a family reunion. The wonderful place we stopped at was, Boulder Creek Lodge, we highly recommend this place! Five days of paradise (in a camper)and a family reunion. This lodge had about a dozen cabins, and a dozen RV pull-throughs. The showers were huge, even better than many of the hotels we have stayed in. There was a restaurant/lodge house with a pool table downstairs.
As family reunions go this one can’t be beat, acres and acres of Montana farm land for everyone to park their campers, giant bonfires and beautiful starry skies. Oh, and did I mention lots of shooting? With all those acres for wandering, everyone got out their favorite guns and ammunition and started walking. There are lots of prairie dogs out there for target practice, and what a way to get the family together right?! Throw a pig on the spit all day, add a few traditional cold salads together and we have ourselves a party! All this was to celebrate the 65th anniversary of Great Uncle John and his wife Darlene! What an amazing couple. Every year they gather the family for their anniversary on their acreage, but obviously this year was special! It had been over 30 years since visiting the family reunion, it was time to get back to the good Montana roots.
Before leaving Montana (for now!) we took one last day trip to Fairmont Hot Springs. The pools (there are 2 Olympic sized and and two hot pools) are fed by 155 degree natural hot spring water. No chlorine here! It was a relaxing afternoon before packing up and getting on the move again.
BUTTE, BUTTE, BUTTE…
Let’s summarize, went to the Berkeley Pit and saw it was a mile deep and full of water. The history of it was really interesting but you can read about it on the link. Ran into a lovely reporter for the Montana Standard who said “would you like to be interviewed for the paper and possibly become super famous??” I paraphrase of course but the answer was yes please! Turns out they are trying to up tourism by trying the “selfie spot” program. If you haven’t see selfie spots yet you probably will, they put an 18" round sticker on the ground where you can take a selfie that includes something fascinating in the background. She took photos, took our information and said look in tomorrows paper! Well, as you can see we didn’t get famous but we had fun making the attempt. A short visit to the family home (lived there from approximately 1977 to 1983)and off we went to see more of the western US.
Idaho was next and we both were amazed at how different it looked compared to what we were thinking. We were only in southern Idaho and it was dry, desolate, hot and very different from anything we had seen. Craters of the Moon national park was very well named! We stayed in the park for one night and boy did it get hot quick in the morning. Thankfully we had hiked the evening before as it was much cooler in the evening. Miles upon miles of volcanic rock, basalt and not surprisingly a huge nuclear research facility.
One more highlight before leaving Idaho was Shoshone Falls, right outside of Twin Falls, Idaho. We didn’t have to stop in this city for anything in particular, but we had heard the falls were quite a spectacle. Unlike Great Falls, Montana, where the falls were more of a series of large rapids, the Shoshone falls were fantastic. The park down river of the falls had a lot of great viewing sites, plus several boards with historical facts and stories. Above the falls was fishing access, boat launches, and a small lake with diving bluffs and a very deep and clean swimming area. We certainly enjoyed this stop, bu didn’t stay for the night. We continued on to Baker City, Oregon.
Baker City Break! In Baker City, Oregon we took a two day break to do nothing. We have been on the road for 30 days at this point. This whole “temporary retirement” thing is really exhausting! The weather was cool, the sun didn’t set until around 11 pm (training us for the Alaska midnight sun for sure!), one great Chinese restaurant and we were happy blobs.
Finally Seattle, Washington, July 1, 2016. We were both looking forward to a hotel at this point! Showers, naked time, toilets on demand! We managed to get out of the hotel room to do a little sight seeing, grab a bite to eat down at the fish market, and prepare for our trip to Alaska.
