 We
flew from Florida to Kalispell, Montana. It took most of the day.
Getting on the plane was a bit of a challenge, with the orange terror level,
and malfunctioning ticket kiosks, and confused ticket counter people.
I was wondering if I would have a seat on all three legs of the flight
since they couldn't tell us in West Palm Beach if I actually did or not.
We also had an unexpected hour's delay in Atlanta, something about someone
checked a bag and didn't get on the plane, and they started taking luggage
off the plane, but then they figured out they actually did get on the plane.
I figure it was my fault as my ticket was still goofy. On the last
leg of the flight, from Salt Lake City to Kalispell I got a window seat.
This is Bear Lake on the Utah - Idaho border. It's a big lake that
you pass if you drive from Yellowstone to Salt Lake City. I like
the window seat. |
 Farther
along, we could see the Teton Range, in that national park just south of
Yellowstone. |
 After
getting our rental car it was only a short drive to the entrance to Glacier
National Park. There are good restaurants to eat at right outside
the entrance of the park. If you want to buy groceries you can a
little farther away at a town called Hungry Horse. It bills itself
as "the friendliest dam town in the west". There is a dam there.
Get it? The people in the grocery store all looked like scary bikers,
but we needed those groceries as we generally only ate one restaurant meal
during this trip. We grazed the rest of the time. It saved
some time and money I guess. My sister and I wanted to camp, save
bunches of money and possibly have more adventures, but mom has this thing
against sleeping on the ground in the freezing cold with wild animals running
about. |
 It
was still early in the wildflower season but these bluets were flowering
near the sign. |
 We
stayed in a small motel at Apgar Village, just a little way inside the
west entrance to Glacier. Apgar is on the shores of Lake McDonald,
which at that end of the lake at least has very clear water. I say
"that end" because some lakes and streams, if they are fed by glaciers,
have cloudy or opalescent looking water from the finely ground rock (known
as rock flour) carried in the glacial melt water. I think some of
the streams at the other end of the lake looked kind of cloudy. |
 There
was this pretty, friendly, white cat at the motel office. |
 There
were trilliums blooming in the woods. |
 Deer
would occasionally wander out of the woods into the parking lots in the
mornings and evenings. Glacier had a lot of deer. The day we
drove around the southern end of the park to get to the east side we saw
at least five dead deer on the side of the road, along with a coyote.
Not all in the same spot, but scattered every few miles. |
 The
view looking up Lake McDonald. The next morning it was all blanketed
in fog, which disappeared as soon as the sun hit it. I sat there
and kind of watched the fog roll back the next morning. |