Grand Tour Oh-Ten (part II)

Days 4-6:
Drove West from Mallard's Rest through Bozeman (deja vu) to Butte, then on through Anaconda and Phillipsburg... all the way down dirt road to the Askea Homestead at Rock Creek.  We arrived within a MINUTE of my predicted arrival time and found a note left on the well-house door.  That was a first.  Two firsts, actually:  1. arriving on time and 2. a handwritten "gone fishin'" sign.  I know there can't be two things first, but you know what I mean...

Glamping.  

Since we'd been in the car for about 30 out of 66 hours, we opted to walk to find everyone rather than risk getting the car stuck on the dirt road.  but the note didn't say how far everyone was or whether they were up- or down-river.  we guessed we hadn't seen them yet and took off down the creek.  (point of contention, when is it a creek and when is it a river?)  What a fun reunion to come across familiar faces miles down the road as the rest of the crew returned from their fishing trip!

The Bunk House

Had a blast with several days of hanging with family, reading, sitting in the creek, hammering a few nails building a bunkhouse/cabin (okay, I only hammered a few, but Bill, Roger, Graham and Dan did a lot more than that!), playing with the dogs, enduring a hailstorm, and just generally living the glamorous camping lifestyle.


Thank you, Askeas, for a wonderful spot, fantastic food, and great company!  We are looking forward to another visit.

Trusty Taj pulled through for us.  Dry despite the hail!

Day 6:
Heading North toward Glacier National Park.  From Rock Creek to Kalispell by way of Flathead Lake.  Sweet scenery.  oh, to have a lake house....

Flathead Lake, Montana

Day 7:
Glacier National Park.
We snagged a campsite near Avalanche Creek and proceeded across the park on Going-to-the-Sun Road.

Saw some kids and some glaciers.  The glaciers are said to be gone by 2020.  But don't worry, they will still call it Glacier National Park, not The Park formerly-known-as-Glacier.

Saint Mary's Lake

We hiked from Many Glacier Hotel to Grinnell Lake, hoping to make it to the big overlook, but it was closed due to "Bear Danger."  whatev.

Grinnell Lake.

The colors of the glacial runoff lakes are amazing.
And then the heavens opened with a massive thunder storm, so we hiked 2.5 miles back to the car in the POURing rain.


Remaining states to cover:  ID, WA, OR.