7/18/14 - Fort Peck Dam

Learning Experiences in Montana

On Wednesday we drove from East Glacier to Havre.  It quickly became a case study of how awful Montana road repair can be.  They don't just patch the bad places in the road, or put another layer on top of the old--they remove everything clear down to dirt, and build a whole new road while traffic continues to roll along!  Then they wet it down so the mud splatters all over the RV.  The road gets all washboardy so everything bounces all over the place.  You can imagine how thrilled (and vocal) George was about all that.

The next day we went on to Glasgow, MT.  When we got there, George noticed that one side of the 5th wheel was way lower than the other.  He crawled under to check it out and discovered that we'd bounced so much it broke the shackles and the springs on that side weren't connected anymore.  (If this makes no sense to you either, you can just skip this part; there won't be a test.)

Surprise--there are no RV repair facilities in Glasgow, MT (population 3,250).  However, it's wheat country and there are lots of farm implement repair shops around.  Tractors have some of the same parts that RV's do. (Something else I didn't know, but this one I could understand.)  One of the dealerships recommended Thompson & Sons to us.  George called, and one of the sons came right out.  He called his brother to confirm they had most of the parts in the shop, and the new shocks were ordered right then to be flown in the next day.  It was a refresher course on how folks in rural communities are a lot more willing to help than those in big cities.

I realize Glasgow might not be on your bucket list.  (It wasn't on mine either, just a place to stop along Hwy. 2 on the way across Montana.)  We had no idea what to do to while away a few hours.  Someone suggested we visit Fort Peck Dam, south about 20 miles.  We learned a lot while we were there.

Now don't go comparing this dam to Hoover Dam.  For one thing it's not made of concrete--it's an earthen dam, the largest earthen dam in the US.  (I didn't know that.)

For another, it isn't conveniently placed in a canyon, blocking the water that flows through through it.  We're talking Great Plains here, and it's pretty flat in this Missouri River valley.  So the Corps of Engineers had to build a dam four miles across to hold the water in place!  (Something else I didn't know.)  

We watched the video in the Visitor Center (another educational opportunity) about the history of the dam:

• authorized in 1933 by FDR
• largest hydraulically-filled dam in the world (I learned about this then, but this is now and I don't remember most of it.  If there's a test, I'll have to cram.)
• one of the largest reservoirs in the US
• it was featured as the cover story in the very first issue of Life Magazine in 1936

We signed up for the tour of the dam.  The tour should have been more educational than it was, but what you get out of the class depends on the teacher.  Ours didn't half try, didn't remember what she'd been taught, and when you asked a question, if she didn't know the answer, she'd respond like she was answering something else entirely.  (Sorry, no pictures inside the power house.)

After the tour, we went back to the Visitor Center, which is really an Interpretive Center--and a stop on the Montana Dinosaur Trail.  (I didn't know there was a Montana Dinosaur Trail--I would have looked for footprints.)

I had no idea that one of the most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeletons ever discovered was found in the sediment around Fort Peck Lake in 1988. They named it the Wankel T. Rex, after the local rancher Kathy Wankel who found it, which is pretty cool.  This is a cast of its skull:

Paleontologists must have hit the lake shore in droves. Another skull was found 9 years later.  Apparently it was found on government property, so it was given the poetic name of Peck's Rex.  They've got a cast of that skull in the museum too (I have no idea what they do with the actual fossils) and a replica that some creative paleontologists think a T-Rex looks like.  Actually, it's a very educational museum.

And the last thing I learned that day?
Farm implement/truck repair shops don't charge nearly as much as RV repair shops do!

Interested in learning more about Fort Peck?  Here's the link:  Fort Peck Dam 

7/14/14 - Glacier National Park

Glaciers on the mountains

Two years ago we visited the west side of Glacier National Park, but didn't make it to the east side.  I figured we should make sure we saw the glaciers before they melted. We stayed in East Glacier, and spent one day in the Two Medicine region and another in Many Glacier.


Two Medicine?  Two Medicine WHAT???  Two medicine men?  Two kinds of medicines?  Two medicine plants?  (I forgot to ask a ranger, but I found a webpage (Glacier NP Place Names) with the origin of place names within Glacier.  There are some funky names in Glacier, so I'll keep it handy.)  So...Two Medicine was derived from the name "Two Medicine Lodge Creek," so called because there were two "medicine lodges" located on either side of the creek.  (Do you care about any of this?)

Rising Wolf Mountain at Two Medicine Lake

And to confuse me even more--there are three (3!!) Medicine Lakes:  Lower Two Medicine Lake, Two Medicine Lake and Upper Two Medicine Lake.  Apparently someone had no imagination...

Take your pick:  tour boat, canoe or kayak

We skipped the water rides and, after stopping at the Ranger Station, went on a hike to Appistoki Falls instead.  

Two Medicine Campstore

Bear Grass

Bear Grass is all over the place.  The Ranger told us that Lewis and Clark saw a bear in a whole field of it when they passed through the Rockies, so they assumed bears ate it.  (They don't.)  "But," the Ranger said, "deer do."  And he said it's in the lily family--wonder if Meriwether Lewis knew that?

Appistoki Falls

Appistoki Falls isn't real impressive, but it was a nice walk.  We didn't get too many bug bites.  Named by a topographer making an early map of the park, the name is a translation mistake. He asked his Indian guide what word the Blackfeet used for "looking over something," and the guide, misunderstanding the meaning of his question, gave him the name "Appistoki," for the Indian god who looks over everything and everyone. So he named a mountain, a creek and a waterfall after the god.

On the way out, we went on the short Running Eagle Falls Nature Trail, named after a warrior girl that led war parties on many highly successful raids and was the only woman in the Blackfeet tribe ever to do so or to be given a man's name, Pitamakan.  Now that's a pretty waterfall!

Running Eagle Falls

The next day we headed back up the same direction (that would be north) to the Many Glacier area.  There are still a lot of glaciers, but they've shrunk since the park was established.  We drove past Lake Sherburne and saw a bunch of them.

We had seen a beaver lodge in a little creek beside the road to the park, but didn't see the beavers who lived there.  After lunch, we hiked around Swiftcurrent Lake, starting at the picnic area, and could see evidence of trees beaver had cut down...and still didn't see any beavers.

Beaver Lodge

Tree Cut By Beaver

The historical Many Glacier Hotel was designed as a series of chalets.  Pretty impressive seen from across the lake.

Many Glacier Hotel

This little orange canoe with a stubby tail was near the winter boat house.  I like the contrast.

Boat on the shore of Swiftwater Lake

On the walk around the lake, the view of the mountains constantly changes.  

Mountain view from Many Glacier Hotel

Mt. Wilbur

Grinnell Point

When we were walking by the hotel, George noticed a license plate that in all our travels we'd never seen before.  (This is an old habit from a previous occupation.)  

On the way out, we stopped to look at Swiftcurrent Falls.  This one is even prettier than the one the day before.

People were staring across the river--finally figured out it was a mother bear with a couple of cubs.  I'd put that picture in but you'd have to save it, and then blow it up really big, and I'd need to be there to point out exactly which little black spot was a bear.  

Probably wouldn't work very well, so we'll just skip it this time...

For more pictures of Glacier NP, click here:  Glacier National Park 

7/9/14 - Libby Dam / Yaak Loop, MT

We stayed at a little RV park just outside Libby, MT, with the Thiemans, some friends from Cottonwood, AZ, who are staying at Libby Dam Campground for the whole month.  While we were there, we went for a couple of drives with them--one was to Libby Dam on the Kootenai River.

It looks different than a lot of dams because there's no curve.  It's goes across the river in a straight line.

Like most dams, it's a Corp of Engineers project, so there's a nice Visitor Center to explore.  No real Passport stamps, but George managed to finagle something from them.

I thought George's size 15 foot was a big one...here it is in comparison to a grizzly bear paw.  I really want to see one, but I'm really scared of them.  I think that zoos have very definite advantages over the wild, wild west.

We missed the dam tour, but watched the movie about building the dam.  I always like it when I learn something, and today we all learned about how they regulate the temperature in the river to keep it cool for the trout.  Basically, they pull water from the lake at different levels (lower = colder) to release downstream.  Isn't that clever?  Apparently the fish like it too because Montana has designated the Kootenai as a "Blue Ribbon" trout stream.  If you're a fly fisherman, you probably know what that means. EVERYONE fishes in the Kootenai; our friend Denny fishes right out here every morning.

The lake formed by Libby Dam is called Lake Koocanusa, with half of it in Montana, and the rest stretching up into Canada.  I thought it was an Indian name, but it was made-up for a contest during the building of the dam.  The lady who won combined the first three letters from KOOtenai River, CANada, and added USA. It's pronounced Koo-kuh-NOO'-suh.   Lots of times that would just sound hokey, but this time it worked.

A couple of days later Denny & Ellen took us on the Yaak River Loop--campground to Yaak to Troy and back to Libby.  First stop was the little "town" of Yaak.  This is the Yaak Mercantile and Tavern (the poppies are on the other side).

 

And across the street is the Dirty Shame Saloon.  That's it!  That's Yaak!

We drove west along the Yaak River, then south to Yaak Falls.  Not as dramatic as, say, Niagara, but a pretty little cascade down a series of rock steps.

There's a big sign warning you that bears live here, showing ways to identify both grizzly and black bears.  I'm not really sure if it matters which kind it is if it wants to eat me.  There's nothing on the sign that suggests that one prefers female tourists to male, but George and I have this deal that he'll sacrifice himself for me.  We disagree on the details occasionally, but I'm pretty sure the bears would prefer the Big Meal Deal.

I took a picture of our friends, Denny and Ellen.

Then Ellen took a picture of George and me.  Isn't friendship wonderful???

Once we got back to Libby, Denny wanted to explore a little road we'd been told about the night before at the campground Happy Hour.  We took the road next to the boat store, looking for the end of the road. Before we got there, we saw a herd of bighorn sheep, just sort of hanging out by the side of the road.  

 

Then they left...

...and so did we.

More pictures of Libby Dam 

and more pictures of the Yaak River Loop