Stunning, Incredible, Spectacular

That is all we had to say after driving the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park. And we are from Colorado and very familiar with Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park. Maybe it is because this is new and different scenery, I don't know. But it is wonderful.

It had been 23 years since our first visit to Glacier. That time we didn't drive this road. So it was number one on our agenda for this visit. Here in West Glacier where we are staying, the elevation is 3220 and the highest peak, Heaven's Peak, is 8987 ft. Grand Lake, Colorado, at the west entrance to Rocky Mountain NP is 8369 and 12,183 ft. But the Glacier mountains are certainly beautiful, even if they aren't as high.

The Going to the Sun road was built in the 1930s by the CCC--Civilian Conservation Corps.

As the name of Glacier suggests, there are glaciers and snow fields that produce a lot of waterfalls.

The mountains are beautiful.

The crowds were large and the parking crowded at the view points. And in places the road was very narrow.

There are two large lakes in McDonald and St. Mary. This is a view of McDonald. The water in the lakes and rivers is incredibly clear.  Artist Charles M. Russell and his wife built a cabin on Lake McDonald, called Bull Head Lodge, where many visiting artists spent time painting the beauties of Glacier National Park.

This eye-catching island is in the middle of St. Mary's Lake.

This is the only wildlife we saw.

These open-topped buses are used for tours of the park along the Going to the Sun road.

These lights hang in the lobby of the Lake McDonald Lodge, built in 1913.

Glacier on the northern edge of Montana and just across the border in Canada is Waterton Lakes National Park.  The two parks are an International Peace Park World Heritage Site.   You can read about our visit to Waterton Lakes in 2012 here.

Our four days in Great Falls, Montana, were filled with walks in Gibson Park and along the Missouri River and visits to two museums. Sometimes we get our 10,000 steps a day walking around our RV park. It is always nice when the towns we are visiting have developed walking and biking trails. We found trails in Butte and Great Falls that made our daily walks very enjoyable.

Paris Gibson helped found Great Falls and a park in downtown, near the Missouri River, is named in his honor. We walked there twice. There is a lake with lots of birds which attract people who feed the birds, which in turn attract more birds.

There is a beautiful garden, built by the CCC in the 1930s, in the park.

There was also a skateboard park nearby. I'm glad they hadn't been thought of when our two boys were growing up. If they had gone to one, I would have had a heart attack, I'm afraid.

The Great Falls History Museum had very well-done displays, mainly of artifacts from the early 20th Century. That means it included items from out childhood. We remembered some of the telephones on display.

As a teenager, John worked in a grocery store that kept customer accounts in a system like this.

We also visited the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center. What a great museum. Here you can see a statue of the Newfoundland dog Seaman that traveled with the Corps of Discovery. You can see the Missouri River in the background.

Can you imagine canoeing up the Missouri wearing a uniform like this?

Portaging the dug-out canoes around the great falls they found here was arduous work.

I was amazed to find the Native Americans had sunglasses. They cut slits in shells to protect their eyes from the sun.

We love the art of Charles M. Russell. He lived and worked here and we visited his museum. Photos weren't allowed inside but here is a picture of the retaining wall around his home and studio. He used the skull outline in his signature.

Alaska -- Day 9

It's cold outside. We're cold. It was 42 degrees outside when we woke up this morning. And it was 43 and the wind was blowing at 9:30 am when we left Helena. In the next couple of days, we are expecting snow. But it was another day of beautiful scenery as we drove north to Great Falls--only 80+ miles away.







We cris-crossed the Missouri River a number of times during the trip.



After getting unhitched and set up, we drove into town to visit the Charles M. Russell Museum.



Russell, born in 1864 in St. Louis, traveled to Montana in 1888 and spent most of the rest of his life here. After working for various outfits while developing his skills as an painter,by 1893 he a full-time artist. It is interesting to see how his skills in drawing and painting people and animals developed from 1890 on. He did many small paintings and often included illustrations in his personal correspondence. I loved this small, detailed painting of a cowboy on a horse holding a bottle of liquor.



This painting is by O. C. Seltzer, a close friend of Russell. They often went on sketching together and you can see similarity in their styles. This is a painting of a prospecter.



After marrying, he and his wife built a house in Great Falls and he also built a log cabin studio where he painted and met with friends.



The American Buffalo or Bison was central to the lifestyle of Plains Indians, who Russell came to admire and often painted. The museum had a major display about the buffalo. Local native Americans often drove buffalo herds over a cliff so they could be killed to provide for the tribe. One part of the display was this statue of a buffalo which we thought was quite interesting.







As almost everyone knows, the immense herds of buffalo that once lived on the plains of North America were nearly wiped out. This photo shows buffalo bones that were harvested and shipped to Detroit, MI, for use in producing fertilizer, charcoal and other items.



This sign from the museum explains what was going on much better than I can.



Other displays included detailed paintings on hides



and Plains Indian headdresses.



We had visited this museum eight years ago on our first trip to Alaska. I think I absorbed a lot more on this visit.