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Here's Harmony with her kids, Brandon and Brittany. |
Harmony's husband, Jerry, with Mitch and Cocoa, damming a creek to Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park, Montana |
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After spending several days in Kalispell, we headed north
to Glacier National Park, (it's only about 35 miles from their house.)
Along the way we had to stop at our favorite maze. We were through
it before, about six years years ago -- the boys were pretty young then
but they both still remembered it. This picture shows less than 1/10th
of the maze. It takes from 30 minutes to a few hours to complete
-- you are supposed to have your ticket stamped at each corner to claim
that you have successfully navigated "the maze."
There are lots attractions like this in the Kalispell area. This park also had bumper boats and go-carts which we all enjoyed. |
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We camped at one of our favorite campgrounds -- Lake
McDonald in Glacier National Park. Lake McDonald is at the southwest
entrance to the park.
Cheryl's sister, Janet, her husband, Denny, and their boys, Cooper and Jody, were going to meet us at this campground for their summer vacation. Mitch and Max could hardly wait for their cousins to arrive. |
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When they finally got here, they came fully loaded.
Cheryl's mom, Pennie, and her husband, Sid, came along for a few days of
vacation too. They stayed at a nice lodge in West Glacier on Lake
McDonald and Janet and her family stayed at our campground in their rented
Cruise America motorhome.
We wanted to take everyone on the famous "Road to the Sun Highway" over the top of Logan Pass but it's restricted to vehicles less than 20 feet long, so we headed back to Kalispell and rented a van so that everyone could pile in and go out and see the sights. Unfortunately, a forest fire was building just west of the park and a lot of the scenery was dampened by smoke. |
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The road to the top of Logan Pass is spectacular.
It's very narrow, and hugs nearly vertical cliffs, which provides
for some majestic views and occasional bursts of adrenaline. I got
everyone's attention when I bumped the passenger side jersey barrier at
30 mph.
We saw this goat along the road near the top and saw a small herd of mountain sheep. |
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We stopped to play in the remains of a small snow pack. Just two days before, Harmony's family was here and this ice formed a snow bridge. The clean snow shows where a shear break occurred when the top collapsed. |
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Cocoa enjoyed eating the snow. I had to put a stop to her pleasure as I was afraid she might get sick from eating too much ice. This sometimes happens to me from blended icy drinks and I momentarily get a splitting headache. |
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I mentioned a forest fire earlier. This photo is very close to how the sky actually looked. The sun was only as bright as a dimly lit moon and the sky had an orangish hue. It also created an orangish tint to all the trees and mountains. |
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Here's a picture of the smoke from another angle. |
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Here's a picture taken on an evening boat cruise on Lake McDonald. The "gray scale" appearance to this image is from the smoke overhead. To see a high resolution picture of this photo click here. NOTE: It's 360 MB and may take 2 to 5 minutes to download on a slow phone line. |
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A table with a view please!
Mosquitoes? Not a problem with our new screen room. It sets up in five minutes and has room for a full size picnic table and two or three extra chairs. |
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Here's Penny and Sid waiting for their train back to Everett,Washington. |
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Settled in for the trip back in their sleeper cabin. |
| This would have been the next clue for the Mystery Location,
but someone has identified the location. Details about the location
and the winner will be in our next report.
This public swimming pool is about 30 miles south of the mystery location. This pool is open year-round, even when there's snow all around and it's well below freezing. |
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One more clue -- it's about an hour south of this spot.
Good luck!
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Next Adventure (Canada) |