Jul 30, 2008 - Conrad Mansion

We stayed in Kalispell today and visited the Conrad Mansion- a beautiful Tudor style home built in 1895. It has 23 lovely rooms with many special features like fire hoses on each floor, a pull rope elevator for people and trunks, cleverly concealed pass through from kitchen to the dining room and sweetest of all- secret tiny drawers in one wall near the grandmothers bedrooms. So many interesting stories were told about this wealthy family. As it turns out the fortune that was made in mining and trading in four years was completely gone in...

Jul 23, 2008 - Kalispell, Mt

A rough drive of 15 miles today to Kalispell, Mt. We are taking it easy here for 3 nights. Took a drive down to Polson via the west side of Flathead Lake. Beautiful lake, but not much on it like we are used to seeing in other states. "Flathead Lake is one of the 300 largest natural lakes in the world and is the largest natural freshwater lake in the western United States. Of those large lakes, Flathead is one of the cleanest. Studies at the Flathead Lake Biological Station show that water quality in Flathead Lake is among the best in the...

Jul 12, 2008 - To Kalispell MT

Today we decided to go back into Kootenay NP to see some of the sights we didn’t stop for yesterday. After driving back up into the mountains, we stopped at a beautiful aquamarine-colored lake called Olive Lake, then continued down toward Radium Hot Springs, where we caught the Juniper Trail. This trail took us down into Sinclair Canyon, where we saw Sinclair Falls. From there, the trail climbs up the other side of the canyon and continues up into the hills for a ways, before rejoining the highway. This time we had the trail almost to...

Jul 11, 2008 - Kalispell, Montana

What a wonderful area around Kalispell. We spent the day just exploring the local forest, playing in the lake, and doing some gift shopping. The RV park we are staying at is wonderful with lots of nice and interesting people staying there. What a wonderful find!

Jun 19, 2008 - NORTHWARD DAY THREE Billings MT to Kalispell MT

Okay, okay. The bloom from Cancun is starting to fade. I awoke this morning tired. Not surprising since we have covered 1400 miles in two days. You would think that with two months for this trip we could experience a more leisurely pace. However, the 06/22 arrival date for Dawson Creek is looming close. This lovely peacock wished us adios. However, he refused to present us with a display of his tail feathers but he appeared very regal anyway. Words cannot describe the terrain that we are traveling. Pictures even do a poor job. The vistas...

May 24, 2008 - West Shore State Park On The Shore Of Flathead Lake, Montana

May 20, 2008 Well, we are here. We are in West Shore State Park (part of the Montana’s Flathead State Park area.) The Flathead Lake is the largest natural, freshwater lake, west of the Mississippi. It is quite beautiful, surrounded on the east side by a range of mountains. Our side is wooded, and has several towns nearby. South of us is Polson and north of us is Kalispell. We have not gotten to explore or get a “lay of the land’ because today and tomorrow we will be in training classes to be a Montana State Park Volunteer. May 24, 2008 I...

Apr 26, 2008 - Tales of cows and a moose

Today we both achieved personal goals we'd set for this trip. Trivial goals, but we were both overjoyed to achieve them. Jen's was to see a moose. In the whole time we lived in the US (and when we visited Canada), we never saw a moose. On this trip so far we'd seen wolves, grizzly bears, bison, mule deer, pronghorn antelope and other assorted wildlife, but not a moose. We had resigned ourselves to not seeing one, since they're rare to see (they have long legs so stay up in the deep snow when other wildlife comes down in spring). But this...

Sep 27, 2007 - Kalispell; Hungry Horse Dam

We took a drive today. Went into Kalispell, MT. A rather big town (at least in comparison to most of them in this area anyway!). We decided to buy a video camera. We are going to video tape each day of the remainder of the trip and download to DVDs. We'll charge it up overnight and then video tape the area tomorrow morning. We stopped at the Hungry Horse Dam. It is huge and has created the Hungry Horse Reservoir. The drive up was very pretty as well. They are calling for some snow to come in tomorrow night. Probably won't get to us here but...

Aug 22, 2007 - Going to the Sun Road

A MOOSE OUTSIDE THE WINDOWUp early, we stepped outside our RV, walked to the lake adjacent to our campsite, sat on a bench, drank coffee, and Kay spotted a moose. Donald thought she was kidding, but we both then noticed a moose calf. We watched the mother and calf moose eat for the better part of a half hour. SHOPPING, OUR VERSION OF BEING PREPAREDAfter the day from hell yesterday, we decided to do some necessary shopping and other big city stuff today. Before departing we hooked up the rechargeable lantern to the 12 volt outlet in the...

Aug 18, 2007 - Resting In Kalispell

Today is one of those unexciting days. John and I shop at Wal-Mart and the grocery store. I do some computer work and clean up the RV. We put more stickers on the side of the RV as people are starting to notice that we are not keeping up. We rest because tonight we are going to the rodeo. The Northwestern Montana State Fair is here in Kalispell. At around six thirty we drive the fifteen minutes to the fair grounds and find the crowds are too much. We will have to park many blocks away and the line for tickets is three blocks long. We...

Aug 16, 2007 - To Kalispell, MT (Kootenai River)

Last night we stayed on the border of Washington and Idaho. I think I slept in Washington and John slept in Idaho! Or was it the other way around? Route 2 through Northern Idaho and Northwestern Montana is just as I picture it should be: a winding state road with some small towns, no traffic, river valleys, evergreen forests and mountains in the background. We pass through the Kootenai National forest. If I had seen desert rocks or wheat fields today I was trading in our GPS! Our coffee break is in Idaho. Our first stop in Montana is the...

Jul 31, 2007 - Sapphires and Clams

The campground at Georgetown Lake was so nice we took a 2.5 mile walk before leaving, seeing the lifestyle of the Montana rich, if not so famous. There are a lot of second homes here and some of them are palatial. You look at them and think of holing up in one for the winter and it sounds attractive. On the road it was a short drive to the town of Phillipsburg , where Madolyn wanted to stop and check out the Sapphire Gallery. Montana is one of the leading producers of sapphires in this country, and not far from here is a range called the...