Back to the West with a stop in Denver to see my niece, her husband and their two adorable girls. Denver is a challenge in a motorhome. RV and State parks are so oversubscribed that, during our two week visit, we in four locations. Despite that, we had a nice visit, tended to the Freightliner service on Pancho and repeated the check engine light correction with the local Subaru dealer, this time successfully. We also enjoyed visits to Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park, the fun city of Golden and a short visit to Colorado Springs. One young woman, a recent East Coast college graduate we met in Washington, said every friend she had was heading to Colorado after college. The traffic and growth support the contention that the area is a young population magnet.
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| Downtown Golden, CO |
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| Rocky Mt Nat'l Park |
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| Max loved the elk wandering in the town of Estes Park |
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| View Driving to Estes Park |
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| Max on Critter Watch |
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| Drive Near Colorado Springs |
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| Eleanor, 2 and Maddie 5 with Maddie's Kindergarten Graduation Sign |
We had planned to go the the SW after Denver, but a weather check argued for continuing West. We spent time in Coeur d'Alene, with a day visit to Sandpoint and Lake Pend Oreille. The area is beautiful and while popular, not overrun with tourists-at least when we were there. We learned that Sandpoint was hit hard by the bankruptcy of Coldwater Creek but also discovered that the ever popular salad dressing Litehouse, originated there. I had never paid attention but their variety of dressing choices is quite large and their Greek yogurt ones are tasty. Another discovery was Huckleberry Hard Cider, made in Spokane. A cruise of the lake was lovely and provided a good view of the cabins and homes.
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Dining at the floating restaurant on Lake Pend Oreille
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We continued west, finding a fun town on I-90 called Cle Elum, where the Yakima River runs through the town. The area prospered in the late 1800's/early 1900's due to lumber and coal, that latter being needed for the Northern Pacific Railroad expansion. Because of the ready coal source, the town became an important rail center with a roundhouse and worker housing. The coal mines were just north, where a prosperous coal mining town named Roslyn was established. The coal mining boomed for 35 years, starting in 1886 and attracting immigrants from Serbia, Croatia, Italy, Poland and Lithuania and 23 more countries. Mining fell off in the late 30's and the mines closed in 1963. It is estimated that four fifths of the supply remain.
And, on to lovely Vashon, Gig Harbor and the coast. Seeing old friends, taking care of business and enjoying the comfortable temperature and great food were all a plus.
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| Mount Rainier and Gig Harbor |
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| La Conner Waterfront looking at Swinomish Tribal Land |
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| Geoduck Duck Delivery at Gig Harbor |
Backtracking, we headed for Flathead Lake, MT.
We lucked out, finding an RV Park that looks over the lake and has been completely redone with no expense spared. The owner made some shrewd business decisions in the early phases of ND Fracking and was able to retire. It apparently wasn't long before his wife suggested he needed another project. He bought the RV park, which had seen better times, and along with some of his kids (there are 12!) completely redid it. He is super friendly and tireless, out at 8am emptying trash cans.
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| Morning View from Campsite |
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| Sign at local cafe |
At the suggestion of Ann Burnett, we added the National Bison Range to our list of places to see. It was terrific, not crowded and we were able to take back roads to and from. The Range was established in 1908 to save the bison from extinction.
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| Bighorn Sheep |
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| The bison ignore the cars that travel through the range |
Driving around, we took a road to see what used to be known as the Kerr Dam, but renamed Seli’ลก Ksanka Qlispe’ by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribe when it acquire the dam in 2015. The dam is on the Flathead River and was completed in 1938. The dam is within the Flathead Indian Reservation and had apparently been the subject of some competing ownership claims.
According to the local paper,
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Yet alongside its power and influence, Kerr Dam has remained equally contentious and divisive among tribal members and non-Indian property owners trying to coexist amicably on the Flathead Indian Reservation while grappling over water rights."
I am reminded of the Mark Twain observation that
Whiskey Is for Drinking;
Water Is for Fighting Over
The other big attraction in this part of NW Montana is Glacier National Park. Camping not being available within the park, we settled for a day trip on the Going-to-the-Sun Road. The section of the road which crosses the continental divide is closed during most of the year but late July found it open but pretty crowded. It is a spectacular road but I have a confession. I have a bit of a phobia when the passenger side (my side) is a short distance from big drop offs. Guess what, that is a major portion of the road going from west to east, which was our route.
It was however not as bad as our scariest trip from Williams Lake to Bella Coola in BC, which we made in our Alaskan Camper many years ago.
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| Prior Trip on Bella Coola Road in Alaskan Camper |
Despite the road, the scenery is spectacular, though the only glacier we saw was nearly gone.
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| Glacier National Park |
No blog would be complete without some foodie stuff. My current fixation is the huckleberry. It makes up 15% of the bear's diet and all efforts to domesticate production have proven fruitless. The berries grow at elevation and must be harvested by hand and you are wise to have bear spray at the ready to deal with the competition. While driving some dirt roads we discovered several people picking huckleberries, including a family. The young boy, Mason, volunteered to show me where they grow.
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| Family picking huckleberries |
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| Mason, my huckleberry guide |
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| Picking the berries is labor intensive |
I fell in love with Huckleberry Hard Cider which had replaced wine for my cocktail hour choice. A pint of Huckleberry Freezer Jam (the technique requires much less sugar than conventional canning) cost $18.50 and now resides in my fridge. Another discovery is Montana made Huckleberry ice cream, a quart of which sits in my freezer.
The other local fruit that is produced in Flathead Lake orchards is the cherry. At $2-4 a pound they are much more affordable than huckleberries at $16.
The RV Park sits next to a local meat store that specialize in bison and elk with lots of smoked meat, sausages and jerky, so we are set for the next leg of travel.
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| Locally Bison, Elk and other meat and sausage |
