Monday and tuesday in Montana

Monday and Tuesday in Montana
We started our day with another great breakfast at Base Camp. Then we headed back into the park. Today we focused on the Many Glacier area. The views are hard to describe. Fortunately for me I am traveling with two great describers who are audio captioning the scenery for me. I just wish we would see a bear. We visited the Many Glacier Lodge, a statement in rustic elegance. Next trip I want to spend at least one night in one of these lodges. They all seem to also have sweet cabins. There are actually lots of places to stay in the park. We are about a half hour out of the park and we are getting very familiar with all the tourist shops along the way.
Neal and Gabriel took long hikes but different trails. This time I brought a book to keep me company. It is really nice to just sit with the windows down and read while listening to the wind in the trees.
We stopped in a museum/shop in Black foot Nation on our way home. The young lady working there really did not want to be there and she kind of killed the experience.
We came home around 6:15 and rested a bit before dinner.
We ate at the Tupelo Grill. I had one of the best steaks I ever had in my life. I guess beef is the name of the game in Montana. We sure have seen a lot of cattle wandering along the roads. They wear cute little colored earrings. I guess that is how you tell which cow is yours.
Then it was home and to bed.
Tuesday morning we worked harder at getting an early start. We were out of the room at 7:30. This meant no coffee on the porch but the plan was to get into the park earlier.
We got tickets for an 11:00 boat ride on McDonald Lake. This is the largest but not the deepest lake in the park. I think it was bout 450 feet deep at the deepest part. You get the boat outside McDonald Lodge so we visited another amazing lodge. This one was older and less formal. I liked it a lot better. The fire place was as tall as I am.
The boat ride was nice because the guide did a lot of explaining and my describers got a break. We sat up top and were outside for the entire hour. I think I am getting wind burn.
When we were getting off the boat we smelled the most amazing cooking smells. Although, we have been eating car snacks for lunch, we were drawn into the lodge dining room. We all had steak sandwiches that were to die for. I had Huckleberry ice tea. This is huckleberry season and since it is only three weeks long it is a big deal here. These berries cannot be cultivated.
Next we were off to find a good trail that would suit all of us. We found one although it was not the one we were looking for. We walked about 2 miles and we heard a couple of hidden animals. One of them was pretty big. We heard it snap a big branch and then it got very quiet. You are supposed to make lots of noise when you ear a bear but we are so in need of seeing one that we stood perfectly still until we were quite sure what ever it was was hiding from us. When we got back to our car we met two people who said they saw a black bear with a cub cross the road just a bit away from where we were. Maybe it was a bear.
On our way home we stopped at the Fur Trading Company and saw really lovely art and Native American work. The owner let me touch the animal skins and I got a good look at a mountain lion. Now I am not so glad we were so quiet on that path.
For dinner we went to the farmers market in White Fish and had ribs. This farmers market was huge. What a great idea to have this in the evening during the week. The fresh vegetables looked tempting but then I am not feeling drawn to cooking.
Now we are all exhausted. Gabriel might make it down to the pool but I think Neal and I are done for the night.