Glacier NP - West

What a great park!  So many amazing views and vistas, tons of hiking trails, just fantastic.  But not a lot of glaciers.  They are melting and it is expected by 2030 the glaciers will be gone.  We started on the west side of the park and spent one week in Hungry Horse.  From there we headed to the eastern side and spent a week in St. Mary.  This post is from the west side.  We took over 100 pictures on the est side but I've selected only a few.  And I'll let these few do the talking.

'Nuff said!

Reynlods Creek Fire - Glacier NP

About the time we got to Hungry Horse on the west side the park the Reynolds Creek fire had been burning a few days.  It started on July 21st. It was about 3,600 acres and working its way eastward. The Going to the Sun road had been closed at Logan Pass because the fire (on the eastern side of the park) was burning close to and across the road.  All activities and trails were open on the west side we just could not take Going to the sun road all the way across.  We could see smoke but other than the road closure everything was normal.

We had actually planned to not take the road all the way as we were scheduled to be on the east side in St. Mary the next week.  So the road closure did not hurt our plans.  We drove to Logan Pass did some great hiking and went back to Hungry Horse.  By the time we got to the east side of the park in the town of St. Mary we could see smoke and as the wind shifted the entire area we were in filled with smoke.  At times we could not see the mountain on the other side of the lake.

Here are just a few pics...

Smoke as seem from our campground in the evening.

A tent city sprung up where all the fire fighters slept.  It was interesting to see 10 - 15 truck loads of fire fighters coming out of the park each night.  There were over 600 personnel fighting the fire.
This is a very small portion of the tent city.  By the time we left there were still 300+ personnel working the fire

We had little hope of the Going to the sun Road opening before we were to leave St. Mary.  On our last day the road opened and we took the drive from St. Mary to Logan Pass.  It was amazing to see the burned out forest.  The fire burned down to and across the road in several places and burned down to the lake several more places.

 These pictures of the burn were all taken from our car as we drove thru.  There was no stopping on the road way. But the fire burned down to the road and across it then burned on down to the lake.

Each morning our campground got a report on the previous day's fire activity and a plan for that day.  The report included lots of information.  For one it seems that this fire was started by an illegal campfire that some one had left unattended.  Over all close to 4,000 acres burned.  The fire was not out when we left and most locals said it would smolder and burn until the first good snow fall in early winter.  The report also indicated that up to the day we left the fire had cost $10.4 million.

In the scheme of things this was a very small fire compared to all the fires in California, Oregon and Washington, but as minor as it was nationally, it really hurt the local economy because so many tourists did not come.

Missoula, Montana

Missoula was just a stop over but we did plan to stay for a week.  Diana has a relative who attended The University of Montana, which is in Missoula.  So after many texts back and for we had an idea of things to do.

We hit one of the local breweries (of course) and found a great beer.  Then we found a Greek Festival that just happened to be going on about 2 blocks away then discovered a great ice cream shop near by.  Stopped back at the brewery and got a growler filled.  Day one was great!

On the campus of the U is a large hill/mountain.  The students have placed a large M on the side of the hill that faces the campus.  One of the things to to was to "hike the M".  It was a great hike with great views of the valley.

We attended a baseball game.  The Missoula Osprey hosting the Helena Brewers.  This is a summer league of the advanced rookies.  A fun night but not great baseball.  We had some rain during the 4th inning and then a great rainbow came out and lasted a long time.

China - the wedding

The wedding was fantastic.  A lot of symbolism and ritual and wonderful to see.  The couple had to serve tea to the parents, cut a lock of each others hair and a few other things that are not part of an American wedding. Fanny, the bride wore 3 different dresses.  A western style white gown,

Then a traditional red for the actual ceremony.  Red is the color of happiness in China, white is the color for sadness and mourning.

Ben even wore the traditional wedding attire.

Love the head gear!

And finally a dress for the reception.  Don't ask about Ben's hat.  I'll just say it has a Polish tradition, not Chinese.

After all that she changed again and went out to party with Ben, family and friends.

It was a beautiful ceremony and we are glad we were there.

An RVers dream day

We stopped in Mosses Lake, Washington for one or two nights, we weren't sure.  We were staying at an Elks lodge and really had a few days to kill.  The first evening I went into the lodge to chat with the local members.  I learned that instead of continuing east on I-90 to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, there was another way.

So we left the next morning and headed north on 17 to Soap Lake not really knowing what to expect.  Soap Lake is a small community built around the lake.  The lake is very high in mineral content and is nick named the "Healing Water".  Native Americans used to come here for the healing effects of the water.  The lake has since been diluted with irrigation run off and other "modern" issues.  But people still come to enjoy the water, pack themselves with mud and enjoy the day.  We were in the RV and pulling the Jeep so we were not sure what we might be able to do because of parking restrictions.  But we got to Soap Lake and found a huge parking lot right by the lake.  We took a quick walk to the water and said "lets go in".

Here we sat for about an hour getting mineralized...is that a word?

From there we continued along a beautiful drive beside the lake and river.  Then we came across Dry Falls.  This is the largest water fall in the world except it is dry.  As glaciers formed melted and reformed they blocked water fro the Columbia River valley and it was forced to this area.  There was so much water and such great force that massive area were flooded, and great cliffs were carved.

We continued the drive on Hwy 155 toward Grand Coulee Dam.  Again the scenery was fantastic, the drive easy and the day beautiful.  We toured Grand Coulee Dam and learned it is about 3 times bigger than Hover dam.  It is wider, produces more electricity, controls more water and except for being slightly shorter is much bigger in every category.

On the drive to the dam we had seen several campgrounds and lots of boon docking spots along Bank Lake.  So after the the dam tour, we drove back and camped by the lake for the night.

This is the sun set.

This, to us, was a perfect day.  Easy drive, beautiful scenery,  plenty of time and places to stop, topped off by boon docking by a lake.  All this because of a few beers with the Moses Lake Elks!

Chian part 3

We are back!  What a great time we had.  We took over 1200 pictures and I promise to not post all of them. I'm not sure how I'm going to structure this but I see a series of posts on various parts of our trip.  These will take some time as we need to edit the pics first. 

We did have a great time.  The first part of the tour was with a tour company and we had 8 other folks with us.  Our guide was amazing in many ways.  The next part we spent 4 days in Shanghai on our own then we flew to Shenyang to meet up with the Beatty family and participate in the wedding.

An odd thing about the international date line.  We left Beijing at 4 in the afternoon and arrived in Seattle at 1 in the afternoon of the same day.  So we arrived before we left!  Awesome!

I'll post China info as pictures become available.

Going to China Part 2

After a few minor delays we got our passports and visa for China.  They came by FedEx while we were in Dayton, Oregon.  Yesterday, June 5, we got our travel documents from Alexander and Roberts, the tour company we are booked with.  We are now in Kent, Washington about 30 minutes from the airport.  So at this point we have all our documents and our airline tickets. 

We are parked in an RV park and will leave both the RV and the Jeep here while we are gone.  We will have electricity to the RV so we don't have to clear out the refrigerator and shut everything down.  Even better the cost of the RV park per day is actually less than if we parked the car at the airport even in lots off property.This is working out so well it is scary.

Looks like China is a GO!