2018-23
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Glacier National Park, Red Bus tour
Going To the Sun Road |
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| Glacier National Park |
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| Glacier National Park |
Philipsburg Montana
Kalispell Montana
Glacier National
Park
Campground:
Flathead County Fairgrounds, Kalispell. $20.00 30 and 50 amp
electric available. Water also available and a dump station is free
at Gas station across the street if filling up with fuel. Odd
arrangement of places to park ones camper, where ever there is an
electric box to connect too. I’m in the parking lot, next to a
telephone pole with an electric outlet. 50 amp. New restrooms also
have nice showers. They have 2 hr, 4 hr and 8 hr tours. I settled
on the 4 hour tour along the “going to the Sun road” to Logan’s
Pass and back.
Well before I left
the Drummond Montana area, I drove south along hwy 1 to Philipsburg.
It is a former mining town that still has some mines producing
Garnets and we tourists can pan for them right in town. The town is
a bit touristy but still has the old mining town charm. I also found
out there’s a couple of campgrounds around Georgetown lake that
might be a great place to enjoy the area for a week or two.
Exploring the old ghost towns in the area and maybe taking in one of
the local theater summer productions would be fun or maybe slipping
into the Oldest continuous operating bar in Montana for a cool one.
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| Philipsburg |
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Philipsburg, noted for a large candy store
they even had a section of sugar free candy
and chocolate, yum |
I even stopped into
the Ohrmann Museum and Gallery. A local farmer started to make metal
sculptures of large animals and birds during his off time farming,
eventually taking up painting and wood carving as well. His son now
carries on the tradition as well. An interesting stop one would not
find without going down those back roads. The artist’s wife
continues to open the gallery most days and I enjoyed looking around
and talking to her.
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| serene Montana landscapes |
Distance traveled:
168 miles
Kalispell is close
to Glacier national Park, which is almost devoid of glaciers. I’ll
be touring it on an historic red bus on Saturday and I’m getting to
visit with Cooper and Tracey who are working at KOA just north of
town. They tell me the average RV site costs $89.00. I think you
can see why I’m staying at a county fairgrounds.
Along with enjoying a nice couple of visits and awesome dinner
prepared by Cooper and Tracey, I’ve been working on an issue with
my Motorola Verizon phone. Numerous visits to the Verizon store, and
hours talking with the Motorola representatives on the phone, you
know the ones that speak English with an Indian or Pakistan accent.
I finally gave up after more than an hour and twenty minutes and
begged to speak to an American English speaking person. Which took
all of 10 minutes to complete the transaction. Which involves
having a phone sent to me, I in turn will return my “out of
warranty” phone to Motorola. Final cost should be around $150.
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Cooper, Tracey and Doug
enjoying their favorite Hot Wing night out |
Tracey, Cooper and I went into Kalispell this morning and had a nice
breakfast at the Montana Coffee Traders, sitting outside enjoying
some good weather, and of course the all important cup of coffee and
a nice historic part of the downtown area before heading over to the
Conrad Mansion. 90% of the original furnishings are intact and the
woodwork and condition of the home is just perfection. We had an
excellent tour, but no photos are permitted inside so I’ll share a
link so you can check out the website that has a number of pictures.
Afterwards we really enjoyed spending some time walking the grounds
as the flowers and landscape are stunning. One possible reason that
the home was so complete and intact is that after the daughter
inherited half of the estate and eventually purchased the other half
before running out of money, she and her new husband became hoarders.
To the point that they eventually had to move out of the house into
a trailer parked out back because there was no room left in the
house. A strange and odd ending before the city was given the house
and only accepted it after being assured it would not cost the city
one cent of tax dollars for the upkeep. Fortunately the home is
being supported by our tour dollars and the fact that overall it was
in pretty good shape when it was donated to the city.
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| Conrad Mansion. Gardens were spectacular |
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Holly Hocks, a favorite remember
from growing up in Northern Michigan |
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| Tracy and Cooper showing off their new home |
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| no photos permitted inside the house |
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| poppy |
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| nearby historic homes |
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| nearby historic homes |
Day trip: 38 miles
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| 1937 restored Red Bus tours |
Like many travelers and Rv-ers in the U.S. I have enjoyed many of our
National Parks, Monuments and preserves.
Glacier National Park has
never been particularly on my bucket list of places to go, but when I
found myself in the area, of course I had to add it to the list of
parks I’ve visited.
I made no attempt to try and stay in the National Park as far as
camping goes, but instead I’m staying about 40 minutes away in
Kalispell. Everyone has been telling me that getting on the Red Bus
tours is difficult and reservations need to be made well in advance.
I checked online for making reservations and after finding out that
my first pick for a Friday morning departure was booked, the site
said, do you want to see what is available? Sure, I opened up that
window and discovered there were many openings for the next week
including one for Saturday morning. Of course I booked it and paid
online.
The Red Bus tours are one of the best ways to tour the park by
vehicle, as the roads quickly become congested and pull-out viewing
areas are often full. The historic 1937 buses of which the park has
37 refurbished buses in operation, I think is the best way to go.
95% of the park is designated wilderness, with no roads, only
hundreds of miles of hiking trails to enjoy all that back country.
So ultimately, Glacier National Park is for the hiker or horse back
rider. I expected to find little to no glaciers in the park and
therefore was not overly disappointed at seeing only small patches of
snow in shaded areas on the mountain ranges. Global warming has
speed-ed up the decline of glaciers globally and this park is a prime
example of that.
Our tour guide/bus driver was a non-stop talker, barely taking a
second to inhale before continuing his cheesy puns, jokes and attempt
at humor. Along with exhaustive details on the naming of every
mountain peak, valley, lake, river the mountain goat. Ok I might be
overstating the issue with that last one. At one point he even sang
his own songs and poems about the majesty of the park. Though the
historic info was of interest, I think I would have preferred the
Cliff Notes version.
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| views from the Red Bus |
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narrow two lane road
but good solid stone walls |
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| rear view mirror of my fellow passengers |
The scenery was pretty grand and I did have a front seat to it all,
having claimed dibs on the front passenger seat. The garden road
though a bit precarious along the edge of the mountain as we
continued our climb up the side of the mountain range was not scary
as our driver took is slowly around every mountain curve and the
solid stone walls guarded us somewhat from going over the edge.
Overall is was an enjoyable 4 hour tour, though not anywhere near the
top of my list of favorite places to visit.
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| plenty of pull-outs for picture taking |
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| line between past forest fires and thick old growth forests |
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| waterfalls in the distance |
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| On the edge views |
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| patches of snow, but no real glaciers |
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| deep valley views |
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Up at Logan's Pass, nice nature paths to get
close to the few snow fields |
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| view from Logan's Pass |
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| prairie dog |
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| Logan's Pass |
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| do you see the rabbit? |
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| that's about it folks, all the snow that remains |
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| our return route |
Well, I think that’s more than enough info for this weekly blog
report.
More Photos:
Campground:
Flathead County Fairgrounds, Kalispell. $20.00 30 and 50 amp
electric available. Water also available and a dump station is free
at Gas station across the street if filling up with fuel. Odd
arrangement of places to park ones camper, where ever there is an
electric box to connect too. I’m in the parking lot, next to a
telephone pole with an electric outlet. 50 amp. New restrooms also
have nice showers. They have 2 hr, 4 hr and 8 hr tours. I settled
on the 4 hour tour along the “going to the Sun road” to Logan’s
Pass and back.
