Roving Reports by Doug P: 2018-23 Philipsburg , Kalispell and Glacier National Park

2018-23

Glacier National Park, Red Bus tour
Going To the Sun Road

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.

Philipsburg

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.

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.

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.

Conrad Mansion. Gardens were spectacular

Holly Hocks, a favorite remember
from growing up in Northern Michigan

Tracy and Cooper showing off their new home

no photos permitted inside the house

poppy

nearby historic homes

The home has been featured on A&E Castles of America. Link to online photos.

Glacier National Park

Day trip: 38 miles

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.

views from the Red Bus

narrow two lane road
but good solid stone walls

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.