I'm writing this final blog entry from the Glacier Park International Airport. It has rained in Kalispell the last two days, so we were not able to do our last planned hike at Two Medicine. We spent Friday driving around Flathead Lake. Spent a quiet evening in the condo and packing for Saturday. (BTW, the LA Kings won the Stanley Cup Friday night in case there are some hockey fans out there - I'm not.)
Saturday we left the condo around 9am and had breakfast at the Montana Coffee Traders in Columbia Falls. We then headed into Whitefish for some window shopping around downtown. It wasn't all window shopping though, because we found a store like REI where I was able to buy something that I had to ship home (Can't say what since Father's Day is tomorrow).
After leaving Whitefish, we headed into Kalispell and went to a store call Cabela's Outfitters. It was one of the more unique stores I've ever seen. It sells anything outdoor-related that you would do in Montana - kayaking, fishing, hiking, archery, and hunting.
We then headed to the airport for our 4pm flight.
Thanks so much for reading our blog and enjoying the pictures we posted. Montana is really God's Country and Linda and I felt very blessed and fortunate to spend a small amount of time there. Hopefully we can come back again someday.
Adios.
Tony and Linda
Saturday, June 14, 2014
Friday, June 13, 2014
Day 6 - Thursday June 12
Today we golfed at our timeshare resort - Meadow Lake. It's convenient that the pro shop was about 50 yards away. We enjoyed a relaxing breakfast watching the US Open golf tournament from Pinehurst until about 10:30. I then headed over to the pro shop to get a golf cart and drive back to the condo for us to load it up.
Our tee time was at noon, so we had about one hour to warm up and hit some balls on the range.
What follows are pics from the tee boxes and greens. Along the way, we saw various animals and flowers. Here's Hole 1, par 4. White 370 yards (I'll play from here). Yellow 334 yards (Linda playing from here). First shot is a carry over a stream:
Hole 2, par 3, White 162, yellow 133:
Linda teeing off on Hole 2, par 3:
Hole 3, first par 5 of the day, #1 Handicap (most difficult rating), White 569, Yellow 515:
Hole 3 fairway about 300+ yards out:
Hole 3 green:
Par 4, doglog left, big hill coming on next shot, White 337, Yellow 302:
Up the hill to the Hole 4 green:
Hole 4 green:
Hole 5: Elevated par 3, stream fronting the green, White 159, Yellow 126:
Hole 5 green. Linda's looking for a ball near the creek:
Look Bubba and Sissy, Grandma found a catepillar!
Hole 6: White 411, Yellow 345, Forgot to take the tee box picture, but here's its green. Nice house in back of the green:
Hole 7 Par 5 with a weird double-dogleg, White 502, Yellow 484. First a left dogleg then a right dogleg uphill to the green:
Hole 7 green up the hill over a creek:
Hole 8, back to normal. Water on the right. Houses tight on the left, White 384, Yellow 355:
Hole 8 green:
Hole 9 tee box. Tight on left. Water right beyond the tall pine on the right side, White 339, Yellow 323:
Hole 9 green:
Hole 10 tee box, White 314, Yellow 288. Our condos on on the left side:
Linda hit the fairway and the ball stopped in front of our condo. We're on the second floor. Our picture glass window is above her left shoulder in this picture.
Hole 10 looking back towards tee box. The building is one of Meadow Lake's new timeshare buildings:
Hole 10 green:
Hole 11 tee box. Dogleg right. White 372, Yellow 333. My shot ended up in the trees on the right. Linda's shot hit the fairway about 10 yards in front of the bunker straight out.
Hole 11 green:
Hole 12 par 3. White 146, Yellow 120. My shot hit the green. Missed my birdie putt. Linda hit the left side of the green.
Sissy, here's a pretty flower for you:
Hole 13, par 5, #2 handicap, White 554, Yellow 431:
Hole 14 par 4, dogleg left, White 480, Yellow 440. My shot ended up between the trees on the left and the left-most bunker. Linda was just short of the right-most bunker.
Hole 14 green:
Hole 15, par 5, White 437, Yellow 411. The main feature here was a tall pine tree 50 yards in front of the green. You can see it looking straight down the fairway as the last tree on the left before the long line of trees.
Hole 16, par 3, White 136, Yellow 106. Their signature hole. We both hit on the green from our tee shot.
Hole 16 view from tee box:
The main resort buildings from the Hole 16 tee box:
Hole 17 par 4, White 340, Yellow 307. Straight shot down the hill.
Hole 17 green:
Hole 18, par 4, White 328, Yellow 312. Strange layout. The yellow pole identifies the landing area. There's water behind the pole. From there, the second shot looks left towards the green. You have to carry the pond.
Look, Samantha! Canadian Geese met us at the 18th green:
We didn't get rained on, but it was cloudy and humid during the round. We were feeling some discomfort from the golf cart exhaust (they use gas-powered carts, not electric ones like at home). We heard several folks talk about how hard the course was, but I can say that it was a good challenge and very scenic. It is a good course to play for a reasonable price.
Tomorrow (Friday) is our last full day in Montana. Our plan is to head to Glacier NP and head south and east like we did on Sunday towards the Two Medicine area for some final hikes. The weather looks to be rainy all day, so we'll play it by ear as far as what we'll be able to do. Here's a couple of pics from Sunday as to what the Two Medicine area looks like. The closest lake is Lower Two Medicine Lake. The second picture is zoomed and you can see our destination of Upper Two Medicine Lake:
Our tee time was at noon, so we had about one hour to warm up and hit some balls on the range.
What follows are pics from the tee boxes and greens. Along the way, we saw various animals and flowers. Here's Hole 1, par 4. White 370 yards (I'll play from here). Yellow 334 yards (Linda playing from here). First shot is a carry over a stream:
Hole 2, par 3, White 162, yellow 133:
Linda teeing off on Hole 2, par 3:
Hole 3, first par 5 of the day, #1 Handicap (most difficult rating), White 569, Yellow 515:
Hole 3 fairway about 300+ yards out:
Hole 3 green:
Par 4, doglog left, big hill coming on next shot, White 337, Yellow 302:
Up the hill to the Hole 4 green:
Hole 4 green:
Hole 5: Elevated par 3, stream fronting the green, White 159, Yellow 126:
Hole 5 green. Linda's looking for a ball near the creek:
Look Bubba and Sissy, Grandma found a catepillar!
Hole 6: White 411, Yellow 345, Forgot to take the tee box picture, but here's its green. Nice house in back of the green:
Hole 7 Par 5 with a weird double-dogleg, White 502, Yellow 484. First a left dogleg then a right dogleg uphill to the green:
Hole 7 green up the hill over a creek:
Hole 8, back to normal. Water on the right. Houses tight on the left, White 384, Yellow 355:
Hole 8 green:
Hole 9 tee box. Tight on left. Water right beyond the tall pine on the right side, White 339, Yellow 323:
Hole 9 green:
Hole 10 tee box, White 314, Yellow 288. Our condos on on the left side:
Linda hit the fairway and the ball stopped in front of our condo. We're on the second floor. Our picture glass window is above her left shoulder in this picture.
Hole 10 looking back towards tee box. The building is one of Meadow Lake's new timeshare buildings:
Hole 10 green:
Hole 11 tee box. Dogleg right. White 372, Yellow 333. My shot ended up in the trees on the right. Linda's shot hit the fairway about 10 yards in front of the bunker straight out.
Hole 11 green:
Hole 12 par 3. White 146, Yellow 120. My shot hit the green. Missed my birdie putt. Linda hit the left side of the green.
Sissy, here's a pretty flower for you:
Hole 13, par 5, #2 handicap, White 554, Yellow 431:
Hole 14 par 4, dogleg left, White 480, Yellow 440. My shot ended up between the trees on the left and the left-most bunker. Linda was just short of the right-most bunker.
Hole 14 green:
Hole 15, par 5, White 437, Yellow 411. The main feature here was a tall pine tree 50 yards in front of the green. You can see it looking straight down the fairway as the last tree on the left before the long line of trees.
Hole 16, par 3, White 136, Yellow 106. Their signature hole. We both hit on the green from our tee shot.
Hole 16 view from tee box:
The main resort buildings from the Hole 16 tee box:
Hole 17 par 4, White 340, Yellow 307. Straight shot down the hill.
Hole 17 green:
Hole 18, par 4, White 328, Yellow 312. Strange layout. The yellow pole identifies the landing area. There's water behind the pole. From there, the second shot looks left towards the green. You have to carry the pond.
Look, Samantha! Canadian Geese met us at the 18th green:
We didn't get rained on, but it was cloudy and humid during the round. We were feeling some discomfort from the golf cart exhaust (they use gas-powered carts, not electric ones like at home). We heard several folks talk about how hard the course was, but I can say that it was a good challenge and very scenic. It is a good course to play for a reasonable price.
Tomorrow (Friday) is our last full day in Montana. Our plan is to head to Glacier NP and head south and east like we did on Sunday towards the Two Medicine area for some final hikes. The weather looks to be rainy all day, so we'll play it by ear as far as what we'll be able to do. Here's a couple of pics from Sunday as to what the Two Medicine area looks like. The closest lake is Lower Two Medicine Lake. The second picture is zoomed and you can see our destination of Upper Two Medicine Lake:
Thursday, June 12, 2014
Day 5 - Wednesday June 11
Today was another hiking day back into Glacier NP. As we started the day in the condo over breakfast, we looked over the day hike literature and book to find a good hike around water. We were considering two options: Logging Lake north of the Visitor Center, or a walk on the north side of Lake McDonald with the Rocky Point Nature trail.
We entered the park and went to the Visitor Center to check with the ranger on road conditions and other considerations. She mentioned that the direct road from the Visitor Center to Logging Lake (Inside North Fork road) was closed after a few miles, so that removed Logging Lake as an option. She mentioned some hikes in the southern part of the park at Two Medicine which we're going to do on Friday. So, we set off to the Lake and Rocky Point hike.
After a two mile drive north, we came to a gravel parking lot at the trailhead. The trail started downhill through some typical forest scenery and a fast-moving stream.
We then proceeded down the trail and noticed some different plants (I couldn't help thinking that if our grandkids Daniel and Samantha were there with us, this would be as far as we would hike today because of the amount of flowers to pick and bugs to watch):
What was interesting about this particular area was that it endured a significant forest fire in 2003. Many of the tall trees had their bark stripped, branches burned, and missing green growth. It looked like many white-gray toothpicks pointing straight up to the sky. On the ground were many mosses and lower height plants giving new growth to the forest floor. The challenge of hiking this area was the absence of shade. It was rather warm at that time of day (11am to 2pm). We had great views of the lake and walked right on the edge of the water in a couple of places.
Here's our initial view of Lake McDonald from Rocky Point:
We had no specific destination in mind, but heard from the ranger that there was a primitive campground about three miles in. We decided to walk to this campground and turn around. That would give us a good six miles or so on the Lake trail and an overall eight mile hike over flat and easy terrain. As we headed downtrail, we could not see any trace of the campground. We only saw a handful of people at the Rocky Point area, but no one else on the trail heading inland. Since it was around noon, there was a low risk of a bear sighting, but we still had to be aware of our surroundings.
After what seemed to be about 90 minutes (and approximately four miles), we still had not seen the campground and decided to turn around. We returned the same way we came and ran into two guys backpacking to the same campground we were trying to find. They mentioned that the campground was probably another mile or two past where we turned around. Oh well.
We continued back and stopped at Rocky Point to eat lunch (We were one mile from the car). We found a nice rock outcropping and sent a postcard using the Postale app:
Glacier NP is God's Country and we're blessed to be here.
Tomorrow (Thursday), we're playing golf at our home resort of Meadow Lake. We will enjoy not leaving the condo too early and having some coffee while enjoying a relaxing morning. The birds and squirrels have little battles outside the condo which is rather entertaining.
We entered the park and went to the Visitor Center to check with the ranger on road conditions and other considerations. She mentioned that the direct road from the Visitor Center to Logging Lake (Inside North Fork road) was closed after a few miles, so that removed Logging Lake as an option. She mentioned some hikes in the southern part of the park at Two Medicine which we're going to do on Friday. So, we set off to the Lake and Rocky Point hike.
After a two mile drive north, we came to a gravel parking lot at the trailhead. The trail started downhill through some typical forest scenery and a fast-moving stream.
We then proceeded down the trail and noticed some different plants (I couldn't help thinking that if our grandkids Daniel and Samantha were there with us, this would be as far as we would hike today because of the amount of flowers to pick and bugs to watch):
What was interesting about this particular area was that it endured a significant forest fire in 2003. Many of the tall trees had their bark stripped, branches burned, and missing green growth. It looked like many white-gray toothpicks pointing straight up to the sky. On the ground were many mosses and lower height plants giving new growth to the forest floor. The challenge of hiking this area was the absence of shade. It was rather warm at that time of day (11am to 2pm). We had great views of the lake and walked right on the edge of the water in a couple of places.
Here's our initial view of Lake McDonald from Rocky Point:
We had no specific destination in mind, but heard from the ranger that there was a primitive campground about three miles in. We decided to walk to this campground and turn around. That would give us a good six miles or so on the Lake trail and an overall eight mile hike over flat and easy terrain. As we headed downtrail, we could not see any trace of the campground. We only saw a handful of people at the Rocky Point area, but no one else on the trail heading inland. Since it was around noon, there was a low risk of a bear sighting, but we still had to be aware of our surroundings.
After what seemed to be about 90 minutes (and approximately four miles), we still had not seen the campground and decided to turn around. We returned the same way we came and ran into two guys backpacking to the same campground we were trying to find. They mentioned that the campground was probably another mile or two past where we turned around. Oh well.
We continued back and stopped at Rocky Point to eat lunch (We were one mile from the car). We found a nice rock outcropping and sent a postcard using the Postale app:
Glacier NP is God's Country and we're blessed to be here.
Tomorrow (Thursday), we're playing golf at our home resort of Meadow Lake. We will enjoy not leaving the condo too early and having some coffee while enjoying a relaxing morning. The birds and squirrels have little battles outside the condo which is rather entertaining.
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