The National Parks of Montana & North Dakota - Week 5

Our next planned destination was Whitefish, Montana (just outside of Glacier NP) to stay with the very generous Shelley and Abe McCoy, long time family friends of the Natenbergs. The McCoy's brilliant annual migration involves spending May-September in Whitefish and October-April in Texas. 

Our first full day there we hiked up Whitefish Mountain on the Danny On Trail. This beautiful 4 mile hike wound through stands of spruce, fir, and pine forest with the occasional open field of wildflowers where the ski runs are in the winter. 

Abe & Shelley McCoy with us at the top of Whitefish Mountain. 

The top of Whitefish Mountain had a nature center that involved my favorite exhibit yet in an interpretive center: plastic, but very realistic, animal scat models! S got a kick out of it too, since one of her favorite topics of conversation these days is poop.

In the interest of nap time, we took the "Scenic Lift" gondola down the mountain instead of hiking another 4 miles. 

And now...a brief montage of a very happy Hudson. 

Chalet McCoy has an incredible upper deck which looks out on 10+ acres of wooded beauty with the mountains of Glacier NP in the distance. Hudson spent 2 glorious and unsanctioned outings chasing deer and wild turkeys on their land. 

Our second day we hiked the Lion Mountain trail in the morning and played on the "beach" on Whitefish Lake in the afternoon. You can see the ski runs on Whitefish Mountain in the background of this photo. 

Our last day in Whitefish we made a day of it and drove into Glacier NP. Mike and I visited Glacier on a road trip in 2005 and were blown away by the beauty, so we were very excited to return and to share it with S, especially before it loses it's namesake to climate change.  

We got up early to ensure there wasn't much traffic on Going to the Sun Road, the singular and stunningly beautiful east-west through-road in the park that runs along a sheer mountainside for much of the way. 

 

Learning from our past mistakes adventuring with a toddler, we decided to stick to minimal stops and one big hike. We ended up hiking to Virginia Falls from St. Mary's Lake, on the east side of the park. This incredible hike: provided stunning views of St. Mary's Lake, crossed over aqua streams laden with glacial flour, showcased 4 postcard worthy waterfalls, and resulted in one incredible (and, luckily, safe) grizzly bear sighting! Syb was very excited to see her first real bear, especially considering "Going on a Bear Hunt" and "A Bear in the Woods Ate My Underwear" are two of her favorite songs. 

Virginia Falls

Tuckered out on the hike back along St. Mary's Lake.

While we were all sad to leave the creature comforts, hospitality, delicious healthy food, and world class vistas of Chalet McCoy, we were excited to move on to see good friends at our next planned destinations: Minneapolis, Minnesota and Long Lake, WI. 

But before we could get there, we had to endure the lows of the High Line. The day started out innocuous enough with a road side stop on the south side of Glacier NP (along Hwy 2) to view a herd of mountain goats. But after abruptly exiting the Rocky Mountains to the east of the park, the monotonous flatlands of eastern Montana set in. There are few camping opportunities in eastern Montana, but Mike found some dispersed camping opportunities at Beaver Creek Park south of Havre, so we pitched our tent after a very long day in the car with not many miles to show for it. 

The next morning we got up early (not difficult to do when the sun is up at 4:30 am) to grind out some miles. Evidence of the natural gas boom is all around you driving through North Dakota. Nearly every agricultural field has a gas well in the middle of it, with hastily built trailer camps every few miles for the itinerate truck drivers, welders, wildcatters, and machinists that come to work. And surrounded on all sides by miles and miles of drilling sits Theodore Roosevelt National Park & the Little Missouri National Grassland. 

The sheer joy that S brings to our adventures is indescribable. The simple act of putting up a tent is a party. 

The landforms are considered part of the badlands; they look similar to the Badlands of South Dakota but are much greener. 

Bison roam freely in this park, as you can see from the photo above of the enormous bison that walked through the campsite next to ours. Hudson was beside himself, and I had to quickly shove him into the car so he wouldn't further provoke it. We also spotted a family of 4 owlets in the tree right above our site. 

We left with a renewed sense of gratitude for our nation's protected places that afford much needed protection for the awesome creatures that we were lucky enough to observe, and the ones we weren't. 

Spokane and Idaho! the best kept secret in the NW - Week 4

Spokane in north eastern Washington is awesome!  Not only does it have the honor of being the home of the Allers, but it is a beautiful city with tons of trees and flowers, hills, a river, and a charming and accessible downtown.  On top of all of that it provides easy access to Idaho's mountains and forests to the east.

After arriving we spent the afternoon enjoying a walk to the park and playground followed by a home cooked meal.  It was great to catch up with Jim and Tracey.

Sybil and I took a walk the next morning to Duncan Garden just a short walk from the Allers' home.  She especially liked the pink flowers and fountains.

Hud and I are getting good at sneaking out for trail runs when Sybil is taking naps, thanks for covering Cara!  Jim directed me to the Bluffs, his favorite place to mountain bike and trail run close to home.  It was a great trail with a pretty steep drop off to the side of the narrow trails.  We were loving it and I couldn't imagine riding it.  Good reminder I need more time on my bike on trails.

That afternoon we went downtown to the children's museum and then Tracey treated Sybil to her first carousel ride!  I'll let Sybil speak for herself about whether or not she enjoyed it. :-)

After feeding Spokane's famous garbage eating goat and sliding down the huge radio flyer slide, Sybil enjoyed a riverside dinner.  One very hungry (and lost?) seagull provided her entertainment.

Family photo with the Allers!  Thanks for opening your home to us again.  We were off to explore the Idaho Panhandle National Forest next.

I love this photo.  This was our first time to really take in our little section of the Coeur d'Alene River near our campsite.

A creative lumberjack created this stump thrown.

While Cara was fly fishing in the pools nearby, Sybil, Hudson, and I lounged along the river bank wading, skipping stones, building rock towers, and sunbathing.

We've been lucky to find these precut logs in our campsites, which have served as perfect tables.

This root provided a perfect nature toilet for Syb!

Happy family about to begin the Route of the Hiawatha.  It would take awhile to get everyone happy again after the first tunnel.

The Hiawatha is an amazing Rails to Trails that is about 15 miles long through some beautiful national forest on the border of Idaho and Montana off I-90.  It's a gradual downhill ride for 15 miles that passes through several tunnels and over hugely high trestle bridges.  It was a beautiful sunny day and perfect for a ride.  We were warned about the first tunnel, which is over 1.5 miles long, pitch black, and really cold (30s/40s), and tried to prepare Sybil.  She was justifiably freaked out, and spent the first 10 minutes of the ride crying and worried another tunnel was coming up.  "I don't want to be brave," was repeated over and over.  The tunnels gradually got shorter and her courage grew so that by the time we had to ride back through the first long tunnel at the end of the ride she hardly made a whimper and quietly and bravely rode through the dark and cold.

Just past the first tunnel.

Thanks to a tenant of the Machine's that left behind a bunch of child gear.  The Spiderman helmet and rear child seat worked perfectly!

Syb's first bus ride, that drove us back up the mountain to the first tunnel.

View from the Route of the Hiawatha.  We would later ride over the trestle bridge pictured in the background.

 

We celebrated that night back at camp with S'mores!

After two nights in the Idaho woods, we were refreshed and ready to hit the road headed east/northeast to Whitefish, Montana to stay with the McCoy's, long time family friends from Spring, TX.  It's been over a decade since we've been back in the Glacier area, and we are pumped for more mountains, trees, glacial lakes, cool temps, and hiking.  Here we come Montana!

Seattle & Friday Harbor - Week 3

Syb demanded that we only travel through states with recreational marijuana laws, so we continued north to Washington state. 

Actually, our whole road trip was originally designed around our next destination: Friday Harbor, on the San Juan Islands (see below for geography lesson).

In admirable fashion, our good friends Tessa and Damien quit their jobs in the Bay Area and moved up to Friday Harbor, 2 kids in tow, in January for a sort of life sabbatical. Continually gracious about opening their house up to visitors, Tessa offered to host a group of friends (we call ourselves the "Grey Area") this summer. 

Hudson is getting very good at photo bombing. We had some time to burn before boarding our ferry to Friday Harbor, so we had a picnic lunch at a beautiful hilltop park in Anacortes, Washington complete with a magnificent vista. 

Tessa and Damien's oceanside paradise. Just behind in the picture is a perfect little beach to explore. The kids enjoyed collecting crabs, viewing bald eagles, and launching the kayaks from there between the shifting tides. 

It's either cherry season or Sybil ate the raw heart of a harbor seal, you decide. 

I'm in my happy place here: sunlight, cup of coffee, good friends, and a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle. It was a team effort, but we finished it in a couple of days with only one late night of puzzling. 

Tina and Syb on a walk down to a beach with some neat tidal pools at San Juan National Historic Park. From what I gathered from the informational placards, the most significant historic thing to occur here was a war between the British and the Americans that was almost fought over a pig. If you have 9 minutes to burn in your life, here's an overly detailed account for your daily history lesson. Cliff's notes: diplomacy works...kind of, mediated arbitration works, we don't need walls, and park rangers are awesome! 

Exploring tidal pools at Grandma's Cove. Tidal pool creature count: 1 star fish, 1 large crab, 2 hermit crabs, and tons of sea anemone. 

This is the whole crew on the final morning. That morning was our first taste of the chaos of 6 kids, 9 adults, and 1 dog in one living room, and it was a blast! Unfortunately, we just missed the Pasternak crew as they left the day before we got there. 

We're so grateful to Tessa and Damien for opening up their incredible home to the love and laughter, and chaos and destruction that comes with that many visitors (our family alone managed to break at least 3 of their things). It's a beautiful place and special thing they're doing there, and it was a joy to be a part of it for 3 days. 

When we got back to the mainland, we stayed with Deb and Chris Schiebe. After many years of looking up to her as an incredible player and calm presence on the field, I was fortunate to get to play with Deb on the 2009 World Games team in Taiwan. Her and her husband have an awesome house in Seattle and we had a few relaxing days hanging out with them and their two awesome boys. 

Their neighborhood holds an annual car show, when car enthusiasts of all types park their cars (mostly historic remodels) along a 2 mile long stretch of the main road. It was really neat to see the old fire engines, pick up trucks, mini cars, hot rods, and campers. 

We also explored their favorite park, Carkeek Park, and invented possibly the world's best lawn game: Giant Bubble Disc. 

In a stroke of awesome, my brother Andy, sister in law Nadine, and niece Kaya were also in Seattle on vacation from Austin, so we arranged to briefly meet for some kettle corn and hugs at the Ballard Farmer's Market. 

We're off to start the second leg of our summer long road trip adventure through the northern states of the U.S. First stop is the Machine's (Aller's) house in Spokane, Washington, popular from such blogs as: the very blahg you're currently reading from 2005. Adventure!