Montana

Thursday, July 7
We got into Montana on Thursday, It doesn't get dark until 10:30 at night! We stayed up late every night, and the sun comes up around 4-5 in the morning. Our drive took us along lakes and rivers, I have hundreds of picture of the sky reflecting off the water, it was so very awesome. At night the stars appear so close you should be able to reach out and touch them.

We camped at Mariners Haven

And drove to an Amish community in Rexford

We left there around 7, but still had a lot of driving time before it got dark.

We drove very close to the Canadian border

 The big Montana sky is BEAUTIFUL!!!

We camped at this place that had a lookout for mountain gaots.

 Then went into Gacier National Park on Saturday morning

 We got a campsite early in the morning, around 8, set up, then went hiking on this 3.5 mile trail that was closed any farther because of bear danger.

 SNOW!!! July 9th

Sunday morning we went to St. Mary Lake and took a boat cruise.  It stopped for a guided hike about 3 miles to a big waterfall, hiked back to the dock, then a boat rode back again. The "Going to the Sun" road was closed. so this was the farthest into the park we were able to go.

We drove to Columbia Falls Sunday evening. Monday we stopped at a produce stand across from our campsite. The owners are from Morgontown, PA, and knew my family. I got tomatoes, peppers and onions to make fresh salsa, a 1/2 bushel of apples,

and more fruit.

I also made potato salad.

We were at Marion and Sara's Monday evening...

(Sunday... We are in Glacier National Park, it is quite beautiful. Friday we were in Amish country, near Rexford, Montana. That was a refreshing change of pace, and turkey dinner was delicious. We saw mountain goats where we were camped Friday night. Early yesterday morning we drove to Many Glaciers, on the west side of the park. We got a campsite beside a majestic mountain, near a rushing stream, and hiked to St. Mary lake. Many waterfalls and glacier lakes, deer, even played in the snow!!! It was really cold early morning and late evening, perfect hiking weather!. The road through the center of the park is closed because of snowfall. Going to the Sun Road has about 30 feet of snow at some places. No bears, but maybe today... There are more bears in the area because of the late snow. Today we plan to take a boat tour and do more hiking. We had no phone or wifi service at the campsite, but here at Saint Mary we have a little.)