Right past the Fairmont Hot Springs is the town of Butte. There is always something to see anywhere. The highlight of Butte was a the “Our Lady of the Rockies” statue, which happens to be the 4th largest statue in the United States. The Statue of Liberty is only the 2nd tallest. The tallest is in Puerto Rico, the “Birth of the New World” (a Christopher Columbus and his ship). The 3rd largest is in Florida of a “Pegasus and Dragon”. Yes Chloe, we will go see and take pictures for you :). And this Lady of the Rockies is the 4th. We did not take the tour to go up, but Edwin did take a picture through binoculars just so we could show it off.
The other highlight that Butte has to offer is the one of the first and largest Superfund sites in America, the Berkeley Pit. It is 1 mile long by 1/2 mile wide and 1,780’ deep. It was a large copper and silver mine in the mid 1800s. It was closed on Earth Day in 1982 and the pit is filling with water but it is heavily laden with metals. They are working hard to divert the water before the it reaches the water table (which is supposed to happen in 2020) because then it will contaminate all the drinking water in Butte and the surrounding area, the Clark-Fork River. Pretty awful. We were there before 9 when you could go to the viewing platform so of course we just went up the hill to look over. Edwin could see the “lake” but I couldn’t so I climbed the fence until Edwin yelled at me to get do-win because he could hear the alarm sounding in the distance from me climbing up there. There’s a pic below of Edwin helping me down so I didn’t get hurt from the fence up top. Edwin was not so happy. Vera ran back to the RV scared the police were going to come. I just wanted a look…. 👀 🙂
really?still didn’t figure out why it was named the Berkeley Pitwe would have gone to the viewing platform had it been openyou can see the miningcan see the the lake in the pitthanks for getting me downit’s on private land built after his wife survived cancerwe weren’t about to take a bus up there but here’s the view from near the Berkeley Pit
We’ll miss you Glacier. We took the northern route back to Coeur d’Alene through Whitefish and Libby, Montana.
Back when we originally moved to CDA, Whitefish was where I wanted to move to. It’s a cute little mountain ski town. The girls were saying… “it reminds us of Truckee”.
We went to the Great Northern Railway Museum in town. It’s currently the most travelled train route in North America. And the stop in Whitefish, Montana is the most popular stop between Seattle and Chicago.
Whitefish is a great little town to stop through, cute downtown (including a great little thrift store where everyone scored) and yummy food.
We also stopped at Kootenai Falls near Libby. Kootenai falls is a sacred space for the Kootenai Indians. It also served as a geographic barrier between the 2 bands of the Kootenai Indians, those that lived above and below the falls. We happened to get there just as we saw some kayakers heading down the falls, very fun to watch. The swinging bridge was also quite fun.
Then met an old co-worker of Edwin’s for a beer and then some good friends for dinner.
the reason for so much western developmentpretty sure Edwin wore the unimog sweatshirt today since he ran into one yesterday but wasn’t wearing it 😉i love how all these old things still workwhen things used to be “made in the USA”great little thrift store in Whitefish. Woods & Water. Isabella even bartered a trade in of an old dress for a new dress. thanks again, isabella was stoked.lots of eagles up in this areaKootenai Fallskayakers heading down the fallsevidence of being an old stream bedthe swinging bridge does move quite a bit.Vera pointed out that these are the bridges in movies that always “snap”are you enjoying the walk Daisy?fossilized stromatolites back in IdahoDoes it count if you take a picture of a state sign that you passed with binoculars?the one we missed on the way in 🙂catching up with JTwe ❤️ u Enloe’s 💕 a real life mini ewok little oreo 🐰
It was a cold, kind of rainy morning and Edwin caught a bit of a head cold, so we did some needed cleaning in the RV, went to the visitor center to get some more info and get the kids their junior ranger badges, and did some biking around the trails. Every day in Glacier has been great. We somehow didn’t have enough time to make a 10 mile hike to one of the big glacier lakes…didn’t quite realize we would’ve had to drive a few hours to the other side of the park and then start the hike…probably would’ve happened had we continued East, but we are heading back to Coeur d’Alene tomorrow to make our way back to the Bay Area for a few days, so it was too much of a detour. We definitely won’t be able to cross everything off the list on this trip, but now we’ll know how to do for the next time.
Here’s some good history/fun facts for you if anyone is interested…
George Bird Grinnell visited Glacier in the late 1800s and began lobbying the government for this place he coined the “Crown of the Continent” to become a national park. Glacier National Park became a park in 1910 under President William Howard Taft.
At the time 3 Native American tribes existed in the territory. The Blackfeet, the Kootenai, and the Salish.
The Canadian side of Glacier National Park is known as Waterton Lakes National Park. They were established separately and are managed independently. In 1932 the US Congress and Canadian Parliament declared the parks be joined to commemorate the long-standing peace between the 2 countries. Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park was established and became the worlds first International Peace Park.
What is a GLACIER? to be a glacier it must have 3 things… 1) be 100 feet thick. 2) 25 acres in area. 3) must be moving
In 1850 there were a reported 130 glaciers in the park. As of today only 26 “ish” remain.
Sadly, by the year 2030 there will be NO more glaciers in what is known as Glacier National Park…only a little more than 10 years from now.
A little about climate change, global warming or whatever name you want to put on it… (and feel free to correct me if I have some misinformation #Alyssa, if you’re reading this 🙂
12,000 years ago the world was 7 degrees cooler than it is today. In the last 100 years the temperature has raised 2 degrees. It’s not so much about the temperature rising…but the RATE OF CHANGE. Our plants and animals (including us) are smart and can adapt to change, but we are not used to adapting to such changes so quickly.
The reason for the temperature rising…is the amount of carbon in our atmosphere. Carbon is NOT a bad thing. All organic materials/compounds are carbon based. The problem is the amount. Things such as forests and oceans are “carbon sinks” and they absorb and store carbon into their ecosystems at a rate of ~6 billion tons of carbon per year. Then we have things such as volcanoes and forest fires, or other natural sources (even though humans are natural, we are put into a different category for this model) that are “carbon deposits” and put in ~2 billion tons of carbon per year. Humans, another “carbon depositer”, we put in ~8 billion tons of carbon per year. The issue is this “imbalance” and we have an excess of ~4 billion tons of carbon in our atmosphere.
Carbon is a greenhouse gas. Our UV in the atmosphere reacts with greenhouse gases such as CO2, methane, etc… and “stimulates” or “excites” them. Our atmosphere can only “absorb” so much of these gases and the “heat” that these “excited greenhouse gases produce” is what causes the increase in temperature. Again, the problem is not so much that our temperature is increasing, but the RATE of change.
So…a thing to remember…we come to national parks and are mindful. It is IMPORTANT to remember that our state parks, community parks, and more importantly our OWN BACKYARDS need the same level of care.
Here’s a quick/easy one if you’re still reading :). Currently, as bears are about to go into hibernation, it is called “hyperplasia”. They can eat up to 100,000 berries in one day.
And I’ll end with some rhyming fun…Allie the Algae took a “Lichen” to Freddy the Fungus and now they’re relationship is on the rocks or up in the trees. Lichen is not a fungus or algae but a “hybrid” and grows along rocks and on the bark of trees.
“losing its namesake” glaciers will be gone by 2030the Going To The Sun Road was an engineering featU.S. and Canadian flags are flown all around the park to commemorate the 1st international peace parkreceiving their junior ranger badges from Glacier National Parksome go hunting for yeti, the warner’s go hunting for unimogs huckleberry everything
A dear friend of a dear friend lives here in Kalispell so we got a special “locals tour” of the Going To The Sun Road. Thanks Betsy and Rebecca 💕
We were a bit silly and since it was a beautiful but cold day yesterday, and today was “supposed” to be nicer, somehow we didn’t bring hats or our big jackets even though we were going up over the pass. Thankfully Betsy came prepared with an extra jacket and hat 🙂 so we eeked by
We thought mid week in September was the time to go to Glacier. Apparently we are not the only ones to think that either. So many more people visit the parks each year and Betsy said this Thursday in September easily looked like a Saturday in the summer a few years ago.
It was still a beautiful day and a must do at Glacier but I feel we must come back and enjoy the pass when the sun is out and the wildflowers are in full bloom to re-hike the highline trail and the hidden lakes trail.
But glad we made it over to many glacier even if no time for a hike to see it. Plus Betsy has the employee pass so they let us in when they were turning away cars because it was too crowded.
We did see some animals today. 3 grizzlies, a pika, and some bighorn sheep.
Stromatolites. Fossilized blue-green algae. Arguably the oldest oxygen-producing life form on our planet.Highline trailpika. we were lucky to see one because must have gone into hibernation.highline trail. maybe it was good we couldn’t see how steep the cliff wasJackson glacier Many Glacier Hotelbighorn sheepback at campdaisy 🌯 burrito
yes We went on a ranger led hike to Avalanche Lake. At first we were unsure if we would leave the group as we saw the crowd of baby-boomers congregate, but the ranger programs the national parks are really great. It’s really fun learning and re-learning all this ecology and geology as an adult. …college is coming back to us. GO BEARS 🐻 💙💛 Plus the girls learn a lot more information than they would from us. And it helps to have another “teacher” other than mom or dad.
On our way to Avalanche Lake we walked through a beautiful Western Red Cedar/Western Hemlock/Pacific Yew/Black Cottonwood forest. The western side of Glacier is different from the east side because of its climate and soil. Continuing our education that we learned from Crater Lake, when Mount Mazama erupted 7,700 years ago, the ash deposited 800 miles away here in Glacier National Park. The east side of the park is quite windy and the ash did not settle. On the west side the ash from the eruption was allowed to settle. Even now, there is 1 foot of ash from the Mount Mazama eruption found just inches below ground. This volcanic ash acts similarly to clay and helps keep water available close to the soil level. This allows over 200 gallons of water to be available for the trees during the dry months, which in turn allows this area to be a dense conifer forest. In fact, West Glacier serves as the eastern point of the Pacific Northwest conifer forest.
The cliffs behind Avalanche Lake are spectacular and has numerous waterfalls feeding into the lake from Sperry Glacier up above. Because of the steep cliffs and snowfall there are a lot of avalanches here and the Kootenai Indians named this “the place where things go backwards”.
Another quick fun fact we learned was that the blue-greenish tint of the lake is from “glacial flour”. Glacial flour is essentially rock dust from rocks rubbing against each other as the glacier moves. It is a very fine powder that does not settle in the lakes and rivers and the blue we see is because the glacial flour makes it appear “milky” and absorbs other colors than blue. The more “glacial flour”, the more blue the water looks.
Here are some pics from the day…but pictures don’t do Glacier justice. The highlight being that we went swimming in Avalanche Lake. It was a jump in/out kind of swimming but definitely don’t think it was the 38 degrees as advertised.
Avalanche GorgeOur ranger explaining the intensity of glaciers and how they are able to move giant rocks which help gouge out the extreme landscapes.looking for mountain goats on the steep slopesno dogs allowed on trails but we met Chuck, who helps his owner with lyme disease. dogs are awesome partnersPacific Yew. It is a low shrubby shade living tree within the cedar/hemlock forest. Native Americans used them for bows because of their pliability.we made it to Avalanche Lakerun and jumpwe were quite proud of ourselves.evidence of “glacial flour” but not quite as blue as other lakesthe cliffs are spectacular I think we sat here for awhile listening to the creek rush by. The bright aqua of the water and the bright green of the mossgood place to update the ecology book after the walk took Daisy for a bike ride after the walk. Isabella somewhere up around the bend.
2 scoops was maybe 1 too many
our campsite was right on Lake MacDonald Found another old school Apgar School 1915-1958Edwin fixed on of our cabinets with wood from Navarro State Beach. Apparently RV shelves aren’t supposed to carry any weight on them?? just for decoration?
Edwin and I came here back in 2005 with Dozer and our green vanagon. Seeing Crater Lake and it’s sheer beauty amazed me back then. I just would always remember the BLUE. I grew up going to Lake Tahoe, which I would easily say is the most beautiful lake in the world, but there is something special about Crater Lake and its blue. I couldn’t wait to come back and share that same experience with our girls. It truly is breathtaking when you see Crater Lake for the first time, and it was again today. What was even more special about today was because the girls are with us I really learned more about the history and geology of the lake. The junior ranger program offered at the national parks is great!
Crater Lake was once a volcanic mountain called Mount Mazama (didn’t know the name of the mountain before). Unlike the volcanoes in Hawaii where you imagine an eruption with lava flow, when Mount Mazama (at 12,000 ft tall) erupted 7,700 years ago, the structure of the mountain gave way and collapsed down into itself after blowing it’s top. And thus the caldera was born. If Mount Mazama did NOT collapse and was still a mountain today it would be the tallest mountain in Oregon. (right now Mount Hood is the tallest mountain in Oregon at 11,249 ft.) After the caldera cooled, it eventually filled with up with water solely from rain and snowfall. There is 5 trillion gallons of water in the lake. Currently there are NO rivers or lakes that feed INTO or OUT of Crater Lake. Oh, and the island in Crater Lake…is another volcano that began growing but stopped erupting 7,300 years ago.
It was a little overcast today so the BLUE of Crater Lake was not what I remember from years ago, but what we did do this time that we didn’t in 2005 was walk down to the waters edge. I thought you weren’t allowed to swim in Crater Lake, but there is one trail you can get down to the shore and swim. I’m so happy we did. There were times as we were walking down that I would look down and think to myself “Tahoe is just as pretty if not prettier/more blue.” but again, it was overcast today and the difference in the colors of Tahoe from afar on an overcast and sunny day go from dull to vibrant. I remember feeling bummed in that moment that it was overcast and the girls weren’t going to experience the color BLUE I remember seeing years ago. But the waters edge is different story. What we all experienced together today was jumping IN to Crater Lake. It wasn’t as cold as I thought it would be. It wasn’t as cold as the first June swim in Tahoe this year. Anyway, after first jumping off a 10’ rock and swimming straight to shore (because when you do jump into the deepest lake in America part of you wants to get back on land so you don’t sink to the bottom) I dove in off the shore and swam around and opened my eyes under water. Holy guacamole! All I can say is if you have the desire or opportunity…GO! I can’t even explain it. I’ve opened my eyes in Lake Tahoe. It was nothing like it. It was electric! A blue i’ve never even seen before. almost purple. like a mixture of royal blue, turquoise, purple, neon blue all together. It was surreal, like there was a giant electric neon light coming from the depths.
The pics don’t do the lake justice, but I did tell the girls they’ll have to make sure and come back on a blue sunny day.
Oh and the pinnacles, which are petrified fumaroles (steam vents where gas and steam escaped the earths crust).
Crater Lake with Wizard Island in the background the rangers are always good for more infobut we also have an Edwin who was then explaining about the pyroclastic flow that happened here at CraterWizard Island. you can really see how this island was also it’s own little volcano 🌋 The Warner School For Girls Geology and Earth Science teacher at Pumice Point. found some pumice.you go miss adventureousbc 1 pic isn’t enough. here’s for you emily and harper 🙂will start taking pics of other fun RVsthe pinnacles old fumaroles or steam vents
We did not explore Lassen to its fullest as Vera was not feeling well and we are trying to make it up to Coeur d’Alene to visit friends and see Glacier before we fly down for my grandmothers funeral/celebration of life on her upcoming 98th bday, 09.19.19
Vera is using her “every kid in a park” to get us a national park passit’s good till August 31, 2020summit lakethe old seismographEdwin explaining how it worksworking on their junior ranger badgeLassen in the backgroundthey even do a little ceremony for the junior ranger badgeSubway Cave – Lava tubes outside Lassen
My mom led the girls in some much needed deep cleaning of the kitchen. Isabella cleaned the white board for almost 2 hours alone…as my mom was explaining the physics of cleaning. “Isabella, don’t pet the cabinets, use your strength. use your force. you have more force when you use your fingers than your whole hand.”
We got back on the road again and visited Nana up in Santa Rosa
