Smokey Mountains

Earth date: 2014, July 19th
Location: Glacier National Park, Montana

Glacier has been the biggest disappointment of the trip so far. It is well known for its impressive mountain vistas such as this (linked to avoid copyright issues). The ash and the clouds meant instead we got views such as

The rocks at Lake McDonald

Trees disappearing into the mist

While it is good to have a different view, we were hoping for the more traditional vistas. Park rangers and other hikers were happy to tell us how much of a pity it was that we had not arrived a couple of days ago, when everything was crystal clear and beautiful.

Even with all the ash and smoke in the air, we decided that it would be a pity to come to Glacier and leave before hiking. Originally we had planned to go on hikes to see things close up due to poor visibility, but many of the interesting non-vista hikes were a 3 hour drive (or more!) away. We selected the Apgar lookout trail, a nearby hike that was 4.5 miles one way (almost all uphill). A combination of the ash in the air, my dehydration, and spending 9 months of the year sitting behind a desk made sure I was puffing and panting all the way up the hill.

The trail didn't offer much of a look out (as expected, given the conditions). It did, however offer some surreal skies. We had a combination of ash (turning the sky red), and blue (from the clouds) gave us some nice skies, especially when the sun would poke through:

A confluence of atmospheric conditions

For the most part, I satisfied myself with trying to photograph little critters at the top of the mountain.

Our trip down the hill was interrupted by a grouse. The chicks were off to the left, and the grouse tried to lead us down the path away from them. This plan was good except that there was 4.5 miles of trail, and nowhere for it to get back around us. When we tried waiting, it just waited for us to see if we would return to the chicks. After chasing this bird downhill for half a mile, we climbed into the scrub to allow it to pass.

A grouse hen

The grouse was united with its children and lived happy ever after (sorry, could not come up with a clever way of ending the day, and I have been fighting the internet here for a couple of hours to get even this much posted!)

Driving through Ashland

Earth Date: 2014 July 18th
Location: Idaho and Montana

Another long day of driving today. Our first stop was at a small diner in Moscow, Idaho. [Morgan cannot see Russia from his house, but he can almost see Moscow.] I looked for postcards that read From Moscow with Love, but much to my disappointment I could not find anything. However, we were treated to a Red Dawn, and a red sky in the morning, and afternoon,.....

We were aware of the fires in central Washington, however we were not aware of the fires in Oregon (many lighting strikes), Idaho, and Canada. The smoke reached all the way across to Helena, Montana. Pictures of the smoke cover can be found here.

The red sky in Moscow, Idaho

Other than the odd color of the sky, the drive was uneventful. Half an hour from our final destination, we stopped at the small town of Columbia Falls, Montana for dinner.

It was harder than we expected to find places we could all agree on. I was certainly surprised by the variety of the eateries. The first thing we vetoed as a group were the large commercial chains: the Pizza Hut, the Dairy Queen, and the Burger King. Next we tried some of the local establishments downtown, with the boarded up windows and the extras for Sons of Anarchy inside. As we made our way around these fine establishments (and crossing them off one-by-one) we noted an officer making the same rounds.

After wandering through the town we finally settled on one of two eating establishments that seemed small and local, without being future or past set pieces on Cops. It seems that everyone else in town had the same idea, so it was a bit of a wait. All in all, our "detour to grab a quick bite to eat" swallowed up about 2 hours of our time.

It was dark by the time we set up camp at Fishing Creek Campground (by lake McDonald), so we would have to wait until the next day to see how bad the ash was.