Monthly Review July

Monthly Review July

Places visited:

• Glacier National Park Columbia Falls, MT
• Highlight, the falls at St Mary’s, started with seeing a Grizzly Bear in the parking lot and was filled with wonderful waterfalls.
• Lowlight at two and a half hours away we did not go to Many Glacier area on this trip, we did see it 3 years ago.
• Big Sky County was sunny 6 out of 7 days, great hiking in the park.
• Jim & Mary’s Park, Missoula, MT
• Highlight, nice large lots with big shade trees
• Lowlight, still getting over our colds so low energy levels while here.
• Just an overnight place did not investigate the area.
• Spring Creek Campground & Trout Farm Big Timber, MT
• Highlight, hikes to Big Timber Creek Falls & Natural Bridge Falls
• Lowlight, sites here at the campground are a little tight     
•  Pleasant area, bucolic, excellent weather cools in the evening, not a lot in town.
• Peter D’s Sheridan, WY
• Highlight, Local Ram dealer installed new fuel filters in 40 minutes when we had no appointment.
• Lowlight, sites are close together, but it is just an overnight.
• Sheridan WYO Rodeo is in town, but we passed on going.
•   Black Hills Custer, SD
• Highlight, kayaking on two lakes-it was great to get out on the water!
• Lowlight, we did a fun trail out behind Sylvan Lake, wished we could have kayaked that lake as well.
• Such a nice sized park easy to get around it and Wind Cave and bison to top it off.
• Badlands National Park Interior, SD 
• Highlight, The drive on Badlands Loop Road, such easy access to these crazy dry gorged lands.
• Lowlight it was really hot this week, over 100 degrees, come when it is cooler.  
• The nightly astronomy ranger talks were so good, deeply knowledgeable rangers and five telescopes to look at and see Saturn, a double star in Cygnet, so nice.
• Ingalls Homestead Riverton, De Smet, SD
• Highlight, the covered wagon ride that takes you to the one room schoolhouse and to the church.
• Lowlight fires north and west of here in Canada covered the entire area in a hazy smoke so much so that outside smelled like a campfire.
•  It was a charming place to visit and see everything I have been reading about in the Little House series of books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. 
• Hinterland Vineyards Clara City, MN
• Highlight wonderful quite setting in the vineyard.
• Lowlight no real hosting here, one person pointed where we could park.
• Ate dinner on the property split a flight of wine, then a bottle of our favorite, Jim had a flatbread and I had a salad.    

Our overall favorite place was Glacier National Park.  The weather was great, the wildlife was everywhere.  All the hikes were good since the park is full of waterfalls. I would still recommend staying on the East side as it has access to the most waterfalls.

Our favorite trail was the hike to St Mary’s Falls.  It started with a grizzly bear sighting, hiked along beautiful St Mary Lake then saw Baring Falls, followed by St Mary’s Falls and finished with Virginia Falls.

My favorite day was July second.  A safe bear sighting, a hike to 3 waterfalls, a drive on the Going To The Sun Road filled with more waterfalls, we saw big horn sheep at Logans Pass, and mountain goats at an overlook. That was a good day.  

My favorite picture of me is along McDonald Creek, at peace with the world beside roaring water. My favorite picture of Jim is him with a goofy grin wedged inside of Wind Cave.