For our second full day at the park, we reserved seats on a wooden boat to take us across the lake. We saw a moose emerge from the forest on one side of the lake. We could see some hikers start to approach him and he turned and started toward them. They moved quickly back out of sight and the moose came back to the lake and we watched him swim across to the other side. Here is our guide for the morning and the boat captain.

At the other side of the lake, we disembarked and hiked up and over a small hill to Lake Josephine, another glacier lake.

Waiting for us was another wooden boat which we took to the other side of the lake.

We disembarked and took a one mile hike through the back country to get to Lake Grinnell.

It was interesting to see the plants and trees.

There was a rustic pit stop along the way.

At one point, we had to cross this swinging bridge. Only one person was allowed to cross at one time.

I saw more of these pretty colorful stones in the water.

We finally reached the last lake.

We hiked back and waited for the boat to pick us up, hoping that enough people got off to allow us on for the trip back. I think 5 people had to wait for the next boat – two hours later.

Here is a view of the Many Glacier Lodge as we made our way back.

Mr C and I used to do a lot of hiking and it was great to get out in the back country and partake of something that we love so much. It has been too long.

On Sunday, our first full day in the park, we had reservations to take an 8 hour ride in this vintage red bus. These buses were built in 1936 and still look the same, but have been modernized. Each row of seats has its own door. They have leather seats and are really the coolest thing. Our driver, Lisa, was funny and very well informed about the geology and wildlife of the park. It was cold and a bit rainy when we started out so each row of seats had this special Pendleton blanket to keep room.

Lisa told us to be on the lookout for wild life and right off, we saw this young moose.

Soon after, we saw a young black bear.

And, wonder of wonders, out next sighting was of a young Grisly.

We saw lots of wildflowers. The prettiest were the lupine.

And, I saw more Aspens in one place than I have ever seen before.

Gorgeous vistas awaited us around every corner.

Along the perimeter of the park, as we were heading to the East Glacier Lodge, we saw this group of horses, with a gangly colt.

In the other direction, looking east, we could see the plains for as far as we could see.

We stopped along the continental divide and saw where the waters flow east to the Missouri and north to the Hudson Bay and west to the Columbia.

After lunch, the sun came out and we were able to roll back the top of the bus.

We made a stop for Huckleberry soft serve ice cream and then took a hike back to these beautiful falls. There are actually two sets of falls coming together.

The rocks in the streams were in beautiful colors.

We got a great deal of information about how this area was formed from sedimentation, earthquakes and glaciers. This was an interesting S curve formed by the movement of the earth.

More Aspens.

And I couldn’t resist sharing this headline from a local newspaper.

We met some great people who shared the bus with us. It really was a great day. Our only regret was that we were there to early to travel to the summit of the Going to the Sun road. It is not opening to thru traffic until the 19th.

I was interrupted in my posting of our road trip because we were off the grid for the duration of our time in Glacier National Park. Not a bad thing at all! Above was our view as we headed from Idaho into Montana. We were in uncharted territory, once again, as we meandered across the Idaho Panhandle and then headed into Montana and wended our way to the eastern side of the magnificent park.

We saw many trains, most were carrying oil or dirty coal to be shipped to China. The above train was name John CoalTrain by my husband – it was a long one.

We stopped for lunch along the beautiful and pristine Flathead Lake. Didn’t take photos!

Then, we found ourselves driving north through Black Feet territory, where the plains meet the Rockies.

We reached the Many Glacier Road which was lined with Aspens!! You know how I love Aspens, but I didn’t get photos because I was driving. I did take this photo as we approached the lodge area.

Here is a photo of one wing of the lodge that I took from the veranda on our first day:

We were wowed when we got to our 4th floor room and saw this view.

We ate dinner in the lodge dining room every night. The food was pricey and not that great, but the ambiance made up for it. The wait staff was from all over the world and each one wore a name tag with their home country or state. I took these views of the sunset from the dining room.

I am really tired tonight. We had a long drive today and are now in Kenniwick, WA for the night. Home tomorrow. I will post more of our fun later.

After a lovely night’s sleep in our comfy kingsized bed, we enjoyed a wonderful breakfast on the veranda of the Green Gables Inn and visiting with other guests. It was a beautiful morning in Walla Walla. We really enjoyed the ambiance of this little city. Here is our lovely balcony. We almost regretted leaving so soon.

We headed north through winding and hilly roads, wondering where in the heck Siri was taking us. It turns out, we were driving through the area known as The Palouse, the wheat growing region of eastern Washington. The landscape was stunningly spare and voluptuous and grand. I was mesmerized. The golden landscape was dotted with grain elevators and wind turbines.

It was almost jarring to come upon a body of water.

After a stop in Spokane for lunch, we arrived in Coeur d’Alene or CdA, as the locals call it. Their is a big beautiful lake and the downtown area was an easy walk for us from our B & B, the Roosevelt Inn. The folks here are really nice and friendly, but the accommodations are not quite as swanky as the Inn in Walla Walla.

We walked around town and checked out the art galleries. A team of Budweiser Clydesdales was holding court on the main street, attracting a big crowd and tying up traffic.

Love this piece of art. The artist had many punny animal paintings – like a cow drinking a Mootini!

We had dinner at an Asian fusion restaurant with a view of the lake. They had tons of gluten free options.

One thing we have noted, they really love their air conditioning up here. Both our rooms have been a bit too cool for us and we don’t have anyway to control it.

Tomorrow, we have a long drive to the east side of Glacier National Park. The weather forecast is not great, but I don’t think it will snow. However, it will not be the warm 70° weather that was forecast earlier this week. We will put on our layers and enjoy the beauty of another national park.