June 5 St. Mary's, Montana

Greetings!  We traveled in rainy weather for about 500 miles on Friday from Salt Lake City to Helena, Montana where we stayed with my great friend, Kelly.  The drive took about 10 hours -- the bark beetle has infested the forests in Montana and it is so sad to see miles of red, rusty colored trees.  In southern Montana we stopped for a walk around the area on the right.  This was a wonderful wooden fence and a stream (probably because of all the melting snow and the rain) where you could sign in and hunt/fish/hike/etc.

We arrived at Kelly's in time for cocktails and a sampling of appetizers she is working on for a couple weddings this summer.  Dinner, of course, was beyond belief and we had a great visit.  This morning, we toured Helena and picked up a small gas bar-b-que grill and another external hard drive.

Driving north to Glacier via secondary roads, was beautiful--huge wheat farms, cattle ranches, lots of wild life-we toured the Museum of Plains Indians in Browning which was very informative.  The white man brought the glass beads in the mid 1800s and the beadwork on clothing, accessories, religious and ceremonial items and warrior items was so interesting.  Imagine living on the land, tanning buffalo hides and beading--those women were superwomen.

After getting set up at the Glacier KOA, we went to Many Glaciers/Swiftcurrent area of the park and saw many mountain goats and rocky mountain big horned sheep--too far away for good photos.  However, while enjoying huckleberry ice cream and looking through the binoculars, we watched a singular large mountain goat crossing a small field of snow and ice --running, jumping and going in circles--it was pretty amazing and we laughed and laughed.

Tomorrow morning we are going into the park on the road to Logan Pass as far as we can travel--    they are still clearing the snow so you can't drive all the way through the park.  We will then go into Canada and spend the next three nights in Radium Hot Springs just inside Kootenay National Park.  My friend, Lisa, and I traveled through the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks a couple years ago and I am anxious to see them again....and hopefully get a great shot of a moose.