Whitefish, Hungry Horse Reservoir and Helena, MT

This part of the trip was very unplanned.  We knew we wanted to see Lake Tahoe, our niece and her family in California, the wine country, northern California and Oregon beaches.  We then had to decide between the OP in Washington or the Columbia River Gorge and opted for the OP.  Then we knew we wanted to get to Jasper so the North Cascades were the favored route.  We met friends after going through the wine country in BC, so ended up in the Shushwap area and approaching Jasper from the west.  Then, the Icefields, Banff, Lake Louise and the Kootenays.  Waterton was on the way down, and, boy, we were happy we went there.  Then there was Glacier, of course, which was spectacular and a place we always wanted to visit.

We decided to check out the campground at Whitefish Lake State Park, since our friends, Gail and Harley have reservations here next month.  It is lovely and we got the very last campsite.  We are right on another wonderful lake where we took a much needed swim—it was 94 degrees today!  We are plugged in, so I can use WORD, though I can’t add my pictures to this and publish-so frustrating, not being connected—we have been so spoiled by cell phones and internet.  It is the one thing about traveling that has been unsettling.  We’ve had to buy many more books and maps than we started out with, just because we need to use the old-fashioned way of finding our way around and finding out information about places we are going.

Whitefish Lake and the ski resort in the background

Dog beach

Our home in the woods

Sunset at Whitefish

We loved going into Whitefish almost every day to do errands, have lunch, shop a little and then come back to the lake to swim.  When the mail wasn't there on Monday morning, we decided to take off for Hungry Horse Reservoir for a change of scenery and much needed sleep.  The only problem with Whitefish Lake was that the trains rumble on through all times of the day and night and are so close that you feel they are coming right through your bedroom!  It turned out that they did have our mail but had misplaced it, as Jason’s tracking number later confirmed-oh, well.

We had planned on going to one side of Hungry Horse that books said took larger RVs, but we got a little lost and ended up on the side with the smaller campgrounds.  We lucked out!  We stopped at Lost Johnny Point and there was one campsite left and it was the best one in the whole place!  We were right on the lake.  Even though they told us, it would probably only be for the night, the guy next door to us told us that he was leaving in the morning, so we could take his space.  That one was even better.  We loved it here and stayed for 3 nights.

The dam

Osprey nest and resident

Had to jump in the water the minute we got there

....and sit by the water and just be!

Our fabulous campsite

Grilling my birthday dinner

One of our favorite guests

We took out our kayak for the first time, since we were staying for several days and discovered that it is not the one for us.  It was too much trouble and too narrow.  We are rethinking what kind we want.  It was fun being on the water, however.  What a beautiful spot to be!

Kayak and favorite guest going for the cookie wrapper

We noticed people by the side of the road with buckets and asked the camp hosts about it.  They told us that huckleberries were growing everywhere around here, even in the campground.  One afternoon, we had a grand time rummaging through the forest for huckleberries.  I made a huckleberry cobbler for dinner and we had huckleberry syrup on our French toast the next morning.  We love huckleberries-too bad they are impossible to come by anywhere else.

Our stash

We went back into Whitefish later in the week for groceries, laundry, mail, propane, etc. and then drove down through the Swan and Seeley Lake area that is just beautiful, flanking the western side of the Bob Marshall Wilderness area.  

The water colors are still beautiful here.

There were hardly any services along that road except in Seeley Lake, and they were not anything we were interested in, so we drove off road a bit to a beautiful little lake, Placid Lake, had a nice picnic lunch and entertained ourselves watching local teens in their inflatable hot tub.

Placid Lake

Picnic with my two guys at Placid Lake

Large larch stumps, attesting to their logging history
Not sure of the history of decorating them but they
are everywhere.

Looked like such fun

We stopped at the top of MacDonald Pass for the night at Cromwell Dixon Campground, which was just lovely, surprisingly enough.  We had a beautiful view and had a great sunset.  We had Internet so decided to spend the day. 

Beautiful Montana farmlands

Gorgeous country

Jim-so happy to get the Internet

Camped in the middle of a meadow full of fireweed

We came to Helena to see some old friends, Bonnie Adee and her husband, Frank Crowley, that evening.  

Bonnie and Frank live in a delightful house overlooking the city of Helena.  

They made us some killer mojitos and we ordered out a pizza and drove around town in Frank’s 1953 Chevy two door sedan.  Jim even got to drive it and felt like a teenager again.  

Frank

Jim

They are delightful people and it was so much fun reminiscing about my youth on Haskell Drive in Lancaster with Bonnie and our Busy Bee Club.

The Busy Bees.  I am in the middle of the back row and
Bonnie is the last one in the back row on the right.  Bonnie's
little sister, Vicky is the youngest, standing in the center of
the first row.  Those were the days!  We put on carnivals, bike parades,
 etc. to raise money for local charities and have fun in the process
We had a charmed childhood on Haskell Drive!

We camped along a reservoir a bit down the road, as it was getting too late to make it the whole way to the Missouri Headwaters.  Not one of our favorite places but adequate for sleeping.