Glacier National Park, Montana

We finally made it to Glacier National Park. We arrived in Coram, Montana on Tuesday, June 27, after spending Monday night at Lake Placid State Park in Seeley Lake amidst a slew of mosquitoes. Glacier National Park is an International Peace Park World Heritage Site along with Waterton Lakes National Park, which is in Alberta, Canada.  Going-to-the-Sun Road connects St. Mary Visitor Center on the east side with Apgar Visitor Center on the west side.  It was closed due to snow and it finally opened Wednesday. There was still quite a bit of snow at Logan Pass Visitor Center, which is about the half way point. The Continental Divide comes through Logan Pass with an elevation of 6646 feet.  

Gates of the Mountains, Helena, Montana

The Gates of the Mountains boat tour starts out in Holter Lake and goes up the Missouri River. For over 125 years tours have taken place showing guests the route taken by Lewis & Clark in 1805. The first boat was a steamboat and could only take guests downstream, where they had to get off the boat and were driven back in a horse & wagon.

Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center, West Yellowstone, Montana

The Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center has eight grizzlies that, for one reason or another, were not able to be left in the wild, and were brought to the Center to live. It is a not-for-profit center, using donations and admissions to run the center as well as build additions to house more animals. Their biggest grizzly, Sam, is let out into the bear habitat by himself. Sam wandered into a fishing village with his sister in 1996 after his mother disappeared. Because he is from coastal Alaska, he is much larger than Yellowstone grizzlies - weighing in at 1,000 lbs.

Yes, I'm real

Earthquake at Hebgen Lake, West Yellowstone, Montana

It was around midnight on August 17, 1959, when campers and locals were sound asleep. They were awoken by a loud roar and the ground shaking when one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded in the Rocky Mountains struck the Madison River Canyon. The quake registered 7.5 on the Richter scale and triggered a massive landslide, sending over 80 million tons of rock crashing down into the canyon, blocking the Madison River.  The water backed up behind the slide and formed Earthquake Lake. High velocity winds and a gigantic wall of water swept through the area.

Earthquake Lake