Canyon RV in Hungry Horse, MT

Hungry Horse is a tiny town less than 10 miles away from Glacier National Park.  

How did the town earn the name "Hungry Horse?  The story goes like this:

  "Two husky freight horses, Tex and Jerry, working in the rugged wilderness of the Flathead River's South Fork area, wandered away from their sleigh during the severe winter of 1900-1901.  After struggling for a month in the belly-deep snow, they were found almost starved and so weak that considerable care and feeding were required before they were  strong enough to be led back to civilization.  The name "Hungry Horse" was given to a mountain, a lake and a creek  in the vicinity of where the incident occurred and later to the dam that is located a short distance downstream."

While there, we stayed at the Canyon RV, where our friends, Steve and Patty Porter camp host.

 

 

 

 

 

It’s a very pretty park, with lots of trees and flowers.  There’s even a trail from the park down to the Flathead River’s edge.   We had planned to arrive on the same day as friends, Bernice and Hoyt, but they encountered problems with their motorhome and were delayed 4 days.

Steve and Patty spent the day with us on Wednesday, showing us some of the local sights. 

We drove to Big Mountain, a nearby ski resort, where we rode the chair lift to the top of the mountain. 

One of the best chair lift rides we’ve encountered, the Big Mountain Express climbs over 2000 vertical feet, and takes more than 7 minutes to ride each way.  The chairs are large, enabling all four of us to ride together.  The views going up were great….  

…and we enjoyed our time on the mountain….

…but coming back down was spectacular!

After lunch in a nearby cafe, we drove to the Hungry Horse Dam.  Almost 172 feet tall, it was the fourth highest dam in the world at the time of its construction in 1953. 

Steve is a square dance caller for us in Yuma during the winter, and Patty is a round dance cuer.  While we were at the park, a lady named Joyce staying there expressed an interest in learning to square dance, so Steve put together a “mini introductory” dance on Thursday night in the park pavilion.  The couple parked next to us, Anne and Ron Roy, had danced years ago.  We didn’t have enough for a square, so after demonstrating a round dance to Joyce, Steve called to two couples.   

Patty danced in a tip or two, also. She also cued a round dance for Ron and I.  Steve found a partner, although she was a little stiff.  :)

Flathead Lake, just south of Hungry Horse is the largest natural freshwater lake west of the Mississippi.  It extends almost 30 miles in length, and 16 miles wide.  On Friday, Ron and I drove around the lake looking for those delicious Flathead cherries.  It is at the end of the cherry season, but we finally found one last stand still open.  The drive was nice, although the lake boundaries are so populated now, it’s hard to find an open spot for pictures.   

Bernice and Hoyt arrived on Saturday, and another square dance couple did as well.  We had another “mini dance”, this time with a full square.

  It was almost too dark for photos, but the fun shines through:

Many thanks to Steve and Patty for helping to make a great week in Hungry Horse.

On Sunday, the Odoms and we visited Glacier National Park, covered in the next posting.  We left Hungry Horse on Monday morning.       

Marias Pass, Montana

As you come near to the lower edge of Glacier National Park in Montana, on Highway 2, you cross over the Continental Divide at Marias Pass.  The pass is named for the nearby river, and it is believed the river was named by Meriwether Lewis after his cousin, Maria.  The Blackfeet called the pass, the “Backbone Pass”, and used it to cross the mountains into the plains to hunt bison. The pass, at 5,216 feet, is the lowest crossing of the Continental Divide in Montana.

It’s hard to realize that water flowing west from the Divide eventually finds its way to the Pacific Ocean, and water flowing east eventually flows all the way to the Atlantic Ocean.

Monument Square sits at the Marias Pass rest stop.

The largest monument is in commemoration of Theodore Roosevelt, the president who made forest conservation a national policy.  Other memorials commemorate John F. Stevens, a civil engineer for the Great Northern Railroad, and William H. “Slippery Bill” Morrison, who donated the land for the memorial.

When we stopped here on our 2004 trip, we photographed our rig with the monument in the background. Five years later, here we are again.  What a lot has changed in our lives during that time, including the rig.  We have gone from land based homeowners to full timers.

The road from Marias Pass west is very scenic. 

 

The end of the road today was in Hungry Horse at the Canyon RV park where we will spend a week with friends.

 

Cut Bank, Montana

A ‘cut bank’ is an erosional feature of streams, or where the swift flowing water has cut away the land into steep banks.  The town of Cut Bank, MT is aptly named.

We spent a few nights on the cliff above the Cut Bank river at Riverside Campground.  We found the owners, who live on site, to be very welcoming.  They own over 40 acres of ground, most of it river front, so we had lots of room to explore the many unusual rock formations on the river bank and cliff.

One walk took us down what remains of an old gravel road to the riverbank.

On another walk, we decided to climb among the rock formations on the top of the cliff.     

If you look close at the stone banks, pieces of bone and petrified wood can be found.  Ron searched until he had found a few pieces of each.

 

We also enjoyed watching the wild horse that came to graze each morning and evening on the opposite bank.

An interesting metal sculpture sits atop the cliff near the campground.  We never got the opportunity to question the owners.  As it is next to a cross bearing a Bible verse, we assumed it to be a statue of Christ.  With outstretched arms, it resembles many other images of Christ across the country.  If any of our readers has any background information on this particular sculpture, would you leave a comment on this posting, please?

The last night of our stay we were treated to a wonderful sunset.