Skip to main content

Stacy's Birthday trip- Part 2

From Glacier Park we explored the Columbia Falls area and drove around on our way back towards Kalispel. I'd wanted to go a different way back instead of highway 2 but we thought that with all the snow still around on the back roads we might come across some closed road that would make for lengthy detours so we decided to stay in Kalispel and still go back the "2" on Sunday. We stayed at a one year 'new' Holiday Inn Express in the North end of town, and because it was Stacy's birthday we got a free room upgrade to a very nice suite, on the top floor! Even with a bunch of families staying for a wrestling meet, it was very quiet and we slept wonderfully!
On our way back Sunday we stopped to take some photos of a couple of Bald Eagles and when we got to it we stopped at a place we'd always talked about stopping at but never had until now. The Kootenai River Falls is a scenic rest stop on Highway 2 between Libby, Montana and Troy, Montana. About a half mile walk gets you over the train tracks and over to the river. A few years back a movie had been filmed in the area about a families river trek and while I don't recall seeing the falls in the film, the falls were pretty impressive. I want to go back again in the evening and get some good photos of the area. We walked back on the trail and went to the "Swinging Bridge" that is a modern rope bridge kind of way to get across the river, West of the falls.
When we got to the bridge we walked up to it and as soon as Stacy got a look at it from the angle of actually walking out onto it, that was all it took! There was no way she'd venture out on a wobbly bouncy bridge. She walked back down to the path and I walked out on it and took some photos. Those turned out to be the last photos taken for this trip.

The rest of the way home was as nice as it had been the entire trip, light traffic, nice weather, just a great weekend.
And we were very pleased with the mileage of the car also, we got 26 mpg going out to Kalispel near the speed limit of 70 mph with some Friday evening traffic and on the way back at a less rushed 62 mph with the cruise control set on an almost vacant highway on a Sunday morning, we got a solid 33 mpg. Very happy!
As long as you don't plan on taking much and buying only small things then the very tiny trunk will carry enough for a short trip. I still think my Gold Wing motorcycle will carry a bit more than the car will! But we had a blast and are now thinking about the next one of the weekend trips we should try. Either the "Selkirk Loop" (www.selkirkloop.org) that goes around our area and into Canada, or the exploration of some Idaho back roads south of Coeur D' Alene. Either would be fun and maybe we'll have gone on both before summer is over! We've driven and ridden on parts of the loop but never the entire loop, should be fun!


Above is the view if you're about to step out on the Swinging Bridge.





Below is Stacy going back to the trail after she took a look at the bridge and decided it wasn't for her!
Posted by Picasa

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Historic Day

Yes, one way or the other it will be a historic day today, Election Day in the USA, 2016. Either the "crooked" lifetime politician and first woman to be the president will win or the proven somewhat unstable "megalomaniac" and itching to start a war businessman will win. Personally, I voted for Clinton. A proven lifetime politician outweighs the alternative in my opinion. I heard a comment of with Clinton it will be "The Hunger Games" part one, with Trump it would be "The Hunger Games" part 2!! In our neck of the woods, early voting and absentee voting has been going on for over two months. We voted a couple of weeks ago. Above, in the lobby of the County Courthouse, four early voting stations had been set up for several weeks. 2 non the right and 2 on the left at the desk behind that sign. Below, I took a 'stealth' photo of some people voting. You never can tell in North Idaho what will set off people so I didn't want...
Post a Comment
Read more

I Must Agree, 2020 Is The Year That Isn't.

 I know there are many, many people feeling along those lines.  Luckily, our area has yet to experience a large spike. Even in this rural area, the virus has made it here too. As mentioned before, most of the state cases are in the heavily populated south end of the state but there is still a count of over 38,000 positive and 451-deaths in the state.  As of this post, there has been one confirmed death of a 70-year old male, and there are currently 56-cases in this county. The most recent cases are high school sports students as schools opened on September 8th and at the last minute decided to go back to all 'in-person' classes even with all the preparations of having 'hybrid' classes of 2-days a week at school, 2-days a week online, and rotating to keep the student count down to the advised numbers to limit exposure. Our area schools are all on a 4-day week and have been for many years.  However, with those kids, are also over 65 other students who were identified w...
Post a Comment
Read more

Soupy Sales and memories of being a kid

I first heard about Soupy Sales dieing this morning as I listened to the 60's on 6 as I was working on breakfast and getting my lunch ready to go for work. His show was often very funny, even more so as I grew up and had a better understanding of his more adult humor. I know I was seeing reruns of his old show even back then, 1970's era, but they were new to me! As I was reading on the Entertainment Weekly website about his death they had clips from You Tube to see. Boy the memories, of his as well as all the shows I remember seeing back in the mid 1960's and on. Pookie, White Fang, funny. I never cared much for the 'pie in the face' gag, but still overall funny shows. Growing up in the areas of San Bernardino, Highland and Redlands California, we watched the channels from the "greater Los Angeles area". I recall Captain Kangaroo on channel 2, Hobo Kelly on either 11 or 13, Sheriff John's Lunch Brigade ("put another candle on the birthday cake, th...
1 comment
Read more