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

Just an update

It is getting more like fall to winter now in our area. All the weather forecasts give the possible snow levels and altitudes in the recordings. The temps have been in the low 50's for the past week which is the normal temp range. It has warmed up at night to the low thirties from the low twenties of last week and earlier this week. Next week it's forecasting only low to mid forties! For the high temps! In looking at photos and the older blogs, last October 27th, 2009, was the first snow of the season back then. Will it snow around the same time this year? Stacy and I are both off work next week because our daughter Laura and her son, the only grand kid so far, will be flying out this Sunday for a weeks visit. Stacy and I are really looking forward to the visit. Last time Laura was here was in the summer of 2006 for a couple of weeks. Quite a lot has changed in her little family since then! And Tyler is 4 years old now so he might do more than sleep or cry as he did last visit!...
2 comments
Read more

Its Fall again!

Although the date this says 'posted' is from a while back, I'm online to type about theses photos and get this posted for you to see today, October 12th! I'd uploaded these and the next post couple of photos fully intending to get right back to it in a day or so, it just didn't happen like that. Stacy's father took a trip to California to visit family out there and since he was gone (he's getting back tomorrow night) we've been very busy working at home as well as stuff going on at work. So it's been busy, busy, busy! Stacy left this morning to fly to Boise for meetings (again!) and will be back late tomorrow too. On to these photos; top one is actually on our property, just out back in the forest. The fern was just going yellow to gold then, on this fall morning, it is really golden and rust browns now just a couple of weeks later. Middle photo is a road a little over a mile away in the early evening that I liked with the late day sun on the Aspen ...
Post a Comment
Read more

I can't say I'm on a roll just yet, but here's a new post!

So, to continue with last weeks story. In August, Stacy finally got the trailer she's been wanting all along. Yes, while I like the larger, around 28 to 30 foot or so, RVs, Stacy has kept the idea that smaller is better. Smaller can go pretty much anyplace you'd want to camp and our 5th wheel, at 34-feet long, while it can go most places, it can't go 'anyplace' due to the length. When we got the 5th wheel in July 2017, I was surprised Stacy was willing and even suggested, we go for it trading in our 33-foot travel trailer to get the Jayco. Again, the "Wildcat Maxx" was a nice travel trailer. It had made several short and two long trips in the almost two years we'd owned it. We lucked out as in an era of the rapid assembly to make the crazy sales numbers the RV industry has been having, the Wildcat was "completed on a Wednesday by happy Amish at the factory" as we didn't have any of the build issues I still read about from the appar...
Post a Comment
Read more