While the entrance to the caverns were discovered in 1882 by two Whitehall men; Charles Brooke and Mexican John, the the Lewis and Clark caverns were discovered in 1892 by Tom Williams and Burt Pannell, two hunters.  Tom Williams explored the caves 6 years later and then talked to a local investor named Dan Morrison about further developing the cavern for tours.  Until 1908 the caverns were a successful tourist business, when the railroad laid claim to the land and gave it to the federal government and was consequently turned into a National Monument.  In 1937 the state of Montana received its first state park as the federal government declared the Lewis and Clark Caverns a state park.  Even though the name of the park is ‘Lewis and Clark Caverns’ it is believed that Lewis and Clark never visited the caverns, chances are they never knew they existed.

two shots while walking up the trail to the cavern;

The entrance to the caverns;

Our visit to Glacier National Park took us 16 miles in the West Glacier entrance to Avalanche Campground. With 50 camp sites the campground is definitely on the edge of the wild.

While there were no signs of bears the deer had no problem with the campers.

After camping at Avalanche Campground, we took a hike along Avalanche Creek, a rough yet spectacular clear blue creek runs along an ‘easy’ hike up towards Avalanche Lake. The hike is approximately 2 miles each way and a gain of 500ft in elevation.

Along the hike many surrounding mountains still had snow which was melting and causing runoff resulting in huge falls, this is a small one;

Upon reaching the lake we found crystal clear water surrounded by mountains.

Later that day, a little lunch at McDonald Lake;

A while back I was contacted by a person who was browsing flickr for pictures to use in Westways Magazine (AAA’s Southern California Lifestyle Magazine). He had stumbled across a picture of Elk at Mammoth Village at Yellowstone. After signing a couple documents allowing them to print this picture in their magazine(s) and on their website(s) and a month later I received my copy of the magazine.

Above you see arrows pointing to my picture and my credit. I found it a bit odd as my name is nowhere near the picture and there is no indication of why my name is there, not that I’m complaining.

We have now started remodeling the guest room with the same hardwood floor as Dylan’s flooring. To give myself a break I rented a pneumatic floor nailer, much easier than the manual nailer although they really get you on the rental price. Dylan was present for this install and was excited about helping, it wasn’t long before he was installing the hardwood floor all by himself. Shortly after teaching how to hit the nailer and giving him the opportunity to hit it while I held it, Napolean was handling the nailer all by himself.

After teaching him how to nail the hardwood floor, I showed him how to select the correct piece of wood (quality of finish, warping, and the correct length [so that breaks are staggered]) and how to pound it into place.

He was then doing the job all by himself, yes, the pictures you are viewing are actual shots of him in action (using the sports mode of my camera) laying approximately 12 11′ 6″ long rows of Bellawood rustic maple 3/4″ hardwood flooring with a pneumatic floor nailer.

Liberty Cap is a [now inactive] 37-foot hot spring cone located at the bottom of Lower Terraces, in the northern portion of Mammoth Hot Springs. Liberty Cap was created by a hot spring which remained in one location for a long time, depositing minerals which built the cone. Liberty Cap was thought to resemble caps worn during the French Revolution and that is how it got its name in 1871 from the Hayden Survey party.

Upon our arrival at Mammoth Village we were greeted by the site of several elk. You could find the elk in the center of the village, around the visitor center, and the hotel, they were hard to miss.

The elk weren’t afraid of the vehicles or people, nor were the people afraid of the elk. The park rangers were stationed around the elk and had to keep people a safe distance away, and the village had several signs warning of the danger. For some reason people felt no danger from these massive wild animals. We saw people walk right beside the elk without a second thought. We even saw a family park their car right next to the elk and get out of the car, the parents showed no concern when the barely walking toddler got out of the car and headed toward the elk, just feet away. No concern that is until the elk made took a couple aggressive steps toward the child.

Our two day trip to Yellowstone Park took us through the park’s only year round north entrance, boasting the historic Roosevelt Arch - dedicated by President Roosevelt on April 24th of 1903. From there it was a short drive and then a nights stay at Mammoth Hot Springs.

The next day consists of a slow drive through the park with many stops and pictures along the way to our last nights stay at the Old Faithful Inn, followed by our exit out of Yellowstone’s west entrance.

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The Museum of the Rockies was founded by Dr. Caronline McGill in 1957 and renowned paleontologist Jack Horner is the curator of paleontology at the museum. Known for its paleontological collections, the Museum contains the largest collection of dinosaur remains in the country, the largest Tyrannosaurus skull ever found and a Tyrannosaurus thigh bone containing soft tissue. The museum currently contains nearly 300,000 objects with collections in western history, textiles, Native American artifacts, and photography and details information spanning the earths 4 billion year history.

As an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution and a federal repository for fossils, the museum is not only a college-level division of Montana State University but it is also an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit institution. The Museum of the Rockies is approximately one of 750 museums accredited by the American Association of Museums. To put this in context there are more than 16,000 museums nationwide.

The Museum of the Rockies is located on the south edge of the Montana State University campus at 600 West Kagy Boulevard in Bozeman Montana.

We got a late start today and then I drove us all around looking for a small, out of the way fishing spot on the Bitterroot River but we never found it. We decided to go back to the public fishing access at the Florence Bridge which is close to our house but its usually packed with fishers, floaters, and people with their dogs. I don’t think any of us were too hopeful as it was getting late in the morning. When we got there there were few people there and the river looked still. We decided to walk north and I kept walking until I saw signs of life and after quite a ways up river I found it. They were jumping all over and it was hard for them to resist the worm.

We walked away with several rainbow trout.

Just north of Victor on the east side of highway 93 you will find signs for Glen Lake. It is a nice drive up to 6800 feet (from 3400) with views overlooking Victor and Stevensville, if it weren’t so smoky we would have had views of the Sapphire Mountains as well. On the way up we hit some traffic (see little black bear picture right).

At the trail head are 4 parking spots with plenty of room for additional parking. It starts uphill immediately and stays that way most of the hike in, approximately 2 and 1/4 miles in, going from 6800 ft to approximately 7700 ft. Any real hiker would consider this an easy walk but it was a little more than we expected; our 7 year old son did very well though. Most of the hike consisted of views of the Bitterroot Mountains through the burnt forest.

There were probably 4 groups of people on the trail which was slightly disappointing but didn’t present an inconvenience. Trails.com reported over a dozen vehicles parked at the trail head back in ‘98 due to the trails easy status, maybe there were few people there due to all the smoke in the area but if there were a dozen people on that trail my opinion might be a little different. Despite all the burnt land and the other hikers; the views along the way and then reaching the lake made it all well worth it.

The 6 acre Glen lake sits back int he Bitterroots at an elevation of 7741ft. We packed our poles looking for the rainbow trout the MT FWP said existed but we saw no signs of life in that lake. Still a very nice place, probably better for camping than fishing. The hike in took us longer than expected (about an hour and a half) so our fishing time was limited as we needed to get back over the top of the mountain before the sun went down. The hike back was quite easier than the hike in, as the hike out only consisted of hiking up the backside of the mountain, a couple hundred feet; the rest of the hike was all down hill from there. Back to the truck and back down the switch backs, we hit more traffic (see picture right).