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;

From the lost trail website: The beauty and uncrowded slopes of the Rocky Mountain’s hidden jewel.

… family skiing from the top of the Continental Divide.

… unbelievable powder …

… an excellent family facility that has been helping folks enjoy themselves for over 60 years

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).

Yesterday we took a trip into town to see the Missoula Osprey take on the Great Falls White Sox.

The Missoula Osprey are the Pioneer League affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Osprey are also the 2006 Pioneer League champions. Ollie the Osprey is the Missoula Osprey mascot (see picture right).

The Pioneer League is short season (June-September) minor league baseball found in the Rocky Mountain region and includes the following teams; Billings Mustangs, Helena Brewers, Missoula Osprey, Great Falls White Sox, Oren Owlz, Ogden Raptors, Casper Rockies, and the Idaho Falls Chukars.

The Osprey play at Ogren Park at Allegiance field in Missoula Montana by , the stadium was built in 2003 and holds 3,500 people. The field bears the name of Bitterroot motors owner Kathy Ogren. The field is 309 feet to the left field line, 398 feet to center field, and 287 feet to right field line.

We had great seats (see picture left) behind the third base line immediately behind the home team dugout. These were the most expensive seats in the house at $10 a piece. Drinks and food were relatively expensive at over $3 a beer, peanuts were $2 a bag, but I managed to have a couple anyway. I know what you are thinking but I shared some of those peanuts with the family, I promise.

The Osprey started off shaky with 2 errors and allowing 1 run in the top of the first, but answered with 2 runs of their own in the bottom of the inning. The game slowed down a bit until the 6th inning where things started to get a little crazy.

In the 6th the Osprey had 3 runs only to give up 8 runs in the top of the 7th inning, yes 8 runs. They tried to mount a comeback but fell short with a final score of 12-10.

There was a friendly, light police presence, the crowd was well behaved, and Ollie was quite entertaining for the kids. Prior to the first pitch the coach walked out from the dugout turned around and called for my son, then threw him a ball, which my son caught with his glove. All in all a nice family friendly experience.

Southwest of Hamilton, Lake Como is a large irrigation reservoir that lies at an altitude of 4,500 in Rock Creek canyon which was the main trail of Idaho’s Selway country in the late 1880’s. There is a south-shore pack trail following this original route, and a north-shore foot trail join 1/2 mile below the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness boundary. The lake was considerably low (see picture right) and the smoke from the forest fires were moving in, still a nice place.

The streets of Stevensville were packed yesterday when the Budweiser Clydesdales visited from their home in Southern California. Budweiser has 6 teams of Clydesdale Horses; Menifee CA, St Louis Missouri, Merrimack New Hampshire, along with the three SeaWorld locations.

With fires to the north, south, east, and west the views have changed. We found a small layer of ash on things left outside, and if we leave the windows at night ash forms on the window sill.