An intrepid and lively group of hikers met up at Glacier National Park.  This journey, led by a remarkable hiker (and all-around lovely human bean) named Katy, comes from all over and hits the trails.  Katy coordinates hikes every day and this year she had to re-coordinate many of the hikes due to the fires in Montana.

I love to hike, but work gets in the way of my conditioning- BIG TIME.   It was HOT – in the 90’s at times and we were at elevation.  I’m such a flatlander –  we had arrived a day early so we could do a gentle acclimation hike.   This really brought home to me how sport-specific training is essential for activities.  I was wiped out after 3 days of 12+ miles. Fortunately,  I had brought plenty of cheese to have with my whines

I’ve separated photos into Animal, Vegetable & Mineral.  This is the Mineral (scenery) post.  Click on any photo to enlarge, click back button to return to post.

The plan was to hike a few days and take a rest day.  Our rest day became our longer journey back.   We took 2 days to blast to Glacier and 4 days to return at a more leisurely, explorative pace. This was our first road-trip in my “new” car (Camry Hybrid).  Bob is a good and steady driver – Yeah Bob!  Along the way there and back, we saw many wonderful sights as well as some fires.  Smoke in Montana, Oregon and California was uncomfortable (especially for my eyes).

Above are some Glacier scenes.  Below are Glacier (Bob and me), fires across the way from Crater Lake in Oregon, Glacier rock color, a cairn (if you’re a fan of this blog, you know how much I LOVE cairns).   Following those are a dam (or darn if you don’t like profanity) scene, a wonderful windmill garden in Electric City (enlarge this one for sure) and a description of Newberry Volcanic National Monument (if you’re interested – enlarge and read).  Last photo is Crater Lake panoramic.

On the way back from Montana, we went to the Grand Coulee Dam and the Chief Joseph Dam.  The tour at the Chief Joseph Dam was very interesting.  We went there because Bob read that it was a way better tour than the Grand Coulee.  We joined in with a group of 30 from a tribal youth camp.  One young camper –  in flip flop sway too big for his feet – lost a shoe in the one tiny place in the whole entire dam that could cause a major problem or shut down.  Disaster was narrowly averted and a dam executive finally retrieved the silly shoe.

A sponteneous stop – at Newberry Volcanic National Monument – We walked in a mile long, enormous cave (enlarge and read the sign).  We also walked along the shore of Crater Lake (above).

When building the Grand Coulee, it was political thinking at the time that this area of the country (the Northwest) would NEVER need that amount of power.  (Reminded me of the patent office commissioner in 1899 saying that everything that can be invented has been invented.)   Quite the enormous undertaking to tame the mighty Columbia –  the Grand Coulee now being one of 14 dams on that river.

Poor Salmon!  They’ve still not solved that issue.