Some leftover notes about Medora, North Dakota: We had a little rainstorm come by on our last evening in Medora. It was time for the Pitchfork Steak Fondue up on the mountain, but we knew they had a covered area to cook and eat, but the rain quit in time for the Musical. People were coming into our campground, maneuvering fifth wheels and trailers into campsites and getting set up, only to ‘un-set’ and leave before 8am. Where’s the Walmart when you need one? (just pull in and sleep and move on). See the guy in the cowboy hat and duster directing him in? This campground had us packed in pretty tight. Finally Medora is a nice little tourist town with two or three streets with tasteful shops, and surprisingly lots of tourists wandering around (how does Mary Lou find these places?). So plan to stop by next time you are in the neighborhood – you’ll enjoy it. The route we took across Montana was long and straight. The first part was more of the rolling hills, cultivated for miles for a far as the eye can see on all sides. It must get lonely riding that farm equipment over all those miles away from everything. I think they have air conditioning, stereo, gps, and all the comforts of home, although we saw some open tractors at work. We saw some bright yellow fields, which a local person allowed as how they might be sweet clover, a feed crop. NOTE: we have been marvelling about how lush and green the rolling hills are, but now we find out that it's unseasonalbly green for this time of year and normally everything would be brown. Kinda burst our bubble about this land. First glimpse of the Rocky Mountains. The little town of East Glacier Lake is like the gateway to the part of Glacier Park on the east side of the Rockies. Even though it’s a little town, there were plenty of people there, mostly at Glacier Lodge. Sometime back, we saw a TV show about the grand lodges in the National Parks and this one must have been in it. Built in 1912 (101 years ago) by the Great Northern Railway, it features immense timbers that were probably 500 to 800 years old when cut and all of them retain their bark (they are so uniform, I thought they might be fake). There are 60 of them, all 36 to 42 inches in diameter and 40 feet long. Posts and railings are also various size timbers. There were a lot of people in the lobby, many of whom were going across the road to the Amtrak Station to ride on to someplace else. A neat idea. Since 1914 the National Park service has commissioned companies to provide tours of the parks. The vehicles have evolved into what is used in this park, the Red Bus Tours. The vehicles are 1937 vintage which were restored by Ford Motor Company. Notice the removable canvas top. We moved on up the road to Two Medicine campground on the bank of Two Medicine River. It’s a National Park campground with no hookups, but a beautiful spot. We were just across the road from a ‘stream’ of the river connecting two lakes in the shadow of Rising Wolf peak. The water is just below the windshield in the photo. We were nestled in the trees, really a neat spot. Pictures of the upper lake, the stream, and the lower lake. We took a couple of hike to see waterfalls (you’ve seen one, you’ve seen ‘em all!). The best one was Running Eagle Falls. The photo on the right tells the true (not legend) story of the Indian girl who was rather famous among her people. Click to enlarge if you are interested (it’s pretty interesting!). We’ve had a couple of rain showers here, but they didn’t interfere with what we
wanted to do, except for cutting short the Ranger talk about bears. Tomorrow we’ll move over to west Glacier for more excitement (!?!) Stay Tuned.
3 Comments
Ruby
7/11/2013 08:38:30 am
Breathtaking!!!!!
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Liz
7/16/2013 04:09:24 am
I think that you have found the most beautiful RV campsite in the entire country. It will be difficult to leave this one,
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Patsy Harris
8/1/2013 06:24:27 am
Wow soooooooo beautiful, would I love to be there now!!!!!! Have a safe ride home. Patsy
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