East Glacier National Park Saturday.

My trip was complete.  I saw a bald eagle soaring in the sky looking for food on the way to East Glacier!!!  Isaiah 40:31 Those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles, run and not grow weary and walk and not grow faint.  

The trip to East Glacier is different than West Glacier as you can see.   More open spaces.  We were headed to go horseback riding on trails in East Glacier.  Mike thought it might be better for animal viewing.  It was. Our destination was Many Glacier.

We are here!  We were not allowed to take our cameras which was a bit upsetting to me at first.  The leaders say the camera straps get tangled in the trees and people drop them creating delays and a problem.  Especially if a horse stepped on your camera.  No cell phone pictures either.

Toward the end of our ride we say a large female moose in the river.  The pictures below were taken after the ride with our cell phones.  That was allowed.  The ride was beautiful and narrow at times, well most of the time.  We crossed a couple of creeks.  Lots of up and down.  My horse did a lot of slipping.  One big one.  I felt safe though.  The big one happened so fast and the recovery was fast so I didn't have time to be afraid.  Here is Mike on Tyson.  One of the workers said they always wanted to have a Mike Tyson on the ride. We were given instructions on how to maneuver the horses and what to do if we saw a bear.  Joe, our guide said he would start yelling, "Hey bear!" We should start yelling too.  Joe said the bears stay away from the big horses and the trail horses don't really react to the bears.  That thought process for the bears and the horses is a good one. Works well together!  You know what the horses are afraid of??? Plastic bags and ponchos!  Seriously, Joe told us the horses sort of freak out over plastic bags and ponchos.  If it is a rainy day no one can wear a poncho on the ride.

My horse that liked to slip was called Cool Whip.  Love that!   Joe told me Cool Whip liked to drift left.  He did!  In really weird places where you would think that was the last place a horse would want to go.  They even had his eyes checked to determined if the turning left was an eye issue.  It wasn't.

Mike and Tyson.

Cool Whip!

Many Glacier Hotel.  Big fancy hotel!   I like our trailer better.  Seriously, I do.

And now for the animal viewing.  Any time you see a group of people you stop to see what they see.  We were walking back to our truck after horseback riding and there were several people near our truck.  They were seeing big horned sheep and mountain goats.  Then the bears! The binoculars were out.  Mike got his spotting scope out and there they were.  I got a new lens for my camera and tried to get pictures.  The bears were far away and hard to find in the camera but I found them.  Every time I saw a black spot I snapped.  Most of the time the black spots weren't bears.  But I got them! We watched for a long time.  So amazing!  It was fun listening to the people.  "There they are, they are moving!"  "They are in the tall grass, the yellow grass!"  Everyone was joyful and excited.  I truly believe seeing God's creation in a wilderness setting makes a unique connection to God we only get when we are in the middle of the wilderness.

There was a debate on whether or not the pictures of bears above were grizzly bears.  The consensus was they were not grizzly bears.  One man insisted there was a third bear on the hillside.  None of us could see it or find it.  We sort of thought he was seeing things.  When I looked at my pictures I see the pictures below.  I thought they were the black spots I was taking pictures of.  Nope.  Blurry for sure but I kept them.  Here is the third bear.  And yes, it is a grizzly bear!

We did move to another spot down the road and saw a grizzly bear roaming around the hillside eating.  No doubt! See the hump on its back. We saw the bear through the binoculars and the spotting scope.  No pictures because it was too far away.  I tried.  Being far away was a good thing.  This bear was big! It was beautiful with different colors.  Silver and a silvery gray brown!

On the way back to West Glacier Mike decided to take me out for a date night.  Browning Casino on an Indian Reservation! Interesting date night for sure.  There was a private party in a nearby room.  We could hear the band.  I can't really describe the sound coming from the band.  It wasn't good.  Willy Nelson with laryngitis? The grilled cheese sandwich was really good though.  

And Then There Was Sun in East Glacier!

We woke up to a beautiful sunny day on Tuesday.  My first thought...great for picture taking!  You know what a sunny day is like in the morning when it is early spring.  Chilly for sure!

Mike had to find the scraper! Off we went to East Glacier.  David the server in the restaurant gave us the idea to head the other direction.  He said the view was great for pictures.

 I thought the stair step formation of this waterfall was very unique.

 More snowy mountains but they were closer and easier to take pictures of.  The sun helped a lot. No clouds behind the mountains.  Love the snow blowing off the top of them.  It was a windy day.

Same mountains, different view.

East Glacier was about 30 miles from the Inn.  We wanted to see the fabulous hotel where David used to work.  He thought it was open but it wasn't.  We drove through the blue tunnel and checked it out and I totally don't know why I didn't take a picture of it.  Probably because it was full of snow and my  thoughts were about not slipping instead of picture taking.

As far as a town goes East Glacier is small.  Mike and I like to go to small town places to eat.  We get to talk with some of the locals and hear lots of interesting stories.  We talked to two men that were Blackfeet Indians.  Very interesting stories about their heritage.  I should have tried harder to remember the stories so I could have shared.  I was on vacation so I wasn't concerned about remembering.  I sort of forgot about the blog thing.  

Here it is. The Two Medicine Grill.  You are seeing almost the whole place.  There were a couple more tables off to the right of the picture.

 Even in East Glacier substitutes are needed.

 The grill had a bar area to sit in.  Just old fashioned goodness.  Great food, great conversation!

 Well, not sure how to caption this.  Don't drive close to a red truck with a dog in the drivers seat.

 This was East Glacier.  Pretty much all of it.

We drove up to Browning.  Not much there so we decided to try a different way to get back to East Glacier.  The road less traveled.  It was a beautiful drive with the mountains just off to our left.  

The road was paved but not in great shape but we kept on going.  I love adventures.  We knew we were on the right track.

 And then the turn to get back to East Glacier!  Closed!!!  Too much snow.

We really wanted to go on the narrow winding road but that would have to wait for another day.  Back the way we came.

We headed back to the Inn and then decided to find another small eatery.  We passed the Inn and West Glacier.  Of course stopping to take more pictures along the way.

This looked like our kind of place.  I walked up and opened the door and turn back around.  Mike did the same. Loud and lots of locals drinking lots of beer.  We wouldn't be hearing any new stories.  We wouldn't even be able to hear each other.  Next stop.

 Perfect.

 Small with the locals sitting at the bar.  Good food too.

On the way back we were told to check out milepost 168.  The mountains look like they are straight out of the Swiss Alps.  We kept looking thinking we found them.  These are not the mountains they were talking about but we thought they were.  When we saw them we knew!  Swiss Alps.  No pictures because you couldn't get a good picture taking view.

Back at the hotel we were told about a long standing tradition at the Inn.  When a passenger train goes by the workers go out and wave to the engineer and the passengers.  Mike and Bo are waiting for the train.

 Here it comes!

 The engineer is waving you just can't tell in the picture.  It was fun to participate in the tradition.

 Wednesday morning and it is time to leave for the long drive home back to Spokane!

The drive home was uneventful for the most part.  I was a little apprehensive about doing a u-turn on the highway and stopping in the lane, not on the side of the road, to take pictures of mule deer.  The big truck coming up behind us wasn't a concern for Mike but it was for me.  Just pull over a little on the shoulder.  We will scare the deer Mike said.  Well, you are scaring your wife and if I had to pick between a picture of deer and living a bit longer I would pick life.  You can see we are not on the shoulder.

 Deer are good at hiding.  You can hardly tell they are there.

It was a great trip.  Restful and relaxing.  Except for the deer pictures.  Spending time together, meeting new people and hearing their stories, taking pictures of majestic scenery and being away for a few days!  It's Good to be Alive!!!