Flathead and Lolo

“Flathead" and "Lolo” may sound like two big friendly dogs, but in fact, they’re the names of wonderful national forests in Montana where we spent the earlier part of this week.   We traveled through them as we headed south out of Glacier Park diverging from US Hwy 2 for the first time to US Hwy 83.   We feared we might be leaving all beauty behind in the national park...but hardly!   Instead, we continued to enjoy stunning, snow-covered mountains on either side of the road for days and days.   We stopped at the Flathead National Forest visitors center, and found a very helpful volunteer inside who actually took us outside, put demo cans of grizzly bear spray into our hands, and made us practice exactly how to use it!   That was cool, kinda like teaching an asthmatic patient how to use an inhaler…well, sort of.   She also gave us the information we were after regarding hiking and camping in the national forest.

Our route took us to the Hungry Horse Dam.   My daddy took my sisters and me to the Hungry Horse Dam when we were children and I had flashbacks of that trip while there…truth be told, I remembered my daddy’s excitement and my own boredom as we toured the facility!  Tours like that are no longer done since 9/11, but the view of the snowy mountains beyond the reservoir and the dam itself was amazing!  That night we camped at Lost Johnny Campground, and since we had the place completely to ourselves, took nice hot showers outside for a change!

Snow capped mountains high above Hungry Horse reservoir

View from our solo spot at Lost Johnny campground

Peggy's view from the camper window--woo woo!

The next day we continued through the Forest to Holland Lake where we took a great trail to a 100+ foot waterfall and overlook.  After spending the night at Big Larch Campground in the Seeley Lake area, we hiked to the upper and lower portions of Morrell Falls.   All very beautiful!   The sky was clouding up over the mountains every afternoon and although the NOAA weather radio warned us of thunderstorms, these waterfalls and our hot shower were the only moisture to fall from above!

Holland Lake from trail

Holland Lake

Holland Lake Falls

Lower Morrell Falls

Upper Morrell Falls

In fact, it has been very dry here, so in addition to drinking lots of water, we found ourselves drawn to microbrews we encountered along the way, such as the Great Northern Brewing Company in Whitefish and Flathead Lake Brewing Company in Missoula.   No problem wetting our whistle at either of these and you all know how much Bernie and I enjoy craft beers!

At the Great Northern Brewing Company

At the Flathead Lake Brewing Company

We stopped overnight in Missoula for laundry and supplies before proceeding on to the Lolo National Forest and the Lolo Pass into Idaho!  Read all about it in the next blog entry....!