A visit from Tonya's sister

In October right before we moved to Seattle, my sister came to visit. We had a great time hanging out and exploring. Here's a few pictures of our time together.

Hiking Blodget Canyon overlook It was a little overcast and rainy that day but we had fun anyway! (I think my poor Texan sister was freezing though!!)Awwwwww.

We did have one good day of great weather so I took her to National Bison Range, hoping to see Bison but also knowing the views would be spectacular. Unfortunately this is all we saw of the bison!We had some fun! Opps, bad timing......There we go! (Toyota! they need a little pick me up right now)Did I mention the views we spectacular?We were silly.. "No, Tara, you don't eat meat!"Did I mention the views were spectacular?We also drove up to Flathead lake and walked around on some of the docks. Did I mention the views were spectacualr??When we got home that evening we hiked the M trail above UM. We let Erik go with us this time!Here's a shot of the M Trail as seen from down below. It was so fun to have her visit! I miss her already!

Ghost Towns

After our big trip to Glacier we took a couple days a little more easy on my parents. We went to the Missoula Farmers Market, Lolo Pass (those gorgeous camas that bloom every spring were up in full show. see it here from a coupe years ago), Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Missoula Alliance Church and Mom and I had a little gal time shopping! On Monday June28th I took them to Garnet Ghost town (see above link for the time I took Erik's parents.) and then we went to Phillipsburg (aka P-burg).

On our drive to Garnet we saw TONS of bear grass, a super showy flower

Here we are exploring the old town.

Finally we went and had lunch in P-burg, shopped at the Sweet Shoppe and checked out the Start Sapphire in the Sapphire Gallery.

After that lovely day my parents had to go back home! BooHoo! But, we all had a wonderful time together and have lots of good memories. Don't you want to come and visit? ;-)

More of the Carmean Visit

Here are a few misc. pictures from Glacier:

Beautiful Vistas:Snow Chute on the Road:

View of part of the road:Dad by McDonald Creek:McDonald Lodge and the Refurbished Tour busses:

We had a great trip to Glacier. The only thing we didn't see was a bear!

TP's Mom and Dad visit!!!

Yippee! What a fun week for me! Mom and Dad were here the end of June and I tried to show them as much fun and surrounding sights as possible. The first two days they were here we spent in Glacier NP. My parents hadn't been there for 20 yrs and when they were there 20 yrs ago they only were able to drive the Going to Sun Road. So we made the camp with us!!

Here we are ready to go in the am:

Mom and Dad hiking Avalanch Creek hike:

Avalanche Lake:

All of us:

The next day, June 26th, was the first day the Going to the Sun Road was open to Logan Pass due to snow and contruction. Here's some shots of us playing in the snow at the Pass!

A parting video of silly Erik:

.... a few more Glacier pics in the next post. It will be soon I promise!!

More of our trip to Glacier.

Do you all ever get sick of seeing pictures of our trips to Glacier?? I hope not because we love to share them. The Going to the Sun road wasn't open yet adn that really gets to the heart of the park. We camped at Hungry Horse Resevoir and Dam. It was FULL of mosquitos but when you grow up in MN they don't bother you all that much. Plus bug spray with 18% Deet helps! Here's some picks from our weekend outing with Ginger.

Look at the kids skipping rocks on Flathead Lake.

Picture of Hungry Horse Dam:

Ginger and Erik in front of dam:

Tonya and Ginger near Avalanche Creek in Glacier NP:

ERik in the evening by the reservoir:

A video of us near one of the falls on McDonald Creek in Glacier NP. The water was running fast and loud! A picture did not do it justice.

Thanks for stopping by today. A few more pics in next post.

A Visitor!

We had a visitor last weekend! Ginger, Erik's aunt from Arizona, came up for a visit. We had a very good time giving her a tour of some of the best sites in the area.

Her first day we took her to the National Bison Range, which you may remember from here. We had a great day for travelling and sight seeing. Here's a few pics:

Ginger and Erik

Arrowleaf Balsamroot and Mountains

Ginger and Tonya

Buffalo

They just had calving season and this guy was the closest to the road

Yellow headed blackbird:

Pretty view of the mountains:

Stop by later for our trip to Glacier with Ginger!

Visitor and Tonya climbs her first peak!

Well, wonderful August continued as Erik's Aunt Ulla from Germany stopped by for a weekend visit Aug 8-11. We were able to do a few fun things with her. Erik took her to see a ghost town nearby while I worked on Sat. and on Monday we did a big driving tour to Philipsburg and Skalkaho Pass. We had a geat day. Here's a few of the pics from that day.

Erik and Ulla at one of the overlooks:

Tonya and Ulla by Skalkaho Falls:

Erik and Ulla by the falls:

Then the following weekend on August 16th we did a backpacking trip with our friends up to Carlton Lake. Then those of us so inclined climbed to the top of Lolo Peak. Unfortunately, Erik's knee was bothering him too much so he opted not to go. But I (Tonya) was able to make it all the way to the top! Yippee! My first peak! It's not like Colorado with all the 14ners and what not but it was a good gain in elevation and something difficult to accomplish. Here's a link to the stats: click here. Basically we gained 3300 ft on the hike, most of that happening in the last push to the top. It was great to do it with our friends and we had a great time camping with them, at least until the mosquites came out in droves!! (Worse than MN!!)

Here are some of the pics from that weekend:

Our crew starting out:

Here we are part way up. Carlton Lake is behind us, we camped there overnight:

Here I am at the top! The next day, there the peak is behind my head:

And in case you're wondering. I do wear the same clothes two days in a row. Less weight to carry on my back!

Stay Tuned. Coming up...Banff and Jasper NP plus Glacier NP!!