Points North and East of Kalispell

Thursday, July 28, 2016

Today we travel north to the resort community of Whitefish located on the shores of Lake Whitefish and nestled at the base of Big Mountain which National Geographic named one of the “Top 25 Ski Towns in the World.” 

Under the very warm and sunny skies, people are enjoying swimming and boating on this lovely clear lake. 

The town itself was busy with tourists and we drive by the restored 1927 chalet-like Great Northern Railway Depot

and this unique truck/bus like vehicle which I found was called a “Bruck.”  The terms “Bruck” as defined on the internet is: A bruck (blended from the words bus and truck) is a type of bus or coach built to combine goods and passenger transport where it is most profitable or most convenient compared to separate vehicles. ….. was introduced in the late 1940s as a replacement for unprofitable railway lines……. It was used to transport people from the Whitefish train depot to the community of Kalispell some 15 miles south.  

We also found this rather interesting old church which is now an art gallery with a Thailand theme and this cute deer near the side door. 

I thought this old home was really lovely with the purple and yellow flowers to compliment the paint color on the house.

Leaving Whitefish we headed toward West Glacier to Hungry Horse located on the south fork of Flathead River and so named when in a severe 1900-01 winter two freight horses were lost and starved in the nearby rugged Flathead River wilderness.  Found a month later they were nursed back to health and the mountain and creek were thus named “Hungry Horse” as a result. 

The Hungry Horse Dam (Montana’s highest at 564 feet) was begun in 1948 and completed in 1953.  The Dam was built to harness the Flathead and Columbia Rivers force and help generate electricity. 

 Today the Reservoir (34 miles long and 170 miles of shoreline) provides a variety of outdoor activities such as boating, waterskiing swimming, camping and fishing.

A pretty view of the mountains as we returned to Hungry Horse

Turning back toward Kalispell, we take a route south toward the village of Big Fork which takes us through another part of this huge valley a large part of which is given over to farms growing a number of different crops including wheat, peas and others as well as a few orchards of cherry trees. 

This picturesque and quaint small fishing village is located on a northeastern bay of Flathead Lake and is an artists and writers colony. 

The main street of town barely has room for diagonal parking on each side of the street and a lane going each way in the middle.

Forget wanting to bring a large motorhome in town.  There is also this low one lane bridge with only capacity for cars on the far side of downtown.

If you even got the motorhome this far it would be very difficult to back it up and turn it around without backing traffic behind it back to main street or beyond.   Good thing someone told us as we had thought we might drive through here on our way to Helena next week.  We still plan to go this direction but fortunately the main highway south is found north outside of town. 

Return back to Kalispell after an enjoyable day.  Stay tuned for the Going to the Sun Road Tour on Saturday.

Charles Conrad Mansion, Kalispell

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Wednesday afternoon take the tour of the Conrad Mansion here in Kalispell.  This mansion was built in 1895, has 13,000 square feet, 26 rooms, 8 bedrooms, 8 fireplaces and 3 bathrooms and was owned by just one family, the Charles Conrad’s.   In 1974 the home and its contents were donated to the city as a historic site by Alicia, the youngest daughter.

Side Porch

Back entry gate

Back of House

Rock wall surrounding the house, original

The house itself is unchanged since it was designed and built by a well known architect of the time from Spokane.  Alicia inherited the house when her older brother Charles died, but she fell on destitute times, boarded the windows up and stacked all the furniture and belongings into the house and closed it up until giving it to the city.  As a result 90% of the furnishings in the home belonged to the family.  What a treasure it is to have those artifacts.  Unfortunately, you cannot take any photos in the house.  See the Charles Conrad Home, Kalispell, MT on the internet if you are interested in learning more about the home and seeing pictures from when the family lived there and today. 

Our tour guide was extremely well versed in her subject and gave a very interesting and informative tour telling us about the family, the furniture and home.   One antique bedroom set was an antique when the Conrad’s purchased it and today the lovely pieces are over 200 years old.  We learned the prices of some of the furnishings as receipts for many were found among Charles Conrad’s papers.  One beautiful table in the Grand Hall cost $50 when purchased when wages at the time were about $20 a month.  Some unique features of the house were the rounded arches found in several places, the laundry on the top floor due to high water table in Kalispell, a freight elevator used for moving furniture and other items, imported marble lavatories in each bedroom and bathroom.

Among the other items of interest in the home are the Edison electric lights (most still work) found on the sun porch, the imported French stove which cost $122.75 and custom made to fit the space (has a grill hidden behind a sliding door on the stove), electric dishwasher (nothing like today, very large and bulky and dishes still had to be hand dried) , warming oven found in dinning room radiator to keep food warm, bottle glass window in the Great Hall to name but a few interesting items.  Charles Conrad also helped preserve the American Bison by starting his own heard which formed the nucleus of the herd now found in National Bison Range which we visited a couple of days ago.

After the tour we did some driving around the nearby neighborhoods and spied a few interesting and beautiful old homes.

Taking a walk around town later, we photographed a few of the historic buildings downtown as well as touring a couple of antique stores to see if we could find any treasures.  None were found but the buildings were interesting.

Main Street goes one way on each side of building

Now a Museum, but once housed the Carnegie Library

Old Second Avenue School

Masonic Temple Building, upstairs

Close up of horse and buggy on top of overhang of building

Mural on side of building

Off tomorrow for parts north and east of Kalispell so stay tuned.

Kalispell and Lake McDonald

Monday-Tuesday, July 25-16, 2016

Our trip from Missoula on Highway 93 was beautiful especially as the road traversed Flathead Lake, the largest natural freshwater lake in the continental U.S. west of the Mississippi River.   The Lake is 30 miles long covering 200 square miles, 185 miles of shoreline and beautiful views of the Mission Mountains.  We traveled through several little mountain lake resort towns with a good part of the time traveling right next to the Lake.  There are numerous islands on the lake and lots of homes, resorts, etc.  Pictures are from inside the RV so not as clear as from outdoors.

One of the many islands on Flathead Lake

Our campground is located in Kalispell (a Salish word meaning “flat land above the lake”) and the town was founded by Charles Conrad in 1891,  The town is located about 30 miles south and west of West Glacier, the west side entrance to Glacier National Park.  Our RV Park is away from a busy highway and sits among the trees with a small spring fed creek used as the swimming hole.  For most of the day, the Park is very quiet though busy with RV’s and people coming and going but nights are very still.  Campgrounds this summer are very full due to low gas prices. 

We are going to take the vintage 1930 Red Jammer Bus Tour on Saturday taking us on all day trip from the west side to the east and back on the Going to the Sun Road so are spending our time until then sightseeing in other areas nearby. 

The Red Jammer Bus for Going to the Sun Tour

On Tuesday we drive up the Going to the Sun Road as far as Lake MacDonald.  Lake MacDonald is the largest lake in Glacier National park, approximately 10 miles long, over one mile wide, 472 feet deep and on the west side of the Continental Divide.  It was formed by a combination of erosion and glacial activity.  There are numerous pullovers where you can take pictures or even take a dip in the lake as well as several campgrounds geared to tenters and small RV’s and trailers.  Only one campground in the Park can handle RV’s up to 40 feet. 

Lake McDonald Lodge constructed in 1913-14 and done in Swiss chalet hunting lodge architecture, is located on the lake with a lovely lobby, restaurant, lounge and numerous outlying cabins and what they call a camp store with groceries and souvenirs all set along the Lake and among the trees.  Very pretty and a lovely view of the Lake.   Here you can also take  a boat tour of the Lake.  The weather today in the Park is overcast so our pictures are not the best.  We will drive up another day when the sun is shining. 

Chandeliers in McDonald Lodge lobby

 More tomorrow about Kalispell.

National Bison Range

Sunday, July 24, 2016

We take a drive north today to visit the National Bison Range which is an 18,000+ acre range which includes herds of elk, pronghorn antelope, deer and bighorn sheep.

Along the way we stop in the community of St. Ignatius where we find this beautiful old Mission.  The Mission was established in 1854 by Jesuit Fathers and Brothers with these log cabin outbuildings being lived in by those first missionaries and the Providence Sisters.

The 1891 brick church is really beautiful inside with 58 dry fresco paintings painted around 1900 by a Brother who was the mission cook, beautiful altar and stained glass windows.  The church is still in use each Sunday.

Turning off the highway, we drive through some beautiful countryside typical of Montana and the Big Sky country until we reach the Visitor Center.

Our Senior Pass gets us into the Range and a 19 mile drive down a dirt and gravel one way road, up and down the steep hills filled with Montana brown grasses, pine trees and a creek.

Up and down we go looking for the elusive animals who call this Range home.  Along the way we spied one antelope, a small herd of buffalo (mostly off in the distance and not close up), bighorn sheep lying under the trees, a couple of deer in the bushes, a large bull elk lying across the creek, and a large reclining buffalo who did not want to face me, but shows me what he considers his better side.

Look carefully for the antelope in front of green shrub.

Elk reclining in the shrubs

Bighorn sheep reclining under a tree

Those little things sticking up in the grass are elk antlers.

Look carefully in the grass for the deer

If you can enlarge the picture,
you will see a large elk antlers and
his body to the left.  He refused to lift his head up.

Back of large buffalo

Signing off until we reach Kalispell.