Our Trip to Montana and the Meaning of Life
Meg's mother rented a condo near a ski resort, Big Mountain, north of Whitefish and about 15 minutes from Glacier. We flew into Salt Lake City and drove from there up to Whitefish, about 600 miles.
Glacier is so full of striking scenery it is hard to describe. There is only one road that goes all the way through the park, and I guess it was quite an achievement putting it through. There are quite a number of places where there is cliff on your left and shear dropoff on your right, and no guardrail except a 12 inch or 18 inch stone ledge. Christopher and I went back to Glacier by ourselves for a day of exploring. Most of the hiking trails there are one- to three-day trips but there are several short hikes near the main road and we took a few of them.
We had to hike through snow on one of the trails, up at the pass near the continental divide. That hike was less than a mile in and a mile back, but it felt like ten at that altitude. The trail leads to a view of a nifty little mountain lake called Hidden Lake, and it goes down to the lake, but it looked like it would be quite a climb to get back up and we didn't go down to the lake. We did go a ways past the overlook, though, and by doing so found ourselves away from most of the tourists. We came upon a little mountain goat grazing about 5 feet off the side of the trail. His head was in a shadow, so I sat down on a rock to wait for a picture. After about two minutes I heard CJ say, "uh, Dad, you might want to look behind you" so I did and there was a BIG mountain goat about 15 feet behind me watching me watch the little guy.
We took another hike to a place called Sun Point. It was probably a mile and a half in, and by that time my old feet were starting to hurt but we stuck it out and got there. It is a big rocky outcropping way up above another mountain lake, a very spectacular place, worth the hike. When we got close to it we could see that there was a sign up at the top, and CJ commented that after a hike like that, the sign should provide the meaning of life. It didn't seem to at first, but we decided that, indeed, the meaning of life was contained in the text on the sign: you are here.
After we (finally) got back to the car, we drove down the road a little ways and saw a sign for "Sun Point Parking" so we didn't have to hike there at all, but we probably wouldn't have enjoyed the place so much if we hadn't had to work so hard to get there.
The ski lift to Big Mountain was a short walk away from where we were staying, and it was operating, so we went up to the top of the mountain one day and saw a slide show about what it's like in the winter, and saw some nice wild flowers, and got stuck there when a storm came up and they closed down the lift. There was nothing to do but spend money in the restaurant and gift shop, and when we had spent enough they started up the lift again so we could go down.
On the way up, we stayed Saturday night in Salt Lake City, which is much smaller than I thought. When we landed there I expected to see city out the window, but all you can see is mountains and desert on both sides. Salt Lake City is about like Huntsville or Ann Arbor. We took the tour of Temple Square, since there is not much else to do there, and we went back on Sunday morning to hear the Tabernacle Choir perform. They do their Sunday morning TV show live in the Tabernacle, and it is not a service so it is open to the public. It really is pretty impressive. No inclusive language there. God is definitely a guy in Salt Lake City
We ate in a middle-eastern restaurant that features belly dancers on Saturdays, and the dancer took a liking to CJ and flirted with him all through her performance. He's a little embarrassed about it now, but he seemed to enjoy it at the time.
We stayed in Butte on our way up, and again on the way back. The first night we were there we took the chamber of commerce tour, the usual tour with the restored streetcar with a V-8 engine. Butte was recommended to us by Bob, Meg's stepfather. Of course, Bob grew up in mining country in the UP and he loves anyplace with mines. The city is at about 5000 feet, and the mine shafts go down to below sea level. Strip mines are still operational, and some of them are right on the edge of the city. In some cases the mines have the names of neighborhoods or adjoining towns that used to be there. If you own a house in Butte and they decide to mine under it, too bad. It is kind of an interesting place, though, even if it isn't very pretty. Butte had a population of 100,000 at the turn of the century and is at less than a third of that now, so it is a big spread out place with empty fields between neighborhoods (kind of like Detroit). Many of the very old buildings are still there, some restored, some kind of beat up but still in use, some in shambles. You can really sense the history of the place. We had an excellent Chinese dinner there.
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