Get Lost in Montana

Since I just did a short blog last week, I need to catch up this week! 

On Tuesday, September 1, I flew into Kalispell, Montana, with my sister, Susanne, and my niece, Allie. My parents were already on a road trip in the area, so they picked us up. We walked through the shops of Whitefish, MT, before we went to the condo in Columbia Falls, MT, that's part of my parents' time-share.

I decided I wanted to go running, and I saw on Google Maps that there were trails nearby. I soon found a trail and was delighted to see some of the first signs of fall.

Soon, I came across a trail that was blocked off for bear activity!

So I went a different direction. Soon I went past a road gate, and on the other side was a sign saying the area was closed for the same bear activity. But there had been so sign in the other direction! I had to go back the direction I came, even though I now knew it was supposedly closed. I learned later that just a day earlier, a woman walking her dog had been attacked by a bear with a cub, which was probably guarding a nearby bear carcass.

The next morning, we drove into Glacier National Park on the Going-to-the-Sun Road. This was a narrow, winding road. I correctly guessed it was made in the 1920s, and it was a little nerve-wracking—parts of the road were next to rock outcroppings, and parts of the road had a steep drop-off, with a small rock wall. And then we kept going past St. Mary's. There were some lovely views. 

Then we crossed the Canadian border into Waterton Lakes National Park, which is part of an international peace park between the US and Canada (Glacier being the American side). We saw a bear on the side of the road, just foraging, I guess. I didn't get a picture, though, and it's OK not to get pictures of everything you see. 

My dad and I did a short hike called Bear's Hump. It was a little steep, but it wasn't too bad. My dad regretted wearing flannel. 

Always love seeing glacial U-shaped valleys

There is a little town of Waterton that we went to. We got to get close to the water, and we went into all the little gift shops. 

We tried Canadian Beaver Tails, which are like a Utah scone (frybread), and I had to go for the Canadian M"eh"ple flavor

Then we went to a nearby waterfall, which you could see right from the street. There were some trails that took you above the falls, and my dad and I went on them, but they weren't that special. 

Then we went back across the border to return to Columbia Falls. On the way we stopped at an overlook where mountain goats lick mineral deposits, but we didn't see any mountain goats.

We returned to the condo to relax. On July 31, I bought the game Priorities, because the Star-Spangled Edition was on clearance at Walmart, so we played it and enjoyed it. (It's best played with people you know.)

The next day (Thursday, September 3), we went back into Glacier National Park, this time to Two Medicine Lake.

We took a ride on a boat called the Sinopah, which is one hundred years old. They even put up a "Happy Birthday" banner to commemorate the centennial. (I don't think it was actually the birth date.) 

We had an employee, I think named Abi, get on board and give all of the safety information before the boat took off. And then as we left the dock, she made a comment that the other employee at the dock had left something on the front of the boat, so she had to go up and get it. And then she fell off the boat into the water! There were some gasps—and immediately another boat employee got up and went to the front of the boat and said, "I'm your real captain today." She said Abi was the comedian of the team; her falling in had been a joke. I had wondered why she was wearing shorts on a chilly day!

We rode the boat across the lake while the "captain" gave information. 

When we got to the other side of the lake, my dad and I decided to get off and do the short hike to Twin Falls. It was raining, but we had raincoats, so it was actually kind of a pleasant morning. We were warm enough.

The aptly named Twin Falls

This bridge only allowed one person at a time. It did get very wobbly.

We rode the boat back to the main side, and Abi was our captain for real this time, wearing dry, warm clothes. Then we spent some more time at Two Medicine Lake and went on a little nature walk. 

Twisted tree trunk

We drove to another nature trail, Running Eagle Falls. I liked this waterfall, because it came through the rock rather than from the top. 

In the evening, we went to the town of Hungry Horse, where we saw Hungry Horse Dam, which was built in the mid-twentieth century. My Grandma Judy was from Montana, so my dad remembers visiting this dam when he was a kid. 

I love the very mid-twentieth-century font

Then on Friday, September 4, we had to take Allie back to the airport, since she was flying back while the rest of us stayed behind. Before the airport, we stopped at an antique store in the basement of another store in Kalispell. This store was massive; we didn't have time to see all of it. We had lunch in a restaurant that had been converted from an old blacksmith shop. 

After we dropped her off, we went to Holland Lake, where my dad remembers camping when he was a kid. As we approached the lake, there were a bunch of loose horses walking on the road. It was really random. 

We saw the lake, and my dad and I took the hike up to Holland Lake Falls, which were impressive. The hike was fairly easy, but there was a little scrambling at the end. 

Then on Saturday (September 5), we went into Glacier early, because my dad wanted to beat the traffic of Labor Day weekend. (That was the right call, because as we were leaving the park a few hours later, the traffic was backed up onto the highway.) We went to the Trail of the Cedars, an easy nature walk that reminded me of Mount Rainier, a little more rainforesty than the rest of the park (that we had seen). 

We went to Lake McDonald, and we explored the tourist trap village of Apgar. 

And then we headed out of the national park for good.

I did enjoy Glacier. But many people had hyped it so much that it wasn't as spectacular as I hoped. I found it to be like a grander version of the Uintas. But don't get me wrong; it was an amazing place.

We returned to the antique store in Kalispell, since we didn't get to see all of it earlier and we liked it so much. I found a button-up shirt that was perfect for me. (My mom bought some 1990s decorative Easter dishes, but I didn't take a picture before putting them away.)

Trying on this shirt just now, I find it a touch snug

Then Sunday was an exceedingly boring, lazy day. Since Allie works with the public at the Salt Lake Airport, she caught a cold. And then the rest of us, except for my mom, also caught it. We didn't leave the condo at all. We just listened to church on Zoom, read, napped, watched TV, and played Priorities. Oh, and we packed up most of our stuff.

Monday was Labor Day, but since we were already on vacation, it didn't feel like a holiday. We left the Glacier region to drive down to Deer Lodge, MT, Grandma Judy's hometown. I visited Deer Lodge when I was a teenager back in 2004—on that occasion, my dad's parents had also come to Deer Lodge, and we attended an urn burial for my grandma's Aunt Lucy. (I felt a little weird being at a graveside service of someone I had never met.)

Now in 2026, as we arrived in Deer Lodge, we went to Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site, which I didn't know was there. Family lore says that my dad's grandpa, Raymond Kesler, worked at the ranch. (By all accounts, Ray was not a great person. Whenever I teach a family history lesson, I use him as an example: Are you going to be like Frederick Kesler, the pioneer hero, or Raymond Kesler, the alcoholic jerk?)

There were various historic buildings and displays at the ranch.

The highlight, however, was having a park ranger give us a tour of the original house. This was the rich owner's house, and they have original nineteenth-century furnishings. (There was even a flushing toilet.) It was really interesting, but we weren't allowed to take pictures inside. 

In Deer Lodge itself, we drove by the home of my dad's Grandma Mary. 

I never met Grandma Mary, even though I was nearly fourteen when she died, because she was apparently an exceedingly negative and mean person. I have rarely, if ever, heard anything good about her. But across from the house was her mother's house. My dad remembers getting cards from her (Thaisa), and he said she was nice. (Not sure what Mary's deal was.)

We went to the Deer Lodge Cemetery, which I remember going to in 2004. We saw many of my dad's relatives' graves. As we left, he said he didn't swear at his grandmother's grave.

In Deer Lodge, we went to another antique store. I bought some vintage New Year's and Valentine's postcards. I don't like them as much as the ones I bought at Ken Sanders and received from our neighbor Laura, but they're fun to find in the wild. These postcards and the shirt are the only souvenirs I bought on the trip.

We stayed at a Vrbo in an old house. I stayed upstairs, which had a very steep staircase. The whole house was dimly lit.

It was fun to stay in this small room. The highest part of the ceiling was only a few inches above my head. I would hate to live here.

In the evening, I decided to walk along Deer Lodge's Main Street. There is an Old Prison Museum, which we visited in 2004 but not this time. 

Next to the prison was an ice cream shop called the Prison Cow. I would have been interested in pumpkin or huckleberry flavors, which they didn't have. So I got mountain blackberry; I felt obligated to buy something (even though it wasn't seasonal) because they had just read all the flavors to me after they had taken them down.

Then Tuesday morning, we got up and drove down through Idaho to come home. And our vacation was over.

***

But wait, there's more!

A few months ago, I saw a Facebook post saying that you could email an archaeologist named Ron Rood to tour Danger Cave just outside of Wendover. So yesterday (Saturday), my dad and I made the drive for our tour. The area is a state monument.

First we went to Danger Cave, which was looted throughout the twentieth century, so there have been bars blocking the entrance since the 1990s. But Ron has the key to let us in.

Ron told us the history of the cave, which was once on the shore of Lake Bonneville when it was at one of its lower levels. (At the lake's highest level, the cave was underwater.) This cave preserves organic matter better than many other sites. Buried are many samples of pickleweed, which Indigenous peoples used anciently.

The base of this excavation dates back twelve thousand years. There are some fire pits (dark spots), and above them are deposits from seven thousand years ago. There are lots of pickleweed samples here.

Ron passed around a projectile point and various animal bones from the dig for us to look at. There was even some antelope fur. And we got to look in a second pit, where there was a feather sticking out and a bit of cordage. At least part of this second pit goes back 8,500 years.

projectile point

mule deer jawbone

This is from a sage grouse, which no longer lives in the region

antelope fur

After Danger Cave, we went to nearby Jukebox Cave. I actually found this one a bit more interesting, though I think it's less important archaeologically. It is so named because during the WWII era, people from Wendover would hold dances in the cave. They even installed a concrete dance floor!

They used to hang lights. There are artifacts to be found in this cave too,

He didn't really tell us about these animal bones

and there is Native rock art, which Ron estimates to date around the 1830s because of the horses (and rifles?). 

It was fun to see a part of the state I had never been to, and it was fascinating to learn about people in Utah thousands and thousands of years ago! Our written history of the state is so recent that it's easy to forget how long Utah has been inhabited.