This morning we took our time getting around before heading into the Park. We stopped outside the park at an official looking park store. It turns out it was a Glacier Conservation store. The store had lots of neat National Park items and was staffed by very nice and helpful young people. They explained where the road closures were and places we would likely enjoy visiting. We got another block down the road and Donna wanted to stop in the Canada Visitor Center. Kind of weird but it was nice and again filled with nice young folks eager to help. While odd that Canada has a visitor center here, keep in mind the North end of the park is Canada. We hit the road again and we zipped through the National Park gate with our annual pass and quickly found ourselves in the Apgar Village. This time we stopped at the official National Park visitor center. This is a new record, 3 visitor centers in less than an hour. We normally pop in the visitor center of a park on the way in to check out the roads and easy trails. Today was visitor center overload. Apgar Village also contains a campground and a picnic area on Lake McDonald. This lake provides one of the frequently photographed glacial lake and mountains. It is breathtaking. We stopped briefing to take pictures and let Maverick play in the water. The water is crystal clear.
Now that we had a thoroughly wet dog we took off down the “Going to the Sky” road. This famous drive is a National Civil Engineering Landmark, is on the register of National Historical Places, and is a National Historic Landmark. The road was completed in the 1930’s and is the only place with all three designations. The road is 50 miles long but today only 15 miles is open from this West entrance and 14 miles open from the East entrance due to snow. It is really disappointing for us but the full road won’t open for about another month. The drive follows the edge of the lake for the first 10 miles. Not far past the lake is McDonald Falls. They were roaring and fantastic. We had brought our lunch and chose to eat at the falls enjoying the roaring spectacle. The road ended at the Avalanche Trail and Trail of the Cedars. The Trail of the Cedars is an easy, ADA Accessible trail that is flat and much of it is on a raised wooden walkway. The trail is an 0.8 mile loop. At the halfway point there is a stunning waterfall that shoots through a narrow canyon. The trail itself winds through large old-growth Cedars and Hemlock along Hidden Creek. It was super nice. Like nearly all National Park trails Maverick was prohibited. At all of the popular stops we had difficulty finding parking. We got lucky but any more crowded and we would have been out of luck. The Park runs a shuttle to the popular spots from Apgar Village. On the drive back we stopped by the McDonald lodge. We didn’t go in but it looked like a neat old structure with great views the the lake and mountains. On return to Apgar Village we checked out the campsites to see if they would fit the big rig. They would but only a few would accommodate us and few had any hookups.
After the park we headed back to the coach. We were killing time until dinner. While there the clothes washer in the coach started smelling like burned rubber or electronics. Ugh. We shut it down and aired out the bedroom. I started researching possible failures and alternatives. After about an hour we headed out for dinner. We drove to nearby Columbia Falls and chose Three Forks. The restaurant was kind of a Contemporary Lodge/Ski Chalet. We shared a delicious Bison burger.
After dinner we drove another 8 miles to Whitefish. Whitefish is the most desirable town in this general area and has a nice ski town sort of feel. It appears to have a vibrant downtown and is big enough to have most amenities you would want. We also discovered it sits on a large beautiful glacial lake with really nice city parks. We got out and let Maverick stretch his legs. Many teens and young adults were enjoying beautiful weather. Maverick had dried off since the Park so of course he had to jump back in the water. Thats what you get when you live with a water loving hound.
After picking up a few groceries we ended back at the coach. I set about getting to the back side of the washer. Kudos to Donna for realizing (before me) that the closet next to the washer had a large removable access panel. I didn’t see any obvious damage inside the washer but did find the dryer vent was disconnected. We cleaned everything up as best we could. My research also indicated that the water pump could become jammed by debris and there is an “easy” clean out. I opened this and found a dime near the pump impeller. I hope the dime is the root cause but we won’t find out until tomorrow. We don’t want to stink up the bedroom tonight. The joys of maintaining our mobile house!
Wow, we seemed to do a lot today!