Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, Utah

We have often camped in this magnificent part of Utah; this time, instead, we stayed at a lovely B&B, the "Kiva Kottage" midway between the villages of Boulder and Escalante. We enjoyed a couple of hours watching the sun set on the cliffs and valleys around us from our terrace. There are two cottages, appropriately named Sunset (ours) and Sunrise. Today, we hiked in perfect weather to a unique falls in this part of the country.

 View from our terrace looking east towards Capitol Reef National Park

 The Kiva Koffeehouse and Sunset Cottage

This and the two shots below we viewed from our terrace as the sun set.

Hike to Lower Calf Creek Falls:

 Janet on the trail as we near the Falls

 Desert Varnish on the cliffs above Calf Creek
What is "desert varnish"? See,  http://minerals.caltech.edu/FILES/VARNISH/

Lower Calf Creek Falls

A Pretty Waterfall in Montana

Montana: Whitefish, Polson, Flathead Lake, the National Bison Range; Idaho: Route of the Hiawatha

We had a fun evening at the Blue Moon Bar and its adjacent Blue Moon Rodeo Arena. The Rodeo contestants were all local cowboys and cowgirls from northwestern Montana. The audience, local as well, mostly were from Whitefish. Being from a distant home, we were celebrities - the announcer pointed out that tonight we had folks from Massachusetts and Australia in the audience.

Off he goes, give 'em a hand for trying...

Will he make it-8 seconds in the saddle?

Success!

Local Rodeo at Whitefish, Montana (near Glacier National park)

http://www.glaciercountryrodeo.com/summer.htm
Why the 8 second ride?

"The 8 second length of a qualified ride was devised purely for the safety and well-being of the animals involved. After 8 seconds the horse or bulls bucking ability decreases because of fatigue, adrenaline loss, etc.
In order to prevent the animal from becoming overly stressed, the buzzer or horn will sound to signal the rider to end the ride and prepare to dismount. This keeps the animals spirit high and healthy and keeps them from 'breaking' or taming down. The 8 second ride allows rodeo stock to continue competing at the best of their ability at the next rodeo and throughout their career in the arena." from the website: 

http://rodeo.about.com/od/faqs/f/why8seconds.htm

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Before the rodeo we visited the Hockaday Museum in Kalispell (near Whitefish) where we met the  artist Peter Moore whose paintings were on display. See,

http://www.hockadaymuseum.org/index.cfm?inc=page&page=493&page_content=Peter-Moore-Up-the-North-Fork-Exhibition-at-the-Hockaday-Museum-of-Art

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In the morning we attended the Polson Annual Fly-In; owners of vintage and experimental aircraft have a chance to show off their restorations and creations.

Nearby, we roamed for a few hours among the bison and Pronghorn Antelope that are cared for at the National Bison Range at Moiese, Montana:

"Fleet-footed pronghorns are among the speediest animals in North America. They can run at more than 53 miles (86 kilometers) an hour, leaving pursuing coyotes and bobcats in the dust."  from the website: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/antelope/

... after which we relaxed at Flathead Lake, near Polson:

Janet does "Downward Facing Dog" yoga position. The water was surprisingly warm, liked a heated swimming pool. 

Flathead Lake is the largest body of fresh water west of the Mississippi River.

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A couple hours' drive from this area took us to a remote mountain area where we biked the spectacular "Route of the Hiawatha," a rail-to-trail project. The trail begins with a tunnel of 1.67 miles that traverses Taft Mountain. There are a a number of smaller tunnels and several high trestles by which we crossed over deep valleys in the Bitterroot Mountains.

 a trestle of the Route of the Hiawatha in the Bitterroot Mountains near the Montana-Idaho border - and view from the trestle:

 "What is today the Route of the Hiawatha was also known as one of the most scenic stretches of railroad in the country. When the Milwaukee Railroad was operating, the trains traversed through eleven tunnels and over nine high trestles, covering a 46-mile route that crossed the rugged Bitterroot Mountains between Idaho and Montana. The Route of the Hiawatha's most well-known feature is the long St. Paul Pass, or Taft Tunnel, which burrows 8,771 feet (1.6 miles) under the Bitterroot Mountains at the state line between Idaho and Montana." from the website: http://www.traillink.com/trail/route-of-the-hiawatha-.aspx

Madison, Wisconsin to Whitefish, Montana

(Please click on photos to enlarge)

Janet on the Glacial Drumlin Rail-to-Trail near Madison, Wisconsin

Lock 1, Upper Mississippi River at Minneapolis, Minnesota

Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota, near the Montana border - http://www.nps.gov/thro/index.htm. Roosevelt wrote of his life in the wilderness:
http://www.amazon.com/Hunting-Ranchman-Sketches-Northern-ebook/dp/B005JPEEJY/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1378404166&sr=1-5

 Grinnell Argellite rock seen in Avalanche Creek at Glacier National Park, Montana; the blue-green water results from glacial silts:

http://blogs.agu.org/mountainbeltway/2010/08/23/rocks-of-glacier-national-park/

We saw six glaciers on our drive along the "Going to the Sun" highway. 

Unfortunately:

"It has been estimated that there were approximately 150 glaciers present in 1850, and most glaciers were still present in 1910 when the park was established. In 2010, we consider there to be only 25 glaciers larger than 25 acres remaining in GNP." (Excerpt from this website: http://nrmsc.usgs.gov/research/glacier_retreat.htm.

 at Glacier National Park, Montana, with the 1938 "Red Jammer" in the background

Saint Mary Lake with Wild Goose Island, Glacier National Park, Montana - a place of romance and fantasy, Note, we were told that the placidity of the lake as we saw it on September 4th is unusual. See:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/locosteve/6001947119/