Summer Adventure--Nebraska and Montana

We are back from the latest part of our Summer Adventure 2010. We were so thankful Jacob was able to go with us, and we hope he had as much fun as we did. It is certain that he was able to see many places he'd never seen before.

Here he is in front of a greenhouse of thousands of pine seedlings at the Nebraska National Forest in Halsey. It is a great stop for a picnic lunch on the way to northwest Nebraska. The Nebraska part of our trip was a re-visit to places we had vacationed to when our children were at home, so it was very special to take Jacob to some of those same places and do some of the same things.

After Halsey our next stop was Chadron State Park. We truly enjoyed our time there. It was probably our favorite cabin of all our stops, and while there we fished, hiked, and had a campfire. And, one of Jacob's favorites--he and I went horseback riding. His horse was Socks, and our wrangler took us on some of the same steep trails that Steph and I had taken many years ago. The difference was that she was much younger and had to ride double with me. The wranger told us they don't allow that anymore!

While staying at Chadron, we drove over to Ft. Robinson, which stills looks just like it did when we were there about 27 years ago. We went on the Chuckwagon Cookout again, and they still serve buffalo stew!

The Nebraska sunset on our ride back to the fort was one of the best we saw during our trip.

Our next stop after leaving Nebraska was the Little Bighorn Battlefield, also known as the place of Custer's Last Stand. On the way, we read a book about Custer's life, so we were familiar with the details of the battle when we arrived. The book made the scenes come alive for us.

This is a stunning wire sculpture honoring the indians who fought there.

These gravestones mark where Custer fell with his men around him.Our next stop was Glacier Lodge in East Glacier, Montana. John and I are enjoying a few moments on the porch of the lodge on our first morning.

Here is a picture of part of the lodge. It is a beautiful hotel built in 1912-1913 by James J. Hill, the railroad baron of St. Paul, Minneosta, who wanted to bring travelers on his trains to the park. His work was successful and travelers still visit the several lodges throughout the park.

None of my descriptions nor any of my pictures do Glacier National Park any justice. The beauty cannot be captured, but must be enjoyed in person. But, here are a few of my attempts.

The trees are magnificent. Here's Jacob inside one of the bigger ones.Jessie, Kevin, and Jacob enjoyed white water rafting down the river and we enjoyed watching them.

This is a picture of one of our many hikes. This is the hiline hike near Logan Pass. You can see it is quite steep, but amazingly beautiful. And, notice how the kids are dressed. The temperatures were in the 40's some of the time!

This is the only glacier that can be seen from the Going to the Sun Road, the only road that crosses the park.

I love this picture of the hike to St. Mary's Falls. You can gain a perspective of the heighth of the trees--the Douglas firs.

This next picture is one of the kids picking huckleberries. Unfortunately, I don't have a good picture of the berries--not sure why, no excuse. They look like a blueberry, but slightly smaller, on the outside, but they are juicier and tastier and the juice is red. They are the main food for bears at this time of year, but we enjoyed them just as much as the bears do. Fortunately, the bears let us have some without bothering us about it. Notice, we had a warmer day this time.

This was taken on our hike to Aster Falls at Two Medicine, where Jessie worked.

This is the lake and mountains at Two Medicine. I just had to try my hand at one of those classic reflection pictures.

And, of course, my blog entry would not be complete without a flower picture. I was pleasantly surprised at the numbers and beauty of the wildflowers at Glacier. This is my favorite photo of indian paintbrush.

Next time I'll blog about Wyoming.

Have a great day!