Day 6: Trail ride, Lift ride & huckleberry milkshakes

Today was just an awesome day!  We had such a great day! 

First, we went for a two hour trail ride through Glacier National Park on the Upper McDonald Creek Trail.  It was run by Swan Mountain Outfitters. 

image via the Swan Mountain Outfitters website

 Their staff was top-notch, really knew the trails, horses and how to talk to people.  Neither of us have been on a horse in probably 10 years, but it was like coming home.  And yes, I did keep my heels down, Allison!  We unfortunately couldn't take any photos, it was a liability issue, and thats fine!  At times, we needed both hands holding on to the horse, not the camera.  My (Amanda's) horse, Rock,  was very gassy, which was funny to me, but not to Aaron, who was behind me.  Aaron's horse, Bullet, was a good boy.  Aaron really liked him.

After that, we stopped for  huckleberry milkshakes (YUM) at the Huckleberry Patch shop and restaurant.

Then, we drove through the town of Whitefish to go to the Whitefish Resort and take a ski-lift (gondola) ride to the tip top of their mountain. 

I'm standing in snow!

Aaron throwing a snowball at me!

It was such a great day!  Any of those parts were great on their own, but combined, just make the day so special.

Tomorrow (Friday), we're off to Kellogg, Idaho to visit our friends Megan and Travis and to flowride at Silver Mountain Resort. 

Day 5, part 2: Dinner at the Montana Club

After we drove through Glacier on the Going the Sun Road, we reached Kalispell, Montana.  Our hotel just happens to be next door to The Montana Club restaurant and since our room didn't have a microwave (which meant we couldn't heat our dinner), we had to go out!  We walked right over to the Montana Club and had probably one of the best dinners ever!

image via google image search

The restaurant had great atmosphere and wonderful food (and a casino, but we didn't stop there).  We had (and really recommend) the beer battered halibut sandwich (try the tartar sauce) and the glacier dip (if you were to set it on top of your head, your tongue will beat the crap out of your face trying to get to it).  And to top it all off, we had the huckleberry sundae.  

Do yourself a favor and stop there!  

Day 5: Driving through the Blackfeet Nation

Today, (Wednesday), we drove through the Blackfeet (Native American) Nation.  Its a 1.5 million acre reservation in western Montana that borders the eastern side of Glacier National Park.  For more information on the Blackfeet Nation, click here. 

Here are some pictures that we stopped and took along the way.

A lone dog we saw walking around.  I didn't get a picture of his friend, "Foxface" the akita.

The statues were made of old car parts.

Montana is one of the prettiest parts of the country I've seen.  Very windy, but beautiful.

Day 4: Action river flowrider in Great Falls, Montana

Aaron has been talking for 4 years about wanting to go to this flowrider (in Great Falls) because its so different from what we're used to.  (An action river draws water from and leads into a lazy river---you'll see from the videos).  But, he hasn't been able to!  Last year, we even made it to the waterpark, and then found out that the flowrider was being repaired that day!

Please listen with the sound down, but here is are videos of Aaron and I both riding at Great Falls!

On Wednesday, we're off to Glacier National Park!

Montana

Montana was beautiful, but huge.  I think we saw every landscape feature that the state had to offer.  We started in Billings, MT, which was a cute little town, and had to drive up a plateau that overlooked the entire city/valley.

We were headed to Great Falls, which has an action river flowrider (different than the one at Massanutten).  Much to our dismay, when we got there, we were told the flowrider was down.  They had redone the concrete and mat earlier this summer and it bubbled or something and they had to go back in and lay more concrete.  So, what to do when you were planning on riding and spending the night there?  We decided to cancel our hotel reservation and drive to Kellogg, Idaho to visit our friend Megan and ride at Silver Mountain Resort.  

Day 2: Great Places, Great Faces

Today, we saw a ton!  We drove all the way across South Dakota, Wyoming and about 100 miles into Montana.
We started off in Sioux Falls, SD at about 6am.  We hadn't gone far, when we started seeing signs for "The World's Only Corn Palace".  Of course, we had to stop:

 Then, we stopped at Wall Drug, which is like South of the Border, only in South Dakota.

Yes, that's Aaron on a giant jackalope.

Next, we went to Mt. Rushmore.  The drive was beautiful!  We didn't walk any of the trails, but the views were spectacular!

part of the drive to and from Mt. Rushmore

The rest of South Dakota was pretty neat.  We drove past Sundance, WY (where the "Kid" got his name....not the home of the Sundance Film Festival and Robert Redford).  Here are some landscape pics:

This was at a gas station somewhere in Wyoming!

And, before I-90 turned north, we saw the Rocky Mountains from the road.  You could see snow on the peaks (if you look close enough!):

Tomorrow, we're off to Great Falls, MT to ride the flowrider!