Butte to Kalspell

During my time in Butte, I went to two places. The first was Phillipsburg. The sole purpose of this little wide spot in the road is mining. Sapphires. So, I decided to do some "mining." You get a bucket of gravel and a place to check the gravel for sapphires. The washing is done by one of the employees. After looking through my bucket, I found a whole bunch of little sapphires in the rough. I got a total of about 8 carats of cutable gems, so I'll probably get them done. Here's a picture of the total stones I found and the cutable stones.

These will be heat treated and cut. The bottom stone is a white sapphire with a bit of yellow. It won't be heat treated but will be facetted.

All the stones I found that are too small to be cut. They may be heat treated (which improves the color).

Large stones that are fractured and can't be cut. The one on the right is a "pink" sapphire. But too small.

The second place was Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park - not for the state park part of things, but for the caverns. I'd been to Lehman Caves and this was similar except for the huge number of stairs. The hike was 3/4 of a mile to the entrance, 3/4 of a mile into the cave (mostly down stairs and one "slide" that was shaped like the many butts that had slid on it) and 1/2 miles back to the visitor center. Other than the up and down shape of the cave, the formations were essentially the same as at Lehman Caves. So I didn't take many pictures. There were only 3 of us since it was so early in the season. The guide says the usual is 30 (up to 47) and it takes FOREVER to get through the cave with that many.

I left Butte and drove to the Flathead Valley (past Flathead Lake). It was an easy drive and pleasant to view. It is one of those places where I wished someone else was driving. There was a lot to see and 70 mph makes viewing difficult, if not dangerous.

Made it into Kalispell and after parking I made a quick drive over to Whitefish and found the park. The road construction near the entrance is HORRIBLE. A train also wanders by the site at least once a day, maybe more. It is still a beautiful place. More pictures will come later.

One of the mountains in Glacier National Park

One of the small drops in the McDonald Creek leading to Lake McDonald

Today, I drove to Glacier National Park. Very few people there. I met a ranger who had told me that a bear had been browsing close to one of the turnouts. She said it headed off into the trees, so I didn't see it.

I drove to the road closure, took lots of pictures and turned around. On the spur of the moment, I decided to drive to Polebridge (or as far as the pavement went). On the way toward Polebridge, I saw a momma bear and her baby. I thought she had one baby with her. Then I noticed the second baby. After a couple of minutes, I heard a lot of noise in the trees and thought it was a large bird. Turns out it was baby number 3. Babies 2 and 3 got into it a bit before they all went back to grazing.

One Baby

Two Babies

Babies Two and Three Getting It On!

Three Babies

 By the time I returned, the bear family was gone. And the clouds were really piling up like it was going to rain. I left the park and drove home.

Can't wait until later in the season when the road is open and the shuttle runs up and down the mountain. Save the truck!