BACK HOME

We made it back home safely! After Moab, we stopped at Bryce Canyon for some night sky viewing. It was cold! Then we meandered back to our "warm" home....98 in October???
Lots of unpacking, cleaning, putting away. All worth the effort. Of course, we realize now that we took WAY too much with us....lesson learned. Time for Fall Cleanup!

MOAB....."rocks"!

We spent 5 days at Moab, hiked up to Delicate Arch, saw petroglyphs, and returned several times to catch sunset pictures.

Gooseneck Bend on the Colorado River

View from Dead Horse State Park

Sawtooth Recreation Area....along the Salmon River

We took a different way back, through the Sawtooth Recreation Area. The road follows the Salmon River. Towards the end of the day, we started looking for a place to camp. We found Mormon's Bend, right on the river. It was beautiful....and still open! We watched the ducks fly up the river, float down & catch fish, then up the river again. Quite relaxing. Darrell enjoyed his glass of wine, and we had a good night. The rain began around 8.

Craters of the Moon National Monument

We decided to take a somewhat northern route that would bring us by this point of interest. We spent about an hour exploring the loop around the park, and it was quite interesting.

One last trip up the North Fork Road

We hiked around Bowman Lake, and saw lots of beautiful things. The butterfly, when it closed its wings, looked exactly like the bark of this tree. Mother Nature at her finest!

Even the mushrooms are taking on fall colors.

Our last visit to the farmer's market. The "traveling gnome" on top of the VW reminds us that we'll be back.

Happening at the park........

The park got a new new sign! Now when people come down the road, they know which way to go. The other night when we got home, Darrell saw evidence of a bear being around...they dig in old logs for the insects. Sure enough, a few nights later, he bbq'd, and while the grill was cooling before we put it away, we heard noises. I looked out the door with a flashlight, and there was mr/miss bear, about 5 feet from the steps, looking up at me with big brown eyes that seemed to say "oops, you caught me". I shut the door really quick. We had one more visit, and that was it for the season.

Before and After

It's hard to see, but the before house had so much peeling, cracked paint, it was in pretty bad shape. We're all happy with the finished product!

Darrell has the first few shingles applied, and I have started painting the wrought iron on the porch.

Wasabi!

Kent and Amber took us out to dinner last Saturday. It was a great sushi restaurant in Whitefish. It was interesting trying to use chopsticks, but Darrell & I improvised, adapted and overcame. The next problem was fitting the whole thing into our tiny little mouths (ha).

Darrell & Amber tried 3 different kinds of saki. To say the least, they were both very happy by the end of the meal.

Progress is being made!

The airless sprayer has a learning curve. When we got there, Amber was dealing with a bit of dripping; so we brushed out the drips, followed her around the house, got the first coat on. Then she went back 4 hrs later and applied a second coat. Now that she had the hang of it, it was easier to apply a lighter coat. Looks awesome! We just need to do a little touch up. Next project, the cedar shingles that go on the front peak.

Summer Project

In between hiking and park hosting, we also volunteered to help Amber paint her newly acquired home. It's a well-built, mid-century home. Just needs a little cosmetic help. It has been a real learning experience for all of us.
Now we know which sander to use, what kind of stripper works best, and have met most of her nice neighbors.
Located on a lovely tree-lined street, across from a park. A diamond in the rough!

Stay tuned for the "after" pictures!

Thursdayfest in Kalispell

We finally got around to stopping at this event...usually on our way home from Amber's, and too tired and dirty to stop. But today we made a point of changing duds and cleaning up, and stopped to see what it's about. There's a band and lots of food, and you can make an evening of it, if you want. We just grabbed some kettle corn and headed on home. It was so hot! I think the Whitefish farmers' market has more to offer. Glad we investigated!

Big Mountain and the Danny On Trail

A day off again....we chose to hike the Danny On trail, up on Big Mountain. The trail is named after a silvaculturist (ecologist) who worked for the Forest Service, also a well-known wildlife photographer. He died at the age of 55 in a 1979 skiing accident on the mountain. Summer activities on Big Mountain also include an alpine slide, zip line, mountain biking, walk in the trees, and riding on the ski lift. The trail is 3.8 miles one way, with some side trails you can add on....elevation gain about 2000 feet. We took the lift back down.

Looking back from the trailhead to the Kandahar Lodge complex, and up the ski run...which, by the way, is always where we are hiking.....up, of course!

Some of our scenery on the way up.

In addition to our trail, there is a bodacious mountain biking trail on Big Mountain.

Darrell stops for a look at the view.

The thimbleberries are not quite ready for picking.

Looking down on the trail we just came up, and the view from the top. It's hazy, partly due to cloudy weather, and partly because of fires south of us.

First time in a ski gondola......

Trying to get some pictures on the way down through the raindrops.

The view from the gondola