Big Sky Country

Back to the 80's

A full plane but an easy direct trip to Seattle, Washington State USA, arriving around 6 pm local time after a 9 hour flight. No queues at all to get out of the airport or to get the Toyota Corolla rental car so very smoothly away on Interstate Highway I-405 for a 30 minute drive to get to our motel in Kirkland on the northeast side of Seattle city.

Checked in and then a 10 minute drive to meet up with one of Caro’s 1980 Oregon exchange ‘sisters’ Jennifer. Jennifer was 6 at that time. We had stayed with the family in 1986 just after we were married and she was 12 so she did remember us … and our VW van of the time! Over the last couple of years we had re-connected through the wonders of Facebook. 

Jennifer was pleased to be able to introduce us to her husband and 2 girls, a very enjoyable if quick catch-up over a meal.

Back to the motel at 9:30 pm local time, equivalent to 5:30 am Irish time so being a tad tired we had a good sleep.

Enough space to spread your wings and soar

Both awake by 5:30 am with the time change adjustment not yet kicked in so we were up and organised, eating breakfast alongside the commercial travellers/drivers staying at the motel. We were on the road by 7:15 am. A quick stop at Ellensburg, a sleepy (at 9:30 am) historic town just off the interstate, before driving through to Couer d’Alene in Idaho State for lunch.

Meeting the locals...

Couer d’Alene is a lovely, touristy (local), town set around a lake of the same name which is a natural dam controlled lake. Lots of cafes, cute shops and also boat only access to many houses around the lake edge. Quite smart water taxi's transferring people across the lake to cottage accommodation or lodges. Also float planes landing or taking off.

Onwards with a rest-stop for the “Best Huckleberry Smoothie Ever” at St Regis, a huge gift store which included a large in house display aquarium of trout. Huckleberries grow wild on sub alpine slopes, forests, bogs and lake basins in north western USA and western Canada. They have never been cultivated successfully so seemingly people are competing with the bears to pick them… anyway they are a big thing in Montana and very tasty.

Local advice if you are going hiking is to take pepper spray and wear small bells to scare any bears, and advice on how to identify bear droppings... black bear poop contains huckleberries whilst grizzly bear poop smells of pepper and contains small bells!

Arrived at Missoula around 7 pm local time after losing an hour in the time zone change on the border between Idaho and Montana states, a nice full day drive through really big sky country.

Great to see Aileen and Bob again, they have only moved to Missoula from Connecticut 4 weeks ago and into their lovely new condo/apartment 2 weeks ago. Still sparsely furnished as they wait on newly ordered furniture to arrive. An attractive spot overlooking a golf course and the hills beyond. We have our own studio, for guests, within the complex and just down the hall from Aileen and Bob’s apartment so a real bonus. It is quite hot in Montana… which is a double bonus after losing the heat over the last few weeks!

The big M

Early wake time for us as we are still on Dublin time, after breakfast we went downtown to drop Bob at the library. Aileen took us walking up to the giant M on the hill, a local landmark located above the University of Montana area and popular with walkers being a steep multi-switchback trail with great views.

Aileen and Noel soak up the Missoula view.... stadium on lower right is home to the Montana University Grizzlies American Football team

An afternoon drive to Snowbowl which is a local ski-field around 20 minutes away. A small not highly developed ski field which looks reasonably steep and challenging. It was closed but over the summer they have a lift going for MTB use and a café operating.

Lolo then High High

We both slept better, the time lapse issue sorting itself out. Another beautiful day in store with highs in the low 30’s. We all drove south to the town of Lolo and then through forested slopes and winding road to the Lolo National Forest and Lolo Pass on the Montana/Idaho border. Twenty minutes into Idaho saw us at a campground area of Lochsa Lodge for a lovely meal… since we were suddenly back an hour in timezone we were still in time for a brunch of Huckleberry Lumber Pancakes, yum!

 Huge pancake brunch, while being watched by various lodge residents.....

Heading back to Missoula we stopped at a campsite to do a ¾ mile forest trail walk to reach nice views of distant rocky hills.

Back to Missoula for coffee with our nephew Zander. Went out early evening calling at Zander and Brittany’s house to meet Wilma, the newest addition to the Thompson family at 5 months old (our Grand-Niece... now that makes us feel old!!).

Moved on to Western Cidery for a drink, this is Brittany’s sister and brother in laws business. A very cool place serving their own and other locally brewed ciders set in an attractive garden bar among apple trees and including live music. A burger meal finished off a very enjoyable day.

Missoula is a city of 74,000 in western Montana. A university city now, it was first settled by Europeans in 1860 as a trading post but has centuries of history as an Indian settlement area. In 1877 a fort was established to protect the settlers. With the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railway in 1883 the area grew with the lumber industry being the main stay until the 1980’s. With names like Rattlesnake Creek, Bitteroot and Blackfoot Rivers, along with moose, bear and originally buffalo roaming it has a touch of a good old western town about it.

Just chilling

With rain threatening we opted for a quieter day, went for a grocery shop where the shelves were stocked with Halloween product already! A downtown exploration shopping and browsing for the afternoon. Zander, Brittany and Wilma came for dinner this evening.

Clever sculpture made of old machinery and car parts

Homeward bound...

Not much panic to leave this morning, departing around 11 am after bidding farewell to Aileen and Bob, and their lovely city and home.

Drove through to St Regis where we had a quick stop to stretch our legs and grabbed a muffin to tide us over for a while. Drove through to Ritzville (which sounds Ritz'ier than it is) for a highway café lunch before continuing on to reach Seattle around 6:30 pm (gaining an hour on time zone change along the way).

What did we see on the way?? Pretty much the same as the day going over, lots of pine trees, 3 mountain passes over winding interstate highway, very dry dusty cropping areas through the Eastern Washington State plains. So dry that there was multiple mini tornado's rising from the paddocks. Most everything has been harvested apart from some maize.

 Spotted high on a hill, thought we better try and get closer

Found them to be quite tame really....

Also in Washington huge stacks of covered, Lucerne and Timothy, hay grown under irrigation for distribution to points further afield going by the stacks and number of trucks hauling hay. Also some apple orchards.

No wildlife sighted, though on the way to Missoula we had wondered if we had spotted a couple of moose and a bear.

Once at our Seattle airport hotel and settled in a huge thunderstorm struck so it poured rain. Not very enticing to leave so ended up in hotel lobby (no in house restaurant available here, although plenty of restaurants nearby but the short walk or drive was not appealing in the downpour) buying 2 minute noodles and a pre made sandwich to microwave, they filled a gap.

Up at 6 am to grab breakfast before leaving for the airport, a smooth rental car drop off and shuttled to check-in with heaps of time.

In the good old USA....

A short, 25 minute, flight from Seattle to Vancouver arriving around 11:30 am. When booking we deliberately allowed plenty of time in case of delays, however with everything on time we become quite familiar with the departure area of Vancouver airport as we awaited our 8 pm Auckland flight departure.

Flight seemed to experience minor turbulence all the way back, but not disturbingly so. Both managed a bit of sleep. Back to Queenstown by 9 am and met by our house sitter Fran… it's good to be back.

The verdict of our 3.5 months tripping.... absolutely brilliant! No major hiccups, great weather for the majority, as in really hot!, and such fun exploring a whole range of sights and locations sometimes with others great company (giving us a change from our own great company!!)