We stopped in Fall City, WA to visit some friends. We had good times, helped with some septic location work and enjoyed some outings in the area.

Moving into Washington State we stopped at Steamboat Rock State Park near Electric City where the Grand Coulee Dam created Roosevelt Lake to the north and Banks lake to the south. It was super hot out and the skies were gray with wildfire smoke, as it was through most of Montana also.

The landscaped park along the banks of the lake with the basalt rocky cliffs across the lake lit up by the setting sun.

We saw several deer around the park, this one with ‘steamboat’ rock as a backdrop.

South of Banks Lake is Dry Falls, once the largest waterfall in the world (about 20,000 years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age!) So much water then, so little now!

We stayed at a wonderful little private campground just outside Libby, Montana, the Libby Dam RV Park, on the banks of the Kootenai River. My knowledge of Libby, MT comes from news in 2002 that it was identified as an EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) Superfund site, 12 years after a vermiculite mine there was closed. Vermiculite was mined there for 50 years and was eventually found to contain high levels of asbestos which can lead to the diseases asbestosis, mesothelioma and lung cancer! However, it is a beautiful area and there is a GREAT brew pub in town, Cabinet Mountain Brewery! 12 miles west of town is the reason we came this way!

The Kootenai swinging bridge, originally built for the Forest Service to access the other side of the river to fight fires, has become a destination in itself!

It is a little scary to take the first step, but it’s a sturdy, well-built bridge. There are lots of trails that lead upstream to the impressive Kootenai Falls.

The rock outcrop in the middle of the river looks like a ship heading downstream!

The river is so powerful, churning downstream from the upper falls.

Addendum; “On September 14, 2021, EPA deleted OU8 based on a determination that no further remediation action is needed to protect human health and the environment; the area will still be subject to regular reviews for protectiveness. EPA will continue to address contamination concerns at the remaining operable units of the site, including the former mine site.”

After a few days camping in small parks across Montana, we arrived at Glacier National Park and camped at Marias Summit campground in the Flathead National Forest. No reason to try and stay IN Glacier N.P., it’s obviously going to be full and crammed with tourists! And indeed it was! We waited in line at the Two Medicine entrance on the east side of the park and milled around with all the tourists at the end of the road at the lake. On our way back out we found a small parking area with a short trail that we had never been on. We found a gem in the tourist madness! A shaded nature trail that described the plants and the ways that Native Peoples used them and a trail to an astonishing waterfall that appeared to gush out of a hole in a rock wall!

A few people had been swimming in the pool below the waterfall, and it did look refreshing! It was a very hot day, but the water was Glacially cold! It was tempting to try and climb up through the forest on the right to get to the top of the falls and figure out where the water came from, but there was no trail, so we opted to walk along the creek as it flowed out of the pool and admire the wildflowers.

We continued our travels across North Dakota to the western edge of the state where we finally explored Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We’ve been wanting to visit for many years, and finally made it! We took the scenic drive in the North Unit of the park and enjoyed the vistas and wildlife residents!

The bison herd slowed traffic as they walked across the road or rolled in the dust.