Hwy 2 to Glacier National Park

Monday morning, after breakfast and being lazy, we headed out to Glacier National Park via HWY 2 out of Spokane. We wanted to enjoy the drive and the scenery, so we took it slow and did some stopping. The first stop was at the Albeni Falls Dam in Bonner, Wa, located on the Pend Orielle River. We really stopped just to use the restroom, but then realized they were giving tours, so we jumped on the bandwagon. We followed the group down as the ranger stopped and told us information along the way, but as we got to the gate to be let in, we got told that we didn't sign the paperwork and he typically couldn't let people in, but he would today as long as we signed the paperwork when we got back up. Weird, but okay.
We got to see them cleaning the debris from the dam where the water goes in and then we were taken inside the dam. This dam's main job is flood control for the valley below it and secondly it's power. It's run by the US Army Corp of Engineers and that is all we found out, because everything else was confidential. There was even no pictures allowed! We did get to see some amazing things inside there, but that is all confidential as well.
We got back in the car an hour later and were on our way again. We drove and drove and drove and then we hit crazy rain, hail, thunder, lightening, flooding, wind, anything you can think of we hit it. Finally, when it let up a little we stopped in small little town at a cute little grocery store and had some lunch and then it was back in the car and onto Kalispell and West Glacier.
Once a we arrived in the park we did a little exploring around Apgar Village and Fish Creek Campground, even getting a few great shots of the lake.


This is Lake McDonald. There was a huge fire (Robert Fire) the last year I was there, 2003, and it burned many acres. Some of the trees are starting to come back now.