We also wanted to see the famous "Grouse Mountain Lodge" that is located on the outskirts of downtown. Well, at least it's famous to us. Our son used to stay here when he would fly up to this area.
We decided to go inside and have a look.
The lobby was very elegant with large overstuffed comfy furniture.
Mountain goat, elk and deer lined the walls and a beautiful antler chandelier hung from the ceiling.
A very large fireplace. I would love to be here in the winter to see all of the snow on the ground and enjoy that fire.
We headed up to Big Mountain to check out the activities available in the summer. You could see the ski trails and mountain bike trails wind downhill at Whitefish Mountain Resort. Alan was interested in the Zip Line, but between the length of the training they put you through and then two hours of zip lining, we decided we would have to do it another time. Meanwhile, they did offer Gondola and/or ski lift rides to the top of the mountain where there was a restaurant. We rode up in the Gondola and had lunch. While at the top, you could see the a lot of the mountains located inside Glacier National Park. It was quite stunning. On the way up in the Gondola, Alan noticed a lot of mountain bike trails criss-crossing the side of the mountain. Occasionally we would see someone on the trail. Every now and then a ski lift chair would pass us that was equipped with bike holders. Seems they can transport the bikes to the top of the mountain and then you can ride the bike down.
In the picture below you can see the zig-zag trail and then it goes on down the mountain.
This was one of the chair lifts bringing the bikes up.
Another angle of the bike trail. You can't appreciate the steepness of these trails from the pictures.
These trees looked like they should have Christmas ornaments on them. The smell up here was wonderful. You can see the bike trails all around the trees.
Some of the bike trails around the trees looked like an obstacle course.
We rode one of the gondola's up the mountain, but decided to ride the ski lift chair back down.
The sign below lets skiers know which trail to take depending on the difficulty of the trail.
Just behind Alan the land just drops off. It is one of the ski trails in the winter.
These guys are getting ready to ride down the mountain.
The ride back down for us was easy.......and cooler.
Once back at the bottom, we saw the Alpine Slide ride. I talked Alan into going, however, at the time I didn't realize we couldn't ride together. We each had our own slide. There was a lever in the center of this contraption that either slowed you down or sped you up. I went first and got the hang of it pretty quick.....or so I thought. They let the person in front of you get almost to the bottom before releasing the next person in line. That would be Alan. Well, when I got to the bottom I felt someone tap my sled and when I looked back it was Alan. He said that I was going so slow that he caught up with me. I thought I was going pretty darn fast myself. I only slowed down when the sign on the side said "slow". Alan still says it wasn't much more than a kiddie ride, but it was great just the same. The picture looks like we are riding the same slide, but we are not.
Oh my.....it's almost my turn. I'm wondering if I made the right decision.
Under the white canopy is the launch area.
You can see the slide in the distance. The chair lift is what you ride back up to the top. They just hand the sled on the side of the chair to transport them to the top as well.
This is part of the slide as it's going downhill. It is steeper than it looks. It was a lot of fun!
This was a group of people at the base camp that were going through training for the obstacle course that was set up.
On the way back into town, we saw a sign that said City Beach to the left. We decided to go see what kind of beach a mountain town would have. Well, to our surprise there is a huge lake there called Whitefish lake and it does indeed have a city beach, picnic area, and a floating dive platform. It looked great. I'm quite sure, however, that the water was cold. We figured it was probably like one of our spring fed lakes or rivers.
Picnic area and a pavilion.
Other Fun Things Along the Way:
We kept seeing these small stands along the highway the day we were driving up to Glacier National Park. The highway runs alongside the Flathead Lake for close to 40 miles. The scenery was beautiful. This is a big cherry growing area and they are called "Flathead Cherries" after the Flathead Lake region. I think everyone had a cherry orchard. They were everywhere, especially on the eastern side of the lake. After passing many of these cherry stands, we finally saw one that had room for Alan to pull the motorhome off to the side of the road. I walked over to the stand and bought a bag full of fresh cherries! Alan took this picture through the open motorhome door. As Alan was
taking the picture, he said that a deer walked behind the stand.
Yum! Fresh picked....sweet and juicy. These were so good!
This was one of the dozens of cherry orchards along this 30 + mile stretch of road. Seems almost everyone had a small orchard and/or cherry stand.
This was one of the more colorful, eye catching stands.
This was one area that the road ran along beside the lake. Sometimes for miles. In this picture we were level with the lake.
In the picture below, you can tell that we have started climbing. We would be on the side of a mountain and then we would be back down. It was a very pretty drive.
There was a small town called "Hungry Horse" not too far from the RV park we stayed in near Glacier. We never heard why the town was named that, but if you ever find yourself in this little town, be sure and stop at a place called "The Huckleberry Patch". It's a restaurant and gift shop and they sell anything huckleberry, including jellies, jams, candy, etc.
The way the taste was described to us was.... "huckleberries taste a lot like blueberries, but a little more tart".....I didn't notice that they were tart.
They also make the best Huckleberry pie. We made a point to stop in before we left Glacier to have a piece. It was well worth the time.
They really have their own distinct flavor......Good!
Let me tell you folks, they warmed it and put a huge scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Forgot to post this in the Glacier post.....
While in Glacier Park on our Red Bus Tour, our driver stopped on a small bridge just before reaching the St. Mary park entrance and told us to look to the right and sigh. She said this is the bridge in the Forest Gump movie where on his running episode, he stopped on the bridge, looked to the right, sighed and started running again. 
As we were heading south through Idaho and Utah to our next destinations, we passed several of these trucks hauling hay.
And, we kept passing fields with hay stacked in huge long stacks. Out here it's mostly ranch lands and they need large amounts of hay to sell or store for the winter months ahead.
This was an animal crossing above the road for wild animals to cross the highway safely.
We have seen so many deer on the side of the road that have been hit by vehicles. So sad!
So, at one of the RV parks we stayed in on our way to Glacier, we saw this billboard across the street. We had noticed the bakery at the Exit when we got off I-90, but didn't realize at the time that there was also a retail bakery and deli adjoining the bakery plant.
This was part of the bakery plant.
The entrance to the bakery/deli was shaped like one of the flour silos.
This is the side of the plant that faced the interstate. It was a big facility.
We decided to go for lunch the next day and see what they had .
That's me in the pink shirt....the girl behind me is bringing our food.
Alan had a Reuben and I had a French Dip Roast beef sandwich with homemade chips.
Both were very good! A lot of the restaurants throughout the entire region served the "Wheat Montana Rolls" on their sandwiches.
There was bread, pastries, bags of flour, ceramic flour canisters, cups, etc., etc. They even had a day old rack with bread and pastries to purchase. Since we were going to have to freeze most of what we bought, we took advantage of that and picked up some steak rolls, bread and pastries.
These were some of the larger bags of flour you could buy.
They also had smaller bags to purchase.
Just loved these rural mail boxes.
Next we will be heading to Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park.
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