Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument

I'm going to jump a little out of order here as I want to write this while it's still fresh in my mind.

I'll begin with an excerpt from the Park literature.

"The Little Bighorn National Monument memorializes a major battle fought in June 28, 1876 between Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians against the United States Army. These tribes were fighting to preserve their traditional way of life as nomadic buffalo hunters.  The U.S Army was carrying out the Grant's Administration's instructions to remove the Lakota, Sioux and Cheyenne peoples to the great Sioux Reservation in Dakota Territory."

We began by attending a presentation by a Park Ranger.  I was impressed that he was very straight forward in not laying blame solely on the Indians.  We then watched an excellent 25 minute film on the events of that fateful day.

I think the attached pictures will do a better job depicting the battle than I can writing about it.

Chief Sitting Bull, while did not participate in the battle as he was about 45 years of age and considered to old to do battle.

This explains the placement of the many Tombstone markers were scattered around the hillsides.  Another marker estimated the Indian casualties estimated to be between 40 and 100.

A few of the scout that worked for the Army.

Tombstones, like the first, were scattered all about the property marking where U.S. soldiers fell.

We saw maybe four of these markers as the Indians carried off their dead and wounded.

While driving we saw these Indian Ponies standing on a rise overlooking the Little Big Horn River

When I saw this tree I named it "The Witness Tree".  One can only imagine what it saw on that day.

The Little Big Horn River.

The "Last Stand Hill".  General Custer's grave marker is there along with four members of his family who were fighting alongside him on that fateful day.

 The marker with the names of the soldiers that died that day engraved on it.

The General's Marker.

Rightfully so, a marker in memory of the Calvary horses who died that day.  Many soldiers shot and killed their horses and used their bodies for defensive cover.

A memorial has been constructed to honor those who fought that day to preserve their way of life.

Nicely done.

Cannon Beach, OR

Cannon Beach is another quaint little touristy town on the shore of the Pacific Ocean.  It's location is fairly close to a couple other places we really wanted to visit. 

The beach is very nice and stretches for miles.  When the tide is out people are walking, jogging, and riding bikes.   Here is a picture of the "Haystack"

and another of the Howells and Fords on the beach.

We set off one morning heading to the Evergreen Aviation Museum where the "Spruce Goose" now calls home.  It's an amazing aircraft and almost impossible to photograph due to it's size.

There are many vintage aircraft on display.  A Ford Tri-motor, a P-38, and dozens of others. One in particular got my attention the B-17.

One scene depicted in the artwork you can see displayed on easels in front of the plane gave one the true challenges that some crews encountered and survived.

The SR-71 spy plane was another historic aircraft

And finally, the museum complex also boasts a water park on the property with, as the highlite, is a 747 jetliner on the roof which is used as a waterslide!

We really enjoyed our visit, but we had one more place on our list for the day. 

 The Tillamook Cheese factory.  I first experienced their product many years ago at a Costco in TX and thought is was great!

It's quite an operation to see at work.

 

Diane and I applied for a job delivering cheese.  I failed the oral exam when I asked if the delivery ran could do a wheelstand! Can't understand their concern.

During the drive down the coast, I had spotted the Pacific Seafood restaurant.  We finished off a great day with platters of superb fried oysters.

The Oregon Dunes

I was surprised to find that Oregon had sand dunes....BIG sand dunes!  We happened to find a RV park outside of Florence, OR that backed right up to the dunes. Another pleasant surprise was to see this herd of Elk grazing in a field alongside the highway as we approached town.

 Florence is a very nice quaint little town with a marina that caters mostly to fishermen. We went into town looking for fresh seafood.  Couldn't locate any oysters but did find some Albacore Tuna filets that were excellent! We also met this cute little fellow.

  Several places around town rent dune buggies.  Diane and I, along with Bonnie and Roger (Kokomo) rented a couple buggies for an hour and hit the dunes.  I was rather intimidating at first as you felt like the buggy was going to do a back flip on the way up and a front flip on the way down!  The buggies were nice rides.  Four wheel drive, all wheel independent suspension and pretty decent power.

We took Tinker for a "dune walk" a couple times.  She must have thought she was back in the Bahamas on the sandy shore.  She took off running...flat out.. and came back smiling.  Everyone enjoyed our time there, but it was time to move on...again.

CRATER LAKE

The lake is 1,943 feet (592 m) deep at its deepest point, which makes it the deepest lake in the United States, the second deepest in North America and the ninth deepest in the world.

The caldera rim ranges in elevation from 7,000 to 8,000 feet (2,100 to 2,400 m). The United States Geological Survey benchmarked elevation of the lake surface itself is 6,178 feet (1,883 m). This National Park encompasses 183,225 acres. Crater Lake has no streams flowing into or out of it. All water that enters the lake is eventually lost from evaporation or subsurface seepage. The lake's water commonly has a striking blue hue, and the lake is re-filled entirely from direct precipitation in the form of snow and rain.

 There is not much that I can add to the above except that it's raw beauty is memorable.

Glacier National Park

Often referred to as "The Crown of the Continent", this park is my personal favorite.  It's natural beauty is stunning.

 Known to Native Americans as the "Shining Mountains" and the "Backbone of the World", Glacier National Park preserves more than a million acres of forests, alpine meadows, lakes, rugged peaks and glacial-carved valleys in the Northern Rocky Mountains. Its diverse habitats are home to nearly 70 species of mammals including the grizzly bear, wolverine, gray wolf and lynx. Over 270 species of birds visit or reside in the park, including such varied species as harlequin ducks, dippers and golden eagles. Glacier Park's varied climate influences and its location at the headwaters of the Pacific, Atlantic and Hudson Bay drainages have given rise to an incredible variety of plants and animals.

One of the most amazing highlights of Glacier National Park is a drive on the Going-to-the-Sun Road. This engineering marvel spans 50 miles through the park's wild interior, winding around mountainsides and treating visitors to some of the best sights in northwest Montana. Fortunately we traversed the road early one day and a hour or two after we had driven past the area know as the"weeping wall" (pictured below) there were several rock slides which struck several cars, trapping them and inflicting some minor injuries.  The road was closed for two days to clear the rubble.

The landscape is a hiker's paradise that is traversed by more than 740 miles of maintained trails.

Our first day there, no sooner had we driven into the park, a pretty good sized black bear ambled across the road in front of us. By the time I got to my camera, it had disappeared into the trees.

While the Going to the Sun Road was closed we were able to drive to the entrance of the hiking trail up to Avalanche Lake.  It's a great and somewhat challenging hike about 3 miles (mostly up) to the lake.  Along the route encountered the Avalanche River running down from the lake.

Once we arrived we enjoyed the lunch Diane had packed and enjoyed the beauty of the lake and the 5 mountain waterfalls feeding it.

 We did a few other shorter hikes, always watching for signs of Grizzly Bears.  It's suggested that you should carry "bear spray" to discourage a charging Grizzly and "bells" to alert and not startle them. 

They also told us how to determine the difference between Black Bear and Grizzly poop.   Grizzly poop smells like bear spray and has bells in it!  <grin>

The rest are just a few pictures of the beautiful and remarkable scenery we saw.