Little Bighorn (Hardin, MT 07-25-12)

Like the words “remember the Alamo”, I think most of us know the words “Custer’s last stand” and the “Battle of Little Bighorn”.  Not being a huge history buff myself, I admit I didn’t know that much about Bighorn or Custer- before today, anyways. And, not being a talented history writer, I won’t delve into too many details, but will try to condense the story down into a couple of paragraphs.  I am sure my brother and my son, the  history buffs in the family, will cringe.
George Custer was well known for his military exploits during the civil war.  He fought in the first battle of that war, First Battle of Bull Run, as well as the battle of Gettysburg, and was present at the surrender of General Lee at the conclusion of the war.  He was then sent west to fight the Indian Wars.
So, what led up to this battle?
At that point in time, most American Indians were living on reservations, but had “permission” to roam further west, in the Unceded Territory, hunting the more plentiful game.  Part of the the Lakota (Sioux) Reservation included the Black Hills of South Dakota, an area so important to their culture that as part of the signed treaty, the Black Hills could never be inhabited by white settlers.
In 1874, with the Euro-American economy in a mess, Grant sent Custer to investigate the rumors that the Black Hills were full of gold.   Unfortunately for the Sioux, including Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, there was gold, causing the area to be overrun with Euro-Americans.  The ioux and Cheyenne began leaving the reservations, attacking the settlers, and pressure was put on the government to punish the “hostiles”.  After giving the Indians a month to comply with an order to return to their reservations, the army was sent to deal with those who refused.
    On June 25th 1876, the 7th cavalry, consisting of about 600 men, and led by Custer, discovered a Lakota village along the banks of the Little Bighorn River.  Scouts had informed Custer that this was a huge village, and that, by the way, the Indians had seen the tracks of the cavalry, so were aware that they were closing in.  Fearing that the Indians would flee the area, Custer made the decision to attack immediately. 


Little Bighorn Battlefield



the headstones read "____fell here on June 25 1876,  while defending the Lakota way of life"

He divided the regiment into 3 groups, each section approaching the village from a different vantage point.  Instead of running, the Sioux warriors  met the  soldiers head on.  In fact, had Custer paid more attention to the scout, he may have devised a different plan, because in fact there were almost 8000 Indians, more than 1500 of them warriors. 
The two groups led by Major Reno and Captain Benteen were both overpowered and were quickly pushed back.  Neither leader could find Custer, and ordered their troops to withdraw. 

In the meantime, Custer, whose exact movements have never been determined, was also repulsed and pushed up onto a small hill, where he took his “last stand”.  Cheyenne Chief Two Moon later recalled that “we circled all around them- swirling like water around a stone.” Custer and all of the soldiers under his direct command, including his brother, were killed.

When the Indians realized that reinforcements for the troops were on their way, they themselves withdrew and disbanded.  Although the battle was a decisive victory for the Indians,  within a year or so, most of them were back on the reservation or had moved into Canada.  In the end, they lost their way of life and their sense of freedom.

Not Every Day Can Be a “10” (Glacier NP 07-21-12)

Someone said that to me not that long ago, and of course, it’s very true.  We had a day that certainly wasn’t a ‘10’ the other day.  We got up early to drive up Going to The Sun Rd. to Logan’s Pass, so we could snag a parking spot for our enormous truck.  We planned on doing a hike at the peak, then driving down the other side of the mountain to see the sights. 

We made it to the parking lot ok, and got a spot, but there was a “road closed” sign blocking the rest of the road.  Some people may have heard about the rock and mudslides in Glacier.  Apparently there were 12 mudslides that impacted Going to The Sun Road.  After watching video footage, it’s amazing no one was killed.  The slides had happened the day before, but we had no idea how bad they were.  Actually, the road was closed for more than 2 days. 

So, with the road closed we headed to the hiking trail, only to find out it was closed too- due to snow.  Next we tried the Visitor’s Center, but apparently the rangers live on the wrong side of the mountain and couldn’t get there to open it, so… we needed a new game plan.  We decided to go to Canada for the day.

We went home to get our passports and headed for the border. Once we were in line, waiting our turn, Paul said “uh oh….the firewood.”  The bed of our truck is PACKED with firewood.  Of course, one of the questions from the Canadian Border guard was…..do you have any firewood?  Once we answered in the affirmative, he said-no problem, we can dump it off to the side and go on our way.  Paul said “nope” it isn’t worth dumping, we’ll just turn around and go home.

So the nice border guard called the American side to let them know that a huge F450 was headed back because of the firewood in the truck.  We get back to the American side and what we got was a lecture about carrying firewood, and an order to dump it all.  As irritated as we were, arguing with a border guard was not an option, so we unhappily dumped the firewood and went home. 

Now, on to the fun stuff…

Take Two of taking the shuttle over Going to The Sun Road.  On the way over in the morning, it would have been more appropriate to call it Going Into The Clouds Road.

 
I actually think this road is more awesome when there are clouds.

The clouds just wrap themselves around the mountain peaks and are constantly creeping and swirling.

We’ve done two more really great hikes- one was up a peak (2500 ft elevation gain) to Scenic Point for a 360 degree view:

On the way down we ran into some big horn sheep, almost literally.  These guys were really close to us.

 

For our last day, we decided to hike to an actual glacier.  Grinnell Glacier, to be exact, although we couldn’t get all the way there because the trail was closed due to snow.

We passed by three lakes on the way there:

Swift Current Lake

Josephine Lake

And, once we gained some elevation, we got a phenomenal view of Grinnell Lake:

When we looked to our right, we could see Grinnell Glacier, Grinnell Lake, and Grinnell Falls. The glacier is the largest patch of snow, on the right hand side of the picture.

After spending 3 weeks in Yellowstone, our measly week in Glacier went by way too fast.  We did get to spend a little time with our friends Dave and Nancy, who are fulltimers, and working near Glacier for while this summer, but their schedules were hectic so we didn’t get as much time with them as we would have liked.  And, as usual, I forgot to take pictures when we were hanging out with them.

Now we are on to more adventures in Montana…….

Glacier National Park (07-16-12)

If Yellowstone is known for the wildlife and geysers, then Glacier is known for their….glaciers.

 

That doesn’t mean there isn’t any wildlife though.  This is a whole family of mountain goats- parents and 3 babies.

We’ve also seen big horn sheep, a black bear and part of a moose (the antlers) and we’ve only been here two days.

Anyway, so, what actually is a glacier ( I wasn’t sure of exactly what it is, I just know that there are lots of them up north.) A glacier is a slow moving mass, or river, of ice that accumulates over the years (doesn’t melt in the summer).  Glaciers literally carve the landscape as they move.  A canyon or valley carved by a river has a V shape, whereas a valley carved by a glacier has a U shape:

In 1850 there were 150 glaciers in this park.  In 2010, there were only 25.  It’s expected that all the glaciers will be gone by 2020.

The large area of snow in this picture is Grinnell Glacier.  We hope to get a better picture of it when we hike to it.









We’ve done two hikes since we got here, and one of the most noticeable things to me has been the “smell”.  The pine forests are so fragrant, I keep taking deep breaths to enjoy it (may have something to do with going uphill, too though) I am reminded  of Christmas all day long. And when I can’t smell the pines, the air has an incredibly fresh and clean scent to it. 

Our first hike was to St. Mary’s Falls and Virginia Falls.  After a short hike of about a mile, we arrived at St. Mary’s,  with beautiful water and several short falls.

A short distance later, we came across Virginia Falls, where we stopped to have lunch. These falls weren’t as pretty, but they were much taller.

We watched two baby birds hanging around the falls- like, in the water, just on the edge of the falls themselves (the edge is a 30 ft. drop).  Every few minutes the mother would come by and feed them some bugs she caught.  We found out they are called Dippers.  They build their nests near fast flowing water or waterfalls, and get their name because they bob or dip their heads up and down.  We were wondering why the babies were doing that!

Today’s hike was to Iceberg lake and was much more of a “calf stretcher” than yesterday’s hike.  10 miles, with 1200 feet of elevation gain. Again we hiked in the pine forest for part of the hike.  Once we were out in the open, the  views were awesome. 

Iceberg lake gets it’s name because the ice on it doesn’t melt until September.  Its not actually icebergs, and although it may look cold in the picture, it was in the 70’s and we were very happy to reach the snowy area, so we could cool off for a while.

Paul also looks like he is skiing, but nope,he is just using his trekking pole to keep his balance on the snow.

It was on the way back that we saw quite a few mountain goats and some big horn sheep.  We also stopped to look for the moose that many people on the trail reported seeing.  We did catch sight of the antlers, but by then we could hear thunder and could see the clouds coming over the mountain tops, so we gave it up and picked up our pace.  With the forecast calling for a 60 percent chance of thunderstorms, we had our raincoats with us, and almost got away without needing them.  We got rained on for the last little bit, but nothing major. 

By the way, many times, as I hike, I compose my blog posts in my head.  And let me tell you, they would be ever so much better if I could actually remember anything I was thinking about later on when I actually write it!  As it is, I usually write it at night, like tonight, after hiking all day, relaxing with a beer and eating dinner. I need to put the post together because we will be doing a lot of stuff while we are here and NO ONE reads long blog posts.

PS- I started putting “recent pictures” on the right hand side of the blog.  The difference between the ones in the post and those is that they are the original size- 4-6 megabytes, and these have been automatically shrunk. So if you like to look at big pictures, click on the link and it will take you to my Picasa page. I am running out of free storage with Picasa so when I get time, I’m going to have to look for alternatives that will work with Blogger. It’s part of the reason I stopped updating my “our trip in pictures” page.