As we left Spokane, the interstate took us across the border of WA and Idaho and up into the Coeur D’Alene National Forest, which is part of the Bitterroot Mountain Range. We have driven that route before and it is a nice pleasant drive that winds through mountains, forest, and follows the Clark Fork River into Missoula. The drive also took us along part of Lake Coeur D’Alene in Idaho, which is a really gorgeous area. Give me the mountains and I am always happy!
We are staying at Jim and Mary’s RV Park until Sept. 2nd. We wanted a nice place to stay for the Labor Day holiday. It is a nice RV park, very busy, and full most nights this time of year. Sure glad we thought ahead to make reservations! The owners (no longer Jim & Nary) take excellent care of the park. The park is nestled among trees and just beautiful flower beds are at almost every site cultivated right here in the owner’s greenhouse. Everything is still so colorful! It is like walking outside into your own back yard. The garden inserted on the right of the 1st picture is one of two that line the entrance of the small office. We even have a few nice views of the mountains from our site. This park is probably so popular because as you turn right out of the park, you are on Highway 93, which is a major highway that takes you up to Flathead Lake and Glacier National Park. That, too, is a nice drive and we have driven it a couple of times as a day trip to Kalispell. We have been to Glacier National Park a few times in previous travels.
As a treat for the campers, on Wednesday nights a local cowboy comes to the park and sings cowboy and western songs. He was pretty good and an older man. His side kick was also an older man who plays the banjo, etc. The side kick was also of Native American heritage and played an Indian song on the drum and sang in the Indian language. Uh….Where’s Custer!!? For refreshment, we were served Huckleberry Ice Cream! Umm..think I’ll go again next week just to get the ice cream!
We stayed at this park in 2004 the first visit. We thought we had discovered a pleasant small college town (including Wal-Mart). Well, guess people discovered the mountain pass was open!! When we returned in 2008, we were amazed at the growth and bumper to bumper traffic, literally, down the main drag of the shopping area! Now, in 2014, this place has exploded! Traffic is still bumper to bumper but stop and go all the way down the main drag for at least 5+ miles! You can find just about every chain store and restaurant in America with a location in Missoula! There is even a fairly new enclosed mall and housing developments everywhere. Even the old downtown and back streets are heavy in traffic. Unbelievable! Why aren’t these people working? They can’t all be retirees and college students! Thank goodness the RV park is a few miles away from town.
Missoula is located along the Clark Fork River near its confluence with the Bitterroot River in western Montana and at the convergence of five mountain ranges, thus is often described as the "Hub of Five Valleys". Archaeological artifacts date the Missoula Valley's earliest inhabitants to the end of the last ice age 12,000 years ago with settlements as early as 3,500 BCE. From the 1700s until European settlements began a hundred years later, the land was primarily used by populations of the Salish, Kootenai, Blackfeet, and Shoshone tribes. Located at the confluence of five mountain valleys, the Missoula Valley was heavily traversed by local and distant native tribes that periodically went to the Eastern Montana plains in search of bison, leading to inevitable conflict. The narrow valley at Missoula's eastern entrance was so strewn with human bones from repeated ambushes that French fur trappers would later refer to this area as "Porte d' Enfer," translated as "Hell's Gate". Hell Gate would remain the name of the area until it was renamed "Missoula" in 1866.
Western exploration to the area began with the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which stopped twice just south of Missoula at Traveler’s Rest (first from September 9–11, 1805, and again from June 30-July 3, 1806) before splitting up on the return journey, with Clark taking the southern route along the Bitterroot River and Lewis travelling north through Hellgate Canyon on July 4. In 1860 hell Gate Village was established just west of present-day Missoula as a trading post to serve travelers on the recently completed Mullan Road, the first wagon road to cross the Rocky Mountains to the inland of the Pacific Northwest. The desire for a more convenient water supply to power a lumber and flour mill led to the movement of the settlement to its modern location in 1864. The name "Missoula" came from the Salish name for the Clark Fork River, "nmesuletkw", which roughly translates as "place of frozen water" and possibly refers to the ancient Glacial Lake Missoula once located in the valley. Growth accelerated with the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1883, and the Town of Missoula was chartered the same year. Missoula was founded in 1860 as Hellgate Trading Post while still part of Washington Territory. By 1866, the settlement had moved five miles upstream and renamed Missoula Mills for the lumber industry, later shortened to Missoula. The establishment of Fort Missoula in 1877 to protect settlers further stabilized the economy. By the 1990s, Missoula's lumber industry had gradually disappeared, and today the city's largest employers are the University of Montana and Missoula's two hospitals. Missoula is also home to the University of Montana.
We plan on exploring some more Lewis and Clark sites.
I'm hoping we can spend a few days up there next year. I told Jim I would really like to explore more of Montana. We'll see if he can give up the fishing long enough to do that.
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