Blackwell Flats

7/9/2019

After a restful night at The People's Center the plan for the day was to explore northwest Montana. This is the view as we descended towards beautiful Flathead Lake. One of the largest lakes in the area, it really is beautiful.

A couple of paddle boarders were out enjoying the relatively calm waters while we hiked around Flathead Lake State Park's West Shore Unit.

Names of western wildflowers like this one aren't in our knowledge base.

Drove past Van City and into Kalispell to get our pastry fix at Wheat Montana. This one was tiny compared to the actual mill in Three Forks. They don’t sell day old products here, so we weren't as tempted to fill our breadbox (microwave oven) with sweets.

Walking around downtown Kalispell we checked out the visitor’s center and, of course, the train depot.

Here's a peak at the old waiting room.

It looks like a vibrant community.

Outside of the historic downtown lay more standard shopping areas where we stocked up on groceries and gassed up at Costco. 

From Kalipell we drove Highway 2 stopping at several campgrounds where we made notes for future trips.  At MacGregor Lake forest service campground just two sites were occupied. The fee was only $12 per night and they were widely spaced sites. 

Logan State Park Campground on Thompson Lake had a nice boat launch and day use area. Only a few sites unoccupied there. Floating docks were available at $8/day.

Ran into construction on 2 with a pilot car on gravel and sand road. Glad we hadn’t washed the van in Kalispell!

Libby was the last town. Drove directly to the Amtrak Station which was unmanned, but open. Passenger trains stop late at night and early in the morning. The town has several large metal eagle sculptures, none of which we photographed. The visitor’s center had good info. There is a volunteer fire department run campground behind the center with 15 sites for $10/night. We considered staying there, but decided to press on towards Libby Dam.

Just south of Libby Dam is  Blackwell Flats COE campground where camping is free.

It was on the Kootenai River with most sites having a set of stone steps, like these, to the water. 

We found a waterfront campsite and settled in for the evening.

At an elevation of 2100’ this is getting close to the lowest elevation in Montana. 

Walking around the campground we noticed a real bald eagle sitting in a pine tree across from the boat ramp.

Walking back to the boat ramp again after dinner revealed two bald eagles in that same pine tree.

Today's Route