July 5, 2024

We got up and got ready. I had scrambled eggs, half a huckleberry bear claw, coffee, and grapes. We left around 8:30. We drove to McDonald Lodge and walked around. We saw Lake McDonald and took some pictures. We saw some ground squirrels near their holes.







There was a ranger showing bear and mountain lion pelts. One way to distinguish between grizzlies and black bears is by the length of their claws. We joked that we didn’t want to get close enough to measure!

We drove to McDonald Falls and walked down to them. Then we hiked along the river and saw Sacred Dancing Cascade. 







We continued hiking through the woods. We saw a merganser duck and a deer. 




Because a bridge was out, we couldn’t do the whole loop so we headed back. We got ice cream (Dana’s favorite lunch). Tammy and I both had cookies and cream. It was fun to people watch while we ate it. We were a little chilly so we sat in the sun. When we were done with our ice cream, we took pictures in front of an old schoolhouse that is now a shop. 



Then we decided to hike to Apgar Lookout. It was a 7.75 mile hike (round trip). A lot of it was in the sun and it was very steep. The first part of the trail was flat and we walked through a lot of brush. We definitely did not want to surprise a bear coming around the corner. We clapped and talked loudly. There were tons of wildflowers!





























The next part of the trail went up, up, up and we could see out over the McDonald lodge, the river, and Lake McDonald. It was a beautiful view. 


It was interesting to see all the trees that had been burnt in a wildfire. 




We could see a lake below. We really want to see a bull moose in a lake. When we got to the top, there was a lookout tower that you could walk all the way around.









We ate snacks up there before heading back down. It was a long way down. When we got to the first part of the trail with lots of twists and turns, I started singing to keep away the bears. I guess they didn’t like my songs because they stayed away. We did see a deer walking toward us on the trail. When it met us, it went in the woods, but we kept finding deer prints for a long way on the trail.




When we got down, we drove back to the RV (Yogi) and had spaghetti with the Lake’ special homemade sauce and garlic bread. We showed Tammy the Yogi and Boo Boo decorations that go outside the RV in good weather. We had Golden Oreo’s and Chips Ahoy for dessert. It was a great end to a wonderful day!


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