Deer Park (Spokane) and Glacier National Park, Montana (21 & 22 June)

The drive from Leavenworth took us through an amazing variety of landscapes. Having left the mountains and the sudden plains beside them at Leavenworth we found ourselves following pretty rivers and valleys with small towns every few miles. These areas have fruit and a few vineyards. We noticed that the hills came down and stopped as they met a flat plain. The change from rough hill to flat plain seemed so abrupt that we fancied we could draw a pencil line on it.

After a while we followed the Columbia River from Wenatchee up through a rocky valley that looked very like Central Otago near Cromwell, complete with cherry orchards, and peaches, etc. The elevation (about 250 meters and climbing) and latitude are similar the Central Otago so the presence of cherries and other stone fruit makes sense.

We expected to arrive at a saddle but instead found a high rolling plain at about 600-750 meters. There were no trees, no fences, and very few buildings, but it was cultivated with field after field of crops, mostly grain, especially barley and wheat, plus some potatoes and a few things we couldn’t identify. This went on for miles and miles, interrupted at one stage by a descent into a wide canyon that looked like a rift valley to us. The canyon was about two to three miles wide with sage bush and a trickling stream in it.

The break from the higher plains was abrupt but we soon found ourselves higher again, with more barley and other crops. We were told there is a large Budweiser factory in Washington State.

Eventually we turned off the main road to Spokane and arrived at our park for the night at Deer Park, about 40 km from Spokane.

Today (22 June) we left Deer Park early and were quickly away from the flat plains of crops and into hilly land, often rocky, and forests spread over the hills with some ranch land nearer the roads, rivers and lakes. We keep seeing rivers and lakes. There is so much water and it flows so urgently.

After about 3 hours of driving we stopped at Kootenai Falls for a walk and a cuppa. 

More driving took us through more beauitiful countryside and small towns with names like Hungry Horse, Bigfork, and Happys Inn (sic). We continued to notice the sudden change from rugged hills to demure plains.

We passed through Flathead County.

We saw a small amount of wildlife. We saw a weasel or stoat cross the road but more dramatic were the two deer who appeared at the side of the road and then made a dash just in front of us. The brakes work well and everything not stowed tightly ended up on the floor but the deer survived.