MT – Day 11 – Hungry Horse Dam

3 photos in this post.

Nearly there! Leaving Glacier National Park we had some time to kill before arriving at Michael and Jessie’s. (As Caleb reminded me when I said this, Tock doesn’t like it when you kill time. Those who have read The Phantom Tollbooth will know exactly what I am talking about. If you have not, you have missed out on a GREAT childhood classic that can be read at any age.) Jessie was away at camp with two of the girls and the other two girls were with their other grandparents for the week. This meant that only Michael was going to be home so it was best to wait until he finished work.

Whilst I had a vague memory of visiting Hungry Horse Dam in the past, I thought it had been with Michelle when we were transporting. WRONG! Good job I write a blog as that never lies! Hee! Hee! We actually visited the dam at the same time as we came to Glacier NP 10 years ago. Richard didn’t remember it at all. I think it was later in the day so the visitor’s center was not open. Anyways this time I was driving so that is where we were headed 🙂 Richard was a little concerned that we would get down there and get stuck. I was my usual blase self, reassuring him that I had been down there before and everything would be fine.

Hungry Horse Dam is approximately 4 miles off of Rt. 2 down a windy road. As you come down to the dam there is a large pull-in on the right hand side just above the visitor’s center. I pulled in and Richard went to ask whether there was a place to turn around over the dam. There is a large parking lot on the other side but, depending on the size of your rig, turning around will only work if there are not a lot of vehicles there. We decided to stay parked where we were and go visit first.

The visitor’s center has lots of information on the building of the dam including some video presentations so do stop in there before walking across the dam. The staff were extremely helpful. Once we had finished our exploring, we headed back to the rig, drove s-l-o-w-l-y (speed bumps) across the dam, turned around and got back on the road. It should be said that if there is too much traffic in the parking area you can drive a few miles to the next town to turn.

This dam is well worth visiting. At 564 feet high the dam is one of the largest concrete arch dams in the United States so quite impressive. It produces hydro-electric power.

This day was also Hannah’s 13th birthday! As we had had no time to bake a cake, Richard and I agreed we would find somewhere to buy ice cream for everyone. He was looking up places on his phone as I was driving along. As we were going through Columbia Falls, Richard mentioned that there was a Dairy Queen on the right hand side but didn’t think we could get in. Much to his horror I slowed down, looked in the parking lot and went, “I can get in there as there is plenty of space around the back!” Sometimes my risk taking can get me in BIG trouble! Thankfully this was not one of those times! Whilst there were not many parked vehicles the back was not as big as I had assumed and there were dumpsters unseen from the road. We blocked one lane of the parking lot, leaving the drive-thru lane open. The kids were all happy though. I stayed with the rig whilst Richard went and bought Blizzards for everyone. Getting out of there we just had to wait for the drive-thru traffic to ease up so I could pull out and go forward.

Now we were just 10 minutes away from meeting Michael at this work site for that day…..

Blessings,

Liz