Adler's Fall 2013 Northwest: Sept. 23, 2013

As we all know, Sunday was not a good day for Green Bay. We spent most of the day watching football, and saw the terrible loss for our Packers!
Monday was a great day. The sun was partially out but the heavy clouds hung in the mountains. It's funny how those mountains can make their own weather. There was rain turning to snow on the tops of the mountains that frame this beautiful valley that we are in. We headed down to the National Bison Range and drove the 19 miles through it, seeing most of the wild animals that were in there. The two herds of bison that we saw were pretty far away, but we did see several of the 'lone males' here and there. There were plenty of Pronghorn Antelope and deer, and we were lucky enough to see a bull Elk rounding up his harem. We sat for over an hour watching them, and another bull Elk tried to come into the fold, but he was quickly escorted out! Jim got a very good shot of what we think is a Ptarmigan, so this is something for the grandchildren to research and let us know if we're correct! It could be a Grouse of some kind, but we don't think so. We also saw two cowboys on horses, just outside the bison range, with about three dogs rounding up a herd of cattle. That's my true image of what the west is like. Oh, I thought, 'how much fun is that', but I'm sure it's work for them.
We did some geo-caching on our way home, and also stopped at two churches that are on the National Register of Historic Places. The first was a small wood frame mission church that served the area homesteaders, who were predominately Irish, and was built in the early 1900's, and the second was built in 1891. The latter church, St. Ignatius is believed to be the third most beautiful church in the world. That is debatable for me, as we have seen many beautiful churches in Europe and the United States that, we felt were outstanding. The interesting thing about St. Ignatius is the fact, that the mission cook, Joseph Carignano, painted all the murals in the church.
The rains started moving in as we got closer to Polson, so we found the little brew pub, Glacier Brewing and enjoyed a beer and some chit chat with the customers, and our server.