THE SEELEY SWAN

Helena, MT   High 83   Low 53

The day before we headed back to Helena, Kay and Dan arrived at Rocky Mountain Hi Campground. They are going to spend a month in the area just relaxing and doing some exploring.

We met up with them for dinner at Mackenzie River Pizza. It’s been about seven months since we last saw them at Quartzsite so it was fun to catch up. They just bought a beautiful new motorhome in Boise, ID and are still trying to get all the bugs worked out of it.

When we were visiting the train in Somers, I saw these neat handrails outside the Sliter Hardware Store.

Thursday morning we headed out of Kalispell down The Seeley Swan Highway. This 80 mile long, 30 mile wide region is comprised of two scenic river valleys – the Clearwater and the Swan. The Bob Marshall Wilderness borders it on the north.

There are a chain of lakes along Highway 83 including: Harper’s Lake, Salmon Lake, Placid Lake, Seeley Lake, Lake Inez, Lake Alva, Rainy Lake, Summit Lake, Holland Lake, and Swan Lake.  A truly beautiful drive.

 

We stayed in Seeley Lake Thursday night so we could visit with our friend Evelyn. Strange how life works sometimes. Evelyn also worked for the IRS in Billings, MT. However, that is not where I met her. I actually met her in Washington DC when she came to work for the IRS out there. She ended up sitting at the desk behind me and we became great friends.

Evelyn owns 64 acres of land on a private lake in Seeley which she has put up for sale. She has been a snowbird to Yuma, AZ for many years but has decided that she would prefer to spend most of her time in Yuma with short visits to her son in Helena.

Views from her deck.

We had lunch at The Filling Station which was excellent. Lots of fun stuff.

Then we went back to her cabin on the lake. There is also a big house which she has rented out so she is staying in the cabin this summer. Jim had a great time fishing while Evelyn and I caught up on news and watched a movie.

Friday, on to Helena which is where we are now. We’ll be here for a couple of weeks so Jim can do some more fishing. We also have a small bulge in our trailer tire that needs to get taken care of.

One more picture of this beautiful valley.

And a couple of cloud pictures.