Stop 23: Polson, MT (Flathead Lake)

We had a beautiful drive up to Polson from Salmon. We followed the raging Salmon River for quite a way before we crossed the Bitterroot Mountains at Lost Trail Pass. That was our final brush with the Continental Divide for this trip (we'll cross over and back when we get to Glacier National Park but that'll be without the trailer so it won't count). At Lost Trail pass, we were within a half mile of the Divide but it veered away from our route at the last minute.

After the pass, we traveled up the beautiful Bitterroot Valley, through Missoula to our destination.

Kristen took this photo from the car. We were thinking "Wow, look at Glacier". We were wrong. This is just another beautiful shot of the Rocky Mountains.

Looking North across Flathead Lake on our arrival day. The barely visible snow covered peaks in the distance are Glacier National Park (we think). Flathead lake is the largest fresh water lake (not counting the Great Lakes) West of the Mississippi. We would have thought that that would be Tahoe.

On our only full day in Polson, we started off by looking for every opportunity that we could find to walk along the beautiful lakeshore.

As far away as those islands on the left seem, we were surprised to discover that Polson is on a relatively small bay at the Southern end of Flathead Lake. The Islands are at the narrow point that separates the bay from the main part of the lake.

A better shot of the islands and Glacier in the distance.

Looking West along the Southern Shore.

Looking East along the Southern Shore.

After exploring the small downtown and grabbing some lunch, we visited the Miracle of America Museum. Stacy and Jack blogged about this monument to hoarding when they visited Polson last summer and we had to see it ourselves.

We occasionally watch Pickers on the History channel and this place seemed to have everything that Mike and Frank ever lusted after. We have encountered a couple of places that have been visited by the Pickers so, of course, we asked the woman at the the front desk if Mike and Frank had ever paid them a visit. She replied that they would need to be willing to sell something in order for M&F to be interested and that they don't want to part with a thing (except for the rare cases where they have duplicates).

I took some pictures of some of the funnier items.

This is a small part of their mousetrap collection.

And their collection of eggbeaters.

A Kansas beauty.

We saw at least 2 of these home perm machines (M&F might be able to get their hands on the duplicate).

Random funny photo.

Funny stuff. There's probably a Pet Rock and a can of Billy Beer around here someplace.

We got back to the trailer in time to sit outside in the balmy 75 degree weather until it clouded over and poured. Good time to sit inside and blog.

-JC-