Today we faced the dreaded laundry task. Our park here in Libby has a good laundry facility with about a half dozen washing machines. Thanks to Peggy’s wizardry with the laundry tasks, we were in and out of their facility before lunch which allowed us to go exploring, our favorite activity.
Peggy elected to sit in the navigator’s seat today and directed me to drive west on US-2. US-2 follows the Kootenai River which is a pristine flow running through a big fault in the earth so amazing rock bluffs border the river. We had only gone about 15 miles when we came across a turnout next to the highway that had a government sign announcing Kootenai Falls. We pulled over and parked. There were no signs indicating the distance to the Falls or the neighboring swinging bridge but we took off down the trail.
About a quarter mile from the parking lot we came to a structural steel bridge crossing the BNSF tracks that pass through the canyon. At the far end of the bridge is a 3 or 4 story stair tower that leads hikers to a dirt path on the north side of the tracks. After descending to the trail, we continued along the trail for a while longer until we came to the first place we could really see Kootenai Falls. The geologic forces that created the rock features here must have been pretty violent because the multi-colored rock formations are highly fractured. The rocks have very sharp edges; falling down here would leave bloody wounds on the uncoordinated.
Kootenai Falls is really a collection of small waterfalls that point in different directions such that the falls section close to shore might point west and the adjacent falls section might point north. There are many sections here and there is plenty of whitewater. The state has posted signs warning the stupid to stay away from the water due to treacherous undertows, currents and a shoreline that would quickly skin anybody falling into the main flow. Of course, we spotted some guy and his kids getting into the river right next to one of the falls sections but they were able to maintain their footing so we were not able to watch them be killed by their own foolishness.
Kootenai Falls is a spectacular Montana feature and the hike there is very nice. There is some up and down and the stairs to deal with but the effort is certainly worth it considering the magnificent scenery along the way and at the end. While we were on the pedestrian bridge over the BNSF tracks, the railroad gave us a treat by sending a freight train being pulled by two locomotives and pushed by two more under the bridge. The bridge vibrated some from the engines pulling hard and the massive load passing beneath us. The engineer was even nice enough to give us a tremendous blast on his horns as he went by.
The scenery along US-2 through this part of the world is gorgeous and we also got to spot several deer, an osprey nest with inhabitants and a female moose browsing on the other side of the river. What a place.
We took a few snapshots at the Falls and you can see them if you click here