Susan asked about the weather on my Montana vacation. The answer: Record-breaking heat! Our first few days the mercury was hitting between 100-107. It was a much drier heat than we have here in Michigan. Our humidity is legendary (must be all those lakes or something). In Montana, they actually have 101 degree days with a heat index of 97. Weird.
The heat and dryness exacerbated (and exasperated firefighters who couldn't tell fresh fires in the dense air) the fire situation. There are three fires burning in Glacier, one huge one in Waterton (the connecting Canadian park), and numerous other ones listed in the paper each day. We had clear blue skies on Sunday (that's the pictures below), but on Sunday afternoon the Glacier fires blew up again. We had left for Great Falls and Helena at the time. When the air currents are right, the smoke hangs in the valleys. It hangs so much so that the Glacier fires were blocking the mountain views in Helena, over 100 miles to the south.
But that's how it is with Montana vacations. Beach vacations are where I relax. Montana vacations are about challenges, about pushing limits, about looking life square in the eye. And each time I come home stronger.