Last night was one of the most memorable evenings we have had.  After cooking dinner over the fire, a huge full moon rose over the mountains, a warm but refreshing breeze picked up and despite the bright moon, lots of stars came out.  We sat around the campfire long into the night just enjoying the beauty around us.  It was amazingly peaceful.

 

This morning we arose early, ate pancakes and headed up the mountain to the entrance to the Lewis and Clark Caverns- a Montana State Park.  We left in the first guided tour group of about 36 people.  We hiked up to the entrance with our guide and headed in.  Immediately upon entering the cave, we were greeted by a small group of ~50 bats all clinging to a small outcropping above our heads.  They were moving around so were easy to pick out.  From there, we headed deeper and deeper into the cavern.  The guide was a real character- he kept telling us that he was not given much information about the caves and his only training was that he had 4 trips through the cave with a naturalist.  So he did his best to point out some of the cave features that looked like bugs bunny, Santa Claus, Romeo and Juliet, etc..  A little disappointing when compared to Carlsbad Caverns in NM, but he was certainly entertaining.  This cave required you to crawl, slide and shimmy through some of the tunnels which the kids loved.  Due to the long winters and short summers, the cave temperature was a steady 48 degrees (Carlsbad was 58)- which was very nice after the .5 mile hike to the entrance in the 85 degree sun.  Overall, it was a fun adventure and everyone enjoyed seeing all of the cool features inside the cave.

 

 

Once out of the cave, we piled back into the RV and headed for Glacier!  Well, not quite directly as we had to make a pit stop at the Walmart in Missoula, MT to stock up on jiffy pop and a few other essentials.
From there, it was another 140 miles until we reached 'Hungry Horse' MT where we grabbed a few elk burgers at the Elk Horn Cafe before arriving at our campground at 9PM.  We are 10 miles from the West entrance to Glacier and plan to head into the park early tomorrow to try and grab a first come, first serve spot in one of the campgrounds.  Not sure what kind of access we will have to the internet as we have heard it is poor but we will do our best.   Have a great weekend- we certainly will! 
Oh yeah, it is now the 26th..  Happy Birthday Tom! a few cards are on the way!