Kootenai Falls
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After a solid 10 days in Glacier, we hit the road with the Pacific Northwest in our sights. Our next stop was Sandpoint, Idaho, but along the way we pulled off at Kootenai Falls, not far from the little town of Libby, Montana.
It’s a short walk from the parking lot to the falls, but the sound hits you before the view does. The Kootenai River funnels through a rocky gorge, before breaking into a series of cascades spread across the river and splitting around boulders.
The area around the falls opens up into a broad field of rock, giving you space to move around and take it in from different angles. Danny and I scrambled out over the rocks to get different viewpoints. In places, the rocks isolated calmer pools from the furious river, allowing for swimming holes amongst the falls.
Afterwards took a short detour to the swinging bridge, which hangs high above the river. It sways just enough to keep you aware of where you are, but not enough to feel unsafe. From the middle, you get a straight-on view of the river below, moving fast and loud through the gorge.
On the way back, we passed ripe thimbleberries along the trail. We had seen them all over Glacier, but none had been ready for picking. This was my first chance to try one. They looked like raspberries, but were a little less sweet. We also came across a cherry tree full of ripe fruit, but the accessible cherries had already been picked, so we had to settle for looking.
Not a long stop, but a memorable one. A quick reminder that sometimes the best moments of a trip aren’t the main destinations, but the places you almost pass by.
The area around the falls opens up into a broad field of rock, giving you space to move around and take it in from different angles. Danny and I scrambled out over the rocks to get different viewpoints. In places, the rocks isolated calmer pools from the furious river, allowing for swimming holes amongst the falls.
Afterwards took a short detour to the swinging bridge, which hangs high above the river. It sways just enough to keep you aware of where you are, but not enough to feel unsafe. From the middle, you get a straight-on view of the river below, moving fast and loud through the gorge.
On the way back, we passed ripe thimbleberries along the trail. We had seen them all over Glacier, but none had been ready for picking. This was my first chance to try one. They looked like raspberries, but were a little less sweet. We also came across a cherry tree full of ripe fruit, but the accessible cherries had already been picked, so we had to settle for looking.
Not a long stop, but a memorable one. A quick reminder that sometimes the best moments of a trip aren’t the main destinations, but the places you almost pass by.