Week 4- Yellowstone here we come!

Monday 15th September-

After class I went to the mammalogy lab and went over all the skulls we need to know for tomorrows exam. I also studied the pelts of the animals. In Vert.Design we continued with our cat dissection. This week was much easier because.. well it didn't look too much like a cat without any skin. Me and Shannen quickly caught up to our classmates. I separated out the muscles while Shan removed the fat and fascia (muscle attachment surfaces). Kris, our TA, was impressed with our dissection. Once we had separated the pectoral girdle and axial muscles we were finished for the day. Now just to learn them for the quiz. I spent most of the evening studying for my mammalogy exam.

Tuesday 16th September-

I had my carnivore lab exam this morning. There were 20 stations with 5 questions each and we had 4mins per station. I felt it went alright although there were a few questions I had to guess at, such as what habitat the animal lives in. After the exam I met up with Shannen and we had a meeting with our academic adviser, Jeanne Franz. We thanked her for all her help in helping us to register for classes and spoke with her about which classes we should take next semester. That afternoon we had a field trip to Ninepipes nature refuge with our Habitat Conservation class. This is a large wetland area in Mission valley which is very important for waterfowl, migratory birds and other wildlife. We met with the park manager and he led us on a tour of the park, speaking about how he manages the wetlands by controlling the water levels. He also told us about how he creates different habitats to suit different bird species such as pheasants and waterfowl. That evening me and Shannen watched The Amazing Spider Man 2. As the main action scene approached I was careful to hide my expression as I've already seen it and knew what was coming. Safe to say, Shannen was not impressed with what happened.

Wednesday 18th September-

College was the usual; class, work, class. I worked on an assignment about different methods of constructing phylogenetic trees. I chose to do mine on the Canids, which was very interesting. Eventually Shannen and me decided we would watch some documentaries. I put on one about the dessert lions of Namibia, which was about a small population of lions which is making a comeback thanks to the care of one man. After that we watched one about the wolves of Yellowstone to prepare for our trip Saturday. It focused on the Druid Peak Pack and the Slough Creek Pack and their rivalry in the Lamar Valley. It was very interesting to watch and see how the strength of the park depends on the strength of its leaders. I could remember parts of it from watching it years ago.

Thursday 18th September-

Got the bus into work at 6.15am and I was the only person on it. When I was working later that evening we were setting up for a special harvest themed feast on the oval, which was fun. Me and Shannen decided to watch The Lion King that night. Elliot and Dave called over for a few minutes and ended up watching the whole movie with us.

Friday 19th September-

After work I had my cat dissection class. As Kris was at a wedding we had Brett (our lecturer) teaching the lab. We moved onto the lower half of the cat which was quite easy to separate out the muscles for. When me and Shannen finished we headed home on the U-Dash. After making my dinner and getting all my food ready for Yellowstone, I sat down to look at my phone. Unfortunately my phone was nowhere to be seen. After searching through my room and the rest of the apartment frantically, including turning the couches upside down, I decided that I must have put it into the washing machine with my jeans. This was backed up by the fact that it wouldn't even ring when Shannen tried to call it. Then I thought about the bus. I went out and asked the driver of the next bus if any phones had been found, no luck :( . Eoghan was getting on the bus so the driver took his number in case he found my phone. Resigned that my phone was gone forever, along with all my contacts and photos I sulked around the apartment for the next hour. Until... Eoghan rang Shannen's phone. The bus driver had found my phone and was going to drop it back to Lewis and Clark! Lifesaver! Safe to say I mind my phone slightly better now and avoid leaving it on bus seats :P

Saturday 20th September-

IT'S YELLOWSTONE TIME! Well, not quite yet :P. Shannen and me got up just after 2am to meet the bus outside at 3.15am.We were fairly worried when we went outside because there was no-one else waiting and no sign of the bus. Then we spotted it on the other side of the buildings. We were the only two getting on at L&C. After picking everyone else up at campus we headed east towards Butte. Within minutes most of the people on the bus were asleep, including Shannen beside me. I was too excited though. I've been dreaming of visiting Yellowstone ever since I was a child watching documentaries about it. I watched the countryside go by in the night, eventually drifting off. I woke up nearer to Yellowstone where the landscape was much different. Shannen and myself started to spot some volcanic features, including a few huge dykes, putting our geology skills to the test. We arrived at the north entrance to Yellowstone at around 9am and no sooner were we in the park than we spotted a huge 7-point bull elk. While me and Shannen were impressed the many Asians on the tour were amazed with exclamations of "ooh!" and "ahhh!". Our first stop on the tour was Mammoth Hot Springs, which unfortunately did not include any mammoths :P, but nevertheless was stunning. We strolled around here with the two other Irish girls, Éilis and Sheena, and took some lovely photos. From here we traveled south through the park, where we saw bison causing traffic jams. Our guide Mona (from the Foreign Student Scholar Services office) informed us all about the geologic history of the park, including facts about the giant caldera (55 by 72 km) created by a super-volcano which erupted around 640,000years ago. She also told us about the rampant wildfires which tore through Yellowstone in 1988, destroying about 60-70% of the park. However, this actually proves beneficial for the trees and animals that live here. It regenerates the forest, just like in Glacier. The park rangers have adopted a policy of letting fires burn unless they threaten human settlements or are caused by humans. We had lunch on the shore of the beautiful lake, which although seemingly peaceful  is actually writhing with volcanic activity beneath the surface. After lunch we traveled to some boiling mud volcanoes, the Dragons Breath Cave and Yellowstone Canyon, which I didn't even know about. It was formed when an ice dam burst and all the water behind it rushed down the valley, widening and deepening it. While we waited patiently for our turn to take pictures near the edge, a very rude middle aged Chinese tourist elbowed past us and not once but twice! Anyways after that we traveled west towards more hot springs. We visited Paint Pot Springs and Grand Prismatic Spring, both of which were very colourful and impressive. We made it to the grand finale of our tour at 5.30pm, Old Faithful, a geyser which erupts every 30-90minutes, shooting boiling water 27-56m into the air. We had 3hours free time here so we watched the geyser twice, got dinner, shopped for souvenirs and explored the famous Old Faithful Inn. Shannen and myself fell in love with the old wooden inn and tried to imagine what it would be like to stay there. At 8.30pm we all got back on the bus and started the 6hour journey home. Again almost everyone fell asleep right away. I tried to stay awake just in case we drove past a bear or wolves. Sadly not, so we will just have to go back at some stage. 

Mammoth Terraces

Mammoth Terraces

The Devil's Thumb

Dragon's Mouth Cave

 

At Yellowstone Canyon

Celestine Hot Spring

Old Faithful doing what Old Faithful does

The only grizzly I found that day

The Old Faithful Inn

Sunday 21st September-

Like most other Sundays I spent this one by sleeping in, working on assignments, calling friends from home and then working 8-10pm. 

This week wasn't too eventful besides our trip to Yellowstone. Hope you enjoyed reading my blog- Fiona

Shannen is also writing a blog on her time out here. If you'd like to follow her antics too here's a link: http://shannenstravels.blogspot.com/

Week 3- Trying New Things- Huckleberry Ice Cream, Buffalo Jerky, Skining Cats....

Warning: Just a warning about Monday's post, I had a lab on dissections so it might be slightly graphic. Just avoid the whole post about Monday if you don't want to know about cats.

Monday 8th September-

Today we started our dissections for my Vertebrate Design and Evolution class. Before we could start though we had a quiz on skull bones, which I got 5/6 in so I was happy. As our model organism is the cat, we would be dissecting some for the lab. Unfortunately the supply company messed up the order and the cats arrived with fur. This meant we would have to skin them before we could even begin looking at muscles. There was one cat per pair so Shannen and myself decided to go together. I'm not very good and found the whole process fairly difficult. I've had pet cats all my life and this particular cat was a large tabby tom much like my cat Tiber. Shannen, who had been very apprehensive got very into it whereas I had to leave the room every so often to escape the smell of formaldehyde, which preserves the cats. Our lab lasted from 2.30-5.30, and it was quite a long 3hours. By the end we had most of the skin removed but didn't get a chance to look at any muscles. Our lab demonstrator Kris, showed us all the muscles we would need to do our homework on and know for the quiz next week. When we got home I wasn't feeling great so just relaxed for a while. Well, now I know what people mean by the phrase "There's more than one way to skin a cat!".

Tuesday 9th September-

Had my first mammalogy lab quiz today on bears, racoons, skunks and weasels. It was set up as three stations with five questions each and four minutes at each station. I thought it went ok, although I messed up on what I thought was a trick question but actually turned out not to be. I also hadn't learned my skulls as well as I thought I had, so overall I only got 5/1 which I was disappointed in. I'll have to try harder for next weeks 100pt lab exam. When we finished the quiz we continued the lab on the  Felidae and Canidae, aka cats and dogs. There was a huge silver/black wolf pelt (or at least what I thought was huge, actually turned out to be very average). I was expecting the hair to be coarse but it's so soft. There was also a wolf/dog hybrid pelt, foxes, coyotes, bobcats, lynx and a cougar. Once I felt I had studied them enough I left. I met Shannen and we headed to sign up for the Yellowstone trip on the 20th. We are the only two from our group of Internationals who signed up unfortunately. There was no way I was going to miss this trip though. I have always wanted to visit Yellowstone from watching documentaries about it as a kid. We then headed to the Natural science building to hand in our sign up sheets for our class on Hunter Check Stations. This class involves learning how to ID animals, check their age and check hunters tags as they remove animals from wilderness areas. We had been recommended to apply to the station in Darby as wolves had been seen here. So we signed up for a Saturday and Sunday where we go to the station and work with older rangers. We also went to the UC and got our free tickets for the Grizz game this Saturday. Very productive morning! In our Habitat Conservation class we got our assignments on Conservation back. I got 10/10 so I was delighted. On our way home we met Jak and he asked us to come to his hockey game that night. We said we would if we got most of our work finished. After working on assignments for a while, Shannen, Elliot, Barry, Sarah and myself headed over to the ice hockey game along with most of the other internationals. We almost made up the whole crowd! This was the first hockey game I'd been to, but the rules were pretty easy to pick up. Jak was playing in goals and had a lot of great saves. The other team had a stronger team though and they won the match. After the game we went to Big Dipper to get some of their unreal ice cream. Myself and Shannen stayed up late chatting before bed.

The wolf pelt

A bobcat pelt

The wolf's bushy tail

My first hockey game!

Wednesday 10th September-

There was a change in the weather today, with temperatures down to -3°C and frost on the lawns. This is just a warning of what's going to be coming sooner rather than later. Most people in my mammalogy class wore warm clothes and clutched coffees. I had my usual shift at the beverage station in Food Zoo from 10am-1pm. When I finished I ate my free lunch (my first ever sloppy joe :P ) as fast as possible before my class started at 1.10pm. I made it to class just after the announcements about our upcoming field trip to the Bison Range. We were also told which group projects we'd been assigned to. Me and Shannen are both looking at if birds adjust their take offs and landings depending on the compliance of a perches material. This is the project I was most interested in so I'm happy to be working on it. When I got home I worked on my assignments for some time. I went through my Mammals of Montana book to compile a list of all the mammals found in Missoula county, which is due next Tuesday. I found it surprising how many mammal species live here, 71 in total. After a few hours, me and Shannen decided to take the rest of the night off. Since she had never watched Disney's Tangled (Shocking, I know! :O ) so we put that on. Love that movie so much!

Thursday 11th September-

Had the usual 6.30am work start, then class and four more hours of work. When I finished up I got my dinner. I saw some of my international friends so ate with them. They had just decided on a trip to Seattle. Unfortunately I can't go too because it's the same weekend as Yellowstone. This evening everyone who signed up for the Missoula International Friendship Program got to meet the families they had been paired with. There was a big meet and greet at the Missoula Carousel. I have been paired with a lady, Kelly and her 6 year old son Max. They are a lovely family who have lived in Europe for quite some time. It was nice to chat about the differences between Europe and America with someone who has experienced both sides. We had some ice cream and went on the horse carousel. I tried the huckleberry ice cream, which was strange, kind of bitter and sweet at the same time. They are really into their huckleberry products here. It was a really relaxed get together and the atmosphere was very nice. It was great to finally meet my Missoula family and I look forward to the next chat. Kelly headed away at 8pm as it was Max's bed time. Most people had already left as it was chilly. Shannen and myself decided to watch Dreamwork's Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron, another movie she hadn't seen, which is one of my favourites.

Friday 12th September-

After my morning mammalogy class and my work shift on the grill, which was actually kinda fun, I headed back home. Today's Vertebrate Design lab would be a little different. Shannen, myself and the other two members of our group Sadie and Nathan were to meet up at the University Field Station. This is located near to Missoula Fort and used to be a military base. The main research carried out here is on flight in birds. As we arrived before our 3pm start time we met Sadie upstairs in what I can only describe as a nursing home for zoologists! There were three reclining chairs, coffee machines, microwaves, a fridge labeled 'Food for Humans' and walls lined with bookshelves. I browsed the books which covered topics such as entomology, anatomy, animal behaviour and various others. I found one called 'Integrated Principles of Zoology' which I sat and read for a while. When he was ready Brett, our lecturer, gave us a tour of the building. I was amazed by the level of technology they had, which we will use. There was a laser camera for filming air currents, a slow motion camera so we can see minute wing movements and a wind tunnel to simulate real conditions. We then got to meet our birds; diamond doves. I held one, they are fairly small and light. After meeting the birds we went outside to see the semi-natural aviaries. Larger birds such as pigeons and chukar live here. When we finished I was delighted to find out we can borrow books from the collection so I brought home the zoology one. A few of my friends were heading to an open invitation Frat party where there was a band playing on the lawn so I headed along. The Frat, Sigma Alpha Epsilon (ΣΑΕ) checked our ID's on the way in and gave us wrist bands. They also insisted we drink from red cups and not bottles. The band was kind of jazz music but they did a few covers too. The Missoulians get very into their dancing, although it sometimes resembles bad Dad dancing :P. The band finished up before 9pm and unlike all the movies the frat was not very willing to continue the party. In fact some lads came out, shouted at everyone to "Get the F**K off their lawn" and then proceeded to spray beer at everyone until they left. I won't be going to anymore of that frats parties. Anyways, due to solar storms the Northern Lights were supposed to be visible that night, peaking between 10-12pm. Shannen drove one car of us up north passed Bonner to Blackfoot River, following behind David's friend. The stars were amazing here and the Saucepan (aka The Big Dipper) was huge in the sky. Unfortunately, so was the moon and this hindered any chance of seeing Aurora. We waited until after 12 but to no luck. Seeing as Shannen and myself had a field trip the next day we headed home. I slept most of the way and conked as soon as we got home.

The Field Research Station

Time for a Frat party

Rodrigo, Stacey, James, Kate, Dervla & Elliot at the party

Saturday 13th September-

We walked into college for 7am and met the rest of our Vert. Design class. We loaded into two UM minivans, made a quick coffee pitstop and were on our way. Kris drove our car, which contained me, Shannen, Joe, Sophie and Elliott. At first we spotted the usual; bison, pronghorn, mule deer and white tail deer. After another unsuccessful search for momma bear we headed up the mountain. At the top of the Bitterroot tail we spotted something new; big horn sheep and blue mountain birds. Brett set up a scope fpr us to see them up close. As the rut season nears many of the bull Elk were bugling, a very eerie sound. We walked the High Trail to get better views of the sheep. They were hanging out in a herd and chewing the cud. On our way down the trail Brett and Kris swapped cars. He pointed out lots of bird species. We even saw kestrels mobbing a hen harrier. Then at the bottom of the trail Kris pulled up in front of us suddenly. We got out to see what was up when suddenly in the distance we spotted a pair of coyotes! Me and Shannen nearly died with excitement! My first carnivore sighting, and not only was it one coyote but a pair. One appeared to be carrying a small prey item as the two trotted away over a rise in the hills and out of sight. We were no longer on the road again when we spotted another coyote. This one scurried away quickly. Along the prairie drive we also saw some pronghorns up close and a large bison bull just chilling by the road. Below the road near the river was a large herd of bison containing many calves. We watched these for a while before someone spotted yet more coyotes, four this time! These worked their way between the larger bison, who took no notice of them. The coyotes then began to approach a young bison calf, who was lying in the grass. Spooked the calf rose and another older bison came to it's aid. The coyotes quickly backed down and trotted off through the herd. It was amazing, like watching a documentary play out in real life. I looked over the cliff down to the river and spotted a cute little chipmunk. Then Sophie pointed out a kestrel on an electricity wire and soaring above that a bald eagle. On our way to the end of the track Shannen spotted a coyote right beside the road. He pounced, trying to catch something unsuccessfully and then ran off. That made a total of eight coyotes in one day. Best field trip ever! Brett even agreed that it had been a bumper day for wildlife sightings. We stopped at a souvenir shop outside the park and Brett bought some Buffalo Jerky because me and Shannen have never had it. I quite enjoyed it, even if it is quite chewy and salty. Shannen on the other hand wasn't a fan.

Shannen was too tired to go to the Grizz game that night,but I was all for it. It was supposed to be a whiteout where everyone wears white. The Grizzlies were playing the Dakota bobcats and they won 28-20. The game was very fun but it takes so long for the action to happen. They run for maybe a minute before a break happens or they have to change formation. The band plays loads of songs and the cheerleaders keep the crowd pumped. The mascot, Monte Bear is hilarious, along with Mini Monte. He even crowd surfed a few times. The game lasted from 7pm to after 10pm. I was wreaked when I got home. Shannen was face-timing Nicole so I chatted away.

The Vertebrate Design Class

Bighorn sheep

Pronghorn antelope

Bison bull

Chipmunk

Up close to a coyote

Coyotes harassing a bison calf

A huge Elk antler!

Some lovely jerky :P

Monte Bear

Me, Dervla, Dan the Bear & Steine

Go Grizzlies!

Sunday 14th September-

Had a lovely, much needed sleep in. I spent most of the day ringing friends at home and getting all the gossip. Finished typing up my Mammals of Missoula list and started my paper on the phylogeny of the Canidae. After work, which finished up early I watched the end of The Amazing Spider Man with Shannen. 

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed my shenanigans- Fiona

Week 2- Assignments and Roadtrips

Monday 1st September-

It was Labor Day today. Any American I asked about didn't actually know what Labor day is. Oh well, no college for a day so I was happy. When me and Shannen finished our assignment on conservation definitions we headed up north to the National Bison Range. It's a large area around 18,800 acres big set aside as a nature reserve. We were no sooner in the park than we spotted a herd of elk. I thought these would be only just larger than red deer but they are much bigger. We decided to buy the year pass for $15 because we will definitely be back. At the entrance there is a museum dedicated to bison. It explained the difference between bison and buffalo and also between the three subspecies of bison. There was a one-way driveway all around the park which would take at least 1hr30mins ( it took us almost 3hours :P ). When we started the drive the first animals we spotted were some pronghorn antelope and a large bison bull. There were different sections to the park so when we entered the creek section we went through it especially slowly. There were lots of berry trees along the stream so the mother bear with cubs was most likely to be here. Unfortunately today was not the day the teddy bears had their picnic. We spotted a large herd of bison on a ridge further up the valley and I think I saw a bighorn sheep. From the creek there was a switchback road through forest to the top of Red Sleep Mountain. We saw some mule deer on our way. The view from up here was amazing. There was a 1/4 mile trail to an overlook of the Bitterroot Valley, where we stopped to have lunch, and what a spot for lunch! The highest point of the drive was just after this at 1432m (4700ft). The view out over the Mission Valley from here was spectacular. After a steep drive down the other side of the mountain we came to the plains area. We saw lots more pronghorns here, along with a small herd of white-tail deer. We also spotted some bison rolling hollows along the road. We drove along Mission Creek until we spotted a huge elk stag in the river. It was after 4pm by the time we finished. When we got home our housemate Sarah taught us the difference between mule and white-tail deer. Mule horns branch into a Y shape, with smaller branches off of this, whereas white-tails' branch off upwards from one main branch. Later that night Shannen, Dave, Elliot and myself decided to try out Big Dipper ice cream, a local favourite. I tried a scoop of peanut butter and a scoop of mocha chocolate chip, which was really nice and definitely good value. For $4 they fill a huge waffle cone with ice-cream.

Some of the elk.

A stack of antlers found in the park.

One of the bison herds.

A mule deer doe.

Bison in a rolling hollow.

Not a bad ole spot for lunch.

Summit selfie.

Pronghorn herd.

White-tail doe.

White-tail fawn.

White-tail stag.

Tuesday 2nd September-

Had my usual mammalogy lab at 8am. This week we learned about the mustelidae and mephitidae, aka weasels, badgers, otters, wolverines and skunks. Many of these skulls are quite similar but there are subtle difference to look for. We have a quiz on these along with bears and racoons next week. I found my population conservation lab very hard. We were still working on excel with formulas I am not familiar with at all. I handed in my conservation definitions assignment in habitat conservation. When classes finished for the day Shannen and myself went home. I decided to look up classes for next semester and realised that population conservation is also offered in Spring. I decided to drop this class until then. 16 credits was just too much of a workload so now I'm down to 13, which is much more manageable.

Spotted skunk- Spilogale gracilis.

Wolverine skull- Gulo gulo.

Wednesday 3rd September-

For our vertebrate design class we had an assigned reading of a paper on the statistical problems when working with phylogeny trees. I read this in between my 8am lecture and work at 10am. I understood parts but a lot went straight over my head. Luckily when we discussed the paper in class most of the other students felt the same. It's an engaging way to learn, by reading a paper and discussing it in class. I decided to try and start my squirrel journal assignment for mammalogy. I walked the whole way around the golf course at L&C, which has lots of trees, and spotted one squirrel which had vanished by the time I got to it. Deciding I would have to stalk squirrels on campus, where you can't help but find some, I headed home. That evening we had a bit of a cooking disaster. Our fire alarms in our apartment are slightly over sensitive so while we were cooking we managed to set them off all of five times! :P It was like something from a comedy show, every time one person opened the oven the two other waited for the alarms to go off, and waved tea towels around frantically when they did! There wasn't even a whiff of smoke! We went down to the main office, which handily stays open until 8pm, to see what the problem was. Cody, the receptionist, gave us batteries to swap out with the old ones. This seems to have fixed the problem for now.

Thursday 4th September-

I bought a bike for going to work at 6am, so there I was cycling away half asleep when the bus passes me out. Apparently they run from 6am at L&C! I was not expecting them to start that early. Safe to say I'll be staying in bed a bit later on Thursday mornings now. I had my lunch for free because I was working for more than 3hours on the main breakfast line. I was working again after my habitat conservation class, until 5pm. When I got back to L&C, I was no sooner in the door then out it again. There was a welcome back BBQ for all the Lewis & Clark residents at 5.30. This was really nice because we got gift packs of toiletries, coupons and of course a free dinner. Everyone had hotdogs, burgers, salad, taytos and watermelon. They also had the tables covered in sheets for us to sign our names and decorate. There was even a raffle for apartment essentials such as a bathmat, bathroom sets and a blender. There were loads of people around so we stayed for chats before heading home to do assignments and study for our quiz on bones tomorrow.

Friday 5th September-

After my mammalogy lecture, my classmate Joe said he was going to the vertebrate lab to study for our bones exam so I went too. Shannen came in too. We used the worksheets another classmate, Lillia made up. These were really helpful in helping me learn the lumps and bumps of the bones. Feeling confident I headed off to work. I was working on the grill today during lunch time. As it turns out not too many people want burgers for lunch so it was quiet enough. I hurried from work to my vertebrate lab. We had a half hour before the quiz started so we studied in the hall. The quiz was set as 5 stations with a question at each and an extra credit question. Our T.A, Chris had set out some bones with stickers on them for us to identify. I did ok, but unfortunately I thought we were to identify what bone the sticker was on and not what bone it actually pointed at.. whoops. At least I know for next time. We continued lab as normal and learned the different bones of vertebrate skulls. This turned out much easier as the bones do not change much between the classes. We had to pay special attention to the development of the ear bones in mammals. The quiz on this lab will be Monday. Every Friday night in the University's own cinema there are two movies shown back to back. This weeks were Maleficent and Godzilla. A lot of the international students were going so Siobhan, Shannen and me headed in to meet them. We went to Maleficent, which costs $3 or if you put it through your Grizz card it's $1.50! The food is also really cheap, a small popcorn was $2 and a drink is $1. I've a feeling this might become a Friday night tradition. The movie was surprising good and had me laughing out loud at some points. Angelina Jolie as Maleficent was great. After the movie we went home and got our stuff ready for the trip to Glacier National Park the next day.

A huge loggerhead turtle skull.

Movie time!

Saturday 6th September-

I got up at 5.30am to get ready for Glacier. The bus picked us up at 6.15 and after we collected more students at the International House on campus we were off. The drive to Glacier was around 3hours 30mins. We stopped at Polson, on the south end of Flathead, to get supplies in Walmart. Elliot and Siobhan decided to go to Mc Donalds for coffee and almost missed the bus. They didn't realise that it would be so far away and had to jog back. When we got to Glacier we first stopped at Lake McDonald, where we took loads of group pictures and were able to stock up on souvenirs. We continued up the road to the parks 2nd most popular attraction- The Trail of the Cedars. This is a cedar stand which is almost 500 years old, which is very unusual as usually trees that old would have burned in a wildfire by now. Our tour guide informed us that it is very likely to burn soon due to all the debris on the floor. We ate lunch next to a glacier fed river. A few of us braved the chill and waded into the water for photos. The water was so clear and pure people filled their water bottles here. Our buses took us back to the lodge on Lake McDonald where we met our red buses for the famous Going-to-the-Sun road tour. The Europeans, one New Zealander and two Japanese girls all got in the same bus which was great. The drive up the mountains was spectacular. The road is very narrow in parts and when two cars meet they have to squeeze past each other. The road hugs the cliff side all the way to the top. Our tour guide, Steve, filled us in on the geologic past of the area and how this part of the Rockies was formed. He even pointed out some Stromatolites to us about half way up. These organisms are the first evidence of life on Earth and are responsible for producing the oxygen almost all other life depends on. The fact that they were there shows that the Rockies were once part of the Pacific oceanic crust. When we got to the top of the road we were allowed almost an hour to explore Logan Pass. This point marked the continental divide between watersheds at 2025m (6646ft). We didn't get to see any mountain goats or bighorn sheep but we saw plenty Colombian ground squirrels. We could see many permanent ice patches from the pass and on the drive down our guide pointed out Sparry Glacier, which is moving at an alarming rate of 15cm (6'') a day! A few of us dozed off on the way down because we were shattered. We had some free time back at the lodge so a few of us relaxed on the pier. Our buses were slightly delayed because the battery died in one and it need a jump start. On our way home we stopped off at a roadside Chinese restaurant which was ahh... an experience! :P We were served our starters and main courses on the same plate, and just so you know sweet and sour and kung poa sauce do not mix well. After that most people fell asleep on the drive home. We arrived back at L&C after 11.30pm and I went straight to bed.

Lake McDonald.

The Irish at Trail of the Cedars.

Glacial fed stream.

Kate, Shannen and me.

Aoife, me, Stine, Dervla & Kate.

The stromatolites.

Shannen, me & Elliot on the Going-to-the-Sun road.

Triple arches.

At Logan's Pass.

Colombian ground squirrel.

Relaxing by the lake.

This place is just beautiful.

Sunday 7th September-

Slept  for over 12hours and it was badly needed. When I eventually got up I basically arsed around the apartment for the day, put all my photos on Facebook and studied my skulls for a while. I cycled into work for my 8-10 hoovering shift, which was fun. When I got home Shannen and Sarah were in their room so I studied my skulls some more before bed.

Sorry for the huge amount of photos this week, they were just too beautiful to narrow them down to a few.

Hope you enjoyed reading about this weeks antics- Fiona