Almost everyone has a bucket list or wishes they would choose to do if they ever had a chance to do them.
Years ago, some folks made their bucket lists into seasonal lists of things to do during that particular season.
It is fall and we have even had a tad of fall like weather to prove it. My fall bucket list is probably similar to yours and maybe different as well.
This fall bucket list is not in order of what to do first and so on. Rather it is just a series of suggestions about what fall has to offer that you might not have thought of.
Fall translates into foliage viewing. I rarely leave Montana to view beautiful foliage because the colors right here at home go from purples to bright reds to that wonderful Aspen gold to brilliant oranges when viewing a hillside or part of a forest.
My mother always thought that fall was her favorite time of year and looked each year for a coat or pants suit or something that had her favorite falls colors in it, they were forest green and Aspen gold. How grand they look together.
For fall foliage how about going just north of Glacier National Park to Waterton in Alberta and first of all, revel in the fact that the beautiful Prince of Wales hotel almost burned down in a wildfire this summer but was saved. Going north out of Waterton and over the Continental Divide to Fernie BC provides some wonderful foliage as does the drive to Cameron Lake and the town site of Waterton itself.
Other than that from Babb to Chief Mountain shows some of the most beautiful gold aspens anywhere.
Upper Sandy Creek Canyon in the Bear Paw Mountains has had many of my guests rave about it. They say it is like driving in the forests of Vermont except there are no houses along the way.
Don’t forget the Little Rockies for fall foliage although with the fire damage in some mountain ranges, we may be missing some beautiful colors this season.
I love to visit the Charles Russell studio and home in Great Falls in the fall. The Russell Museum is putting a lot of money into interpreting the way Charlie and Nancy lived while in Great Falls. I can see where the roof was raised in the studio to accommodate the huge painting that hangs in the Montana State Capital. But I was always puzzled about the addition next to the Studio. What was it all about and when was it built. I found out a couple of years ago that it was built the year Russell died in 1926 and it was built to accommodate Russell’s unsold paintings. They could be viewed there very well.
In the fall, for heavens sake, go to an old time hunting camp. You don’t have to hunt and you don’t have to be the cook. Take your family and head out to some shack with a bunch of old men telling hunting stories from years ago and eating some of the best food ever. Your family will never forget their sojourns to a hunting camp and the hunting is the least of it.
Take your family into a forest and scout out a Christmas tree. It is way too early to cut a Christmas tree but now is the time to find that perfect one that can be brought home around Christmas and put up, squirrels and all.
The weather is cool. Start a casserole club where you all meat, trade recipes for your best casserole and then go around house to house and eat each casserole. Of course there is a winner and whoever get the most raves, well, you know that your mother’s recipe for Heavenly Hash is actually the best anywhere.
Maybe the best of all bucket lists goes on into the winter season as well. That is to make plans for something really special to do next summer that you have never done before.
With Sperry Chalet burned down that is on my mind. My bucket list would be to contribute to the building of Sperry again and then to spend at least a week at Granite Park Chalet.
Don’t forget the Belton Chalets in West Glacier. They are right on Highway 2 but they were built by the Great Northern railway as were all the chalets and they are still standing and in very good condition, ghosts and all!
Good food, private cabins, a large chalet with a grand living room and many nice rooms make that place perfect for many reasons.
And, if staying in a grand old lodge is your thing along with seeing plenty of fall colors, don’t miss the Walton Hotel at Essex. It comes complete with rooms made out of caboose cars as well as you can stay in a huge engine for your stay at the Walton. That place is something else.
That is my bucket list but like yours, it probably changes from day to day.
Anyway, happy fall!
