North Dakota to Massachusetts - The Last 2000 Miles

Our original itinerary was a bit aggressive -- driving 2000 miles and visiting 2 relatives in 3.5 days. We are thankful the relatives accommodated our last minute request to move our arrival time, as this allowed us to do it in a more leisurely 4 days.  :-)

We had a delightful visit and delicious meal with Bill’s cousin and his wife in Minnesota. Both were most gracious.

We told Bill’s parents that we’d arrive at their house in Ohio by 6pm for dinner.  We felt great in the morning as our GPS ETA read 5pm.  “Cool!  We’ll be there an hour early.”  Well we hit traffic – bad traffic.  I-74 was shut down in both directions for hours due to a collision involving commercial-grade fireworks that needed a bomb disposal team.  Needless to say we were over an hour late for dinner and we appreciate their holding the meal.  We enjoyed yummy food and got to see Bill’s parents and sister.

Here we are in front of our trailer in Bill’s parents’ driveway.  

We recommend this campsite – very quiet plus it has free wifi.  :-)

Speaking of campsite, our “campsites” for three nights were Walmart parking lots.  They worked out great as we could pull in late and not fuss with finding a site or registering. Plus they didn’t require backing up or leveling, and they were free. Is it a great country or what?

Our own driveway, however, did require backing up and leveling, but we are now home.

North Dakota - Theodore Roosevelt National Park

We left Glacier National Park and cut across Montana on back roads.  There are no short cuts across this big state and gas stations can be more than 100 miles apart.  By the time we arrived at the first-come-first-serve campground at Theodore Roosevelt National Park, the rain was torrential.  A sign at the entrance said that the campground had limited space and we saw cars leaving as we drove in – not a good sign. But it was for us, as those were tenters fleeing the deluge and flooded campsites. Since pooled water doesn’t bother a trailer, we ended up with a nice pull-through campsite. The skies cleared by morning and we headed for the visitor center.

On the way, we saw …

Two buffalo, two buffalo, buffalo on the lawn

Just rompin’ all around and stompin’ on the ground

And all of the grass was gone.

Well the grass wasn’t really gone and there were lots of bison, but we did end up singing all the verses of this song that Barbara’s family heard growing up.

One hundred and twenty eight buffalah

Man there’s enough of the

Buffalo on the lawn

Just rompin’ all around and stompin’ on the ground

And all of the grass was gone. *

And we also saw prairie dogs.

There are fields filled with little prairie dog “houses.”  It’s lots of fun to watch them.  We would have liked to see some other wildlife like elk or mule deer, but our one little attempt at a hike was blocked by this guy in the middle of the trail.  

We decided to abort our hike and give him a little space.

The terrain is interesting – Roosevelt said, "I grow very fond of this place, and it certainly has a desolate, grim beauty of its own, that has a curious fascination for me." It resembles the Badlands with its strata of eroded sediment, but it had some green vegetation too.

The park commemorates Theodore Roosevelt’s time here hunting, raising cattle, mourning the death of his wife and mother, and shaping his views on natural resources.  We went on a ranger-led tour of Theodore Roosevelt’s hunting cabin.

After our morning exploring the park, we grabbed lunch and headed east.  2000 miles to go...

* Adapted from TWO BUFFALO by Rolf Harris, which at the time of this post could be found here.

Montana - Glacier National Park – Many Glacier

Rain was predicted for the day, but by the time we drove to the area known as Many Glacier it stopped. Again we chose separate outings. We are still married.  :-)

BARBARA’S OUTING

I chose the 3.6 mile round trip to Redrock Falls along the Swiftcurrent Trail.  I hiked alone at first with some trepidation as it is grizzly bear country.  Then all of a sudden I saw a group of people with cameras all pointed into the woods.  Hmmm… What did they see?  I should have guessed… it was a moose.  In fact it was a mom moose with her “preteen.”  I had trouble getting a good shot due to all the branches, but I loved watching them.

The reason I should have guessed it was a moose was because 10 years ago when our family was on the same trail we spotted a moose about 10 minutes further along the trail. 

I enjoyed the views of the mountains and falls, too.

BILL’S OUTING

Our family had hoped to hike to Iceberg Lake on our previous trip to Glacier, but the trail was closed due to grizzly bears. No closure this year, just stern warnings to watch for bears and avoid them, so I headed out. If I felt up to it, I could also include Ptarmigan Lake and Tunnel. The trail to Iceberg was typical Glacier, with soaring mountains and tall trees so far away that they look like matchsticks.

Iceberg Lake was a unique and beautiful lunch spot. A few people swam in it, and when one woman got out, she said between shivers, “Definitely not worth it.”

I still had energy when I reached the Ptarmigan trail, so I went to the lake.

You may be able to see the Z-shaped switchback trail beyond the lake up to the tunnel. The area beyond the tunnel is reportedly very beautiful, so I went up the trail and through the tunnel.

I came out in a cloud, so couldn’t see much.

There weren’t many hikers on the Ptarmigan trail, so I was more vigilant about looking and listening for bears or moving vegetation. Nothing. When the trail joined back with the Iceberg trail, there were many more hikers, so I felt more comfortable. Until I saw 3 rangers with rifles asking, “Have you seen any bears in the last 5 minutes?” One ranger told me that there were many recent sightings. With some trepidation, I continued on the last mile to the parking lot. A bush shook once, but nope, that was only a marmot. Back in the parking lot I vowed to kiss the prettiest girl I found, and I found Barbara.  :-)

Montana - Glacier National Park – Logan Pass Trails

Today we took separate outings but started from the same place – Logan Pass.  Since the parking lot there resembles a mall parking lot before Christmas, we took the shuttle.

BARBARA'S ADVENTURE

I took the 3mi round trip (460’ elevation) to Hidden Lake Overlook.  The first thing I noticed on the trail was a number of men coming down the trail wearing ties.  Hmmm…  Then I came upon a photographer taking pictures of a bride and groom.  Well they picked a great backdrop for their pictures – a picture-perfect blue sky, alpine flower-filled meadows, and snow-capped peaks. 

I saw marmots, a big horn sheep, and lots of mountain goats.  

As I was taking a picture in one direction a mountain goat with horns ran right behind me from the other direction.

Here is the view of Hidden Lake from the overlook.

I also had time afterward to listen to a talk on disappearing glaciers and watch the movie at the visitor’s center.

BILL'S ADVENTURE 

“If Glacier National Park isn’t God’s backyard, then He certainly lives nearby,” was written on the Granite Park Chalet blackboard, attributing Robin Williams.

My favorite section of Glacier is just northwest of Logan Pass, so I hiked the Highline trail from Logan Pass to the Chalet and back, plus the spur trail to Grinnell glacier (total of 16.5 miles, 1800’ elevation). The trail is cut into the side of the mountain and one narrow section has a cable handhold bolted to the mountain. But look past that in the picture below to the view, and the above-treeline trail is just view after view of mountain grandeur.

Rainier has more flower-filled meadows, but Glacier has flowers too.

These pictures try but fail to capture the sheer size and splendor of the mountains.

There isn’t much left of the Grinnell glacier, which saddens me. After the hike, I attended the disappearing glacier ranger talk but at a later time than Barbara.

Dousing my hat in a waterfall on the return trip felt so cool and good that I did it at all the remaining falls.

Glorious hikes for both of us.

Montana - Glacier National Park - Going to the Sun

The 50-mile Going-to-the-Sun Road traverses the park following the shores of Saint Mary Lake on the east and Lake McDonald on the west with a breathtaking climb over the continental divide at Logan Pass in the middle.  Last night we took a quick drive up to Logan Pass and back to our campsite, but today drove the entire route and back taking time to stop at scenic viewpoints.

We caught the reflection of the mountains in Saint Mary Lake.

We wondered why the cars ahead of us were stopped when we saw a bear crossing the road, but we weren’t able to get a picture.

We just loved the view of the mountains even with a bit of haze.  We heard that was caused by wildfires in Oregon and Washington.

The last two pictures show how the road is carved into the side of the mountains – a narrow road with turns and steep drop-offs.  No RVs allowed here.

We stopped for lunch along the shores of Lake McDonald.

Then we took the Trail of Cedars to Avalanche Gorge.

We continued up the Avalanche Lake Trail.  Bill made it all the way to the lake.

Montana - Glacier National Park – Arrival

We spent most of the day traveling and doing logistics in Kalispell, but when we arrived at Glacier National Park around 5pm, we decided to squeeze in a little sightseeing at the end of the day.

In our brief jaunt to Logan Pass we saw a bit of wildlife.

On our way we spotted a Hawaii license plate, so we saw license plates from all 50 states on this trip!

One thing Barbara wanted to do at Logan Pass was to be photographed at the same location where she was photographed in 1978 and in 2004.  We are not sure how much of the difference in snow cover on Clements Mountain is due to global warming or just what time of year the picture was taken, but we do know that a hundred years ago this area used to be covered by a glacier.

What we love here are the majestic mountain views.

Jackson Glacier is shrinking. Of the 150 glaciers found in 1850, only 25 remain today. All glaciers in Glacier National Park are predicted to be gone in the next 6 to 16 years.

Road construction between St Mary and Logan Pass blocks a popular view across Saint Mary Lake, but when we headed back, construction had stopped for the evening and we were able to catch the view as the sun was setting.

We weren’t the only ones who thought to stop.  So did a Korean photography group.  They all had expensive cameras on tripods with huge lenses and filters, while we just had our little cameras.

Southeast Washington - Palouse Falls

Today was mostly a driving day (528 miles), but we did visit Palouse Falls and bagged an Idaho letterbox.

The hour or so drive along I-84 through the Columbia Gorge from Troutdale to The Dalles afforded some great last views of the region and at the same time provided a stark contrast.  The west end of the gorge closer to Portland is lush and green.  The east end is dry and barren -- in fact so barren that we saw the remains of forest fires dotting the hillside above The Dalles.  A helicopter with a dangling hose flew right above us and we assume it was getting water from the river to fight the fire.  Wish we got a picture.

We continued toward the east side of Oregon and Washington and were amazed at how desolate it is – there is hardly anything growing!

                           

And we watched the temperature rise.  Our entire summer trip hardly had any temperatures that even hit the 80’s, but today it got up to 102 degrees.  Amidst this barren, hot, landscape stands Palouse Falls (about 200ft).

In one direction it reminded us of southwest canyons, but this area was carved more by glacial floods than slow erosion.

Our camping plan was to stay at a nearby KOA, but since we didn’t have a reservation and wanted to escape the heat we decided to continue on our way and see what we could find.  We stopped in beautiful Coeur D’Alene for an Idaho letterbox and wifi, and Bill scouted out potential places to camp.  We were very fortunate!  When we pulled into the 13-site national forest campground at 11:30pm there were available sites and a few were even large enough for a trailer. This picture with our trailer in the background shows how close we were to our route.

We expect limited connectivity for the next several days as we’ll be at Glacier National Park, so may not post for a few days.