Lake Louise

Leaving Kalispell, MT, we drove north into Canada. Betty tried to take us on another adventure, but a "local" steered us onto the best route. It was a beautiful drive through rolling pasture lands with occasional ranches (and really not much else) along the way. We stayed in Canmore, about 30 miles outside of Lake Louise. Canmore was a great little town with lots of restaurants, completely dominated by rugged mountains on all sides. It wouldn't much matter where you stayed- you would have a mountain view! Our hotel had one of the best restaurants in town- wonderful food! We had our first restaurant-style fondue (broth with shrimp, chicken, salmon and beef) since our honeymoon in Portugal.

We took a day off from site-seeing and played golf at one of the local courses. We again decided to walk the course, having been assured there were only a few hills on the back nine. It was a bit more than that, but not too bad. What was bad was the rough (forget your ball if you missed the fairway, and sometimes even when you hit the fairway), and the horseflies! For some reason, Dale the "bug-magnet", was not much bothered, but I ended up with bites all over my ankles.

We headed out to Lake Louise the next day. It was beautiful! The lake is not all that big, but is surrounded by high peaks, some with visible glaciers, and is an incredibly beautiful deep blue color. The color, we are told, comes from "glacier flour", which is very finely ground rock particles that are washed down from the glaciers during the spring melt. The rock is so fine, it remains suspended in the water, absorbing all color except the brilliant blue, which is what we see. Truly amazing! We also drove out to Moraine Lake, about 6-7 miles from Lake Louise, as we had been told that it was more beautiful than Louise. Again, the color was amazing- and we agree, more beautiful than Lake Louise. We ended our day with a picnic in the park in Banff, on our way back to Canmore. We plan to head for Vancouver (with an overnight stop on the way), tomorrow.

Glacier National Park

After driving north from Gardiner, we approached Kalispell, MT, where we planned to stay for 3 days, taking a "day off". Just south of our destination, we drove by beautiful Flathead Lake. The lake is huge, and colored a vivid blue. Looks like a great place to vacation.

Unfortunately, the best laid plans.... we awoke our first morning, planning to play golf, but the day was overcast and was soon raining. We decided to go up to Glacier National Park and see if we could do some sightseeing. The cloud level was so low, it obscured everything above ground level, so we returned to Kalispell, hoping for better weather the next day. The main highlight of the day was spotting a large moose with a huge rack of antlers. A quick photo was blurred, but we were happy to have seen him.

Again, the next morning was overcast but not raining, so we tried again. We drove up the Going to the Sun highway, which basically bisects the park. The park is beautiful, with lots of glacier lakes and waterfalls. At higher elevations, the clouds again obscured the view. At the summit, it was foggy, misty, windy, and 42 degrees. After listening to a ranger talk about glaciers, we had our picnic lunch in the car- tempted to turn on the heater! We gave it up, and returned to town, where the sun finally came out.

To say the least, our visit was disappointing. I had been reading about Glacier and was looking forward to seeing the high peaks along with the beautiful turquoise blue glacier lakes. Not to be.

We headed out the next (sunny) morning for Canada and Lake Louise.

Yellowstone National Park

After spending the night in Driggs, ID, to the west of the park, we set off to see Yellowstone. You could classify this day as "adventures with Betty" (that would be Bitchin' Betty, our GPS). We asked for the shortest route to the park, and she directed us to the south entrance. Early in the trip, we ended up on a dirt road. This was not unusual, we have been on dirt roads with Betty in the past, usually as a short cut to another road. Well, this was a shortcut- to another unpaved road- 32 miles (that's right, I didn't forget a decimal point) of dirt road and about 2 1/2 hours later, we were in the park!

Yellowstone is huge- 2 1/2 million acres of some of the most diverse topography anyone has ever seen. If Theodore Roosevelt was about the animals, Teton about the mountains, than Yellowstone is about the earth's continued thermal activity. We spent our first 1/2 day (thanks to Betty) at the location of Old Faithful, the geyser that goes off every 90 minutes or so. We were there for the eruption, but that was really the least of the sites at that location. We walked around the boardwalk, viewing some of the weirdest and most beautiful sites, accompanied by the constant smell of sulphur. There were several other geysers, one of which erupted and continued to erupt for over an hour. There were pools of the most beautiful blue coloring, and those that were rusty brown in appearance. Apparently, the color varies according to which type of bacteria thrive in that location, and that depends on temperature. It was all pretty amazing.

We spent the remainder of the day driving on part of the Grand Loop road (it is 142 miles in total), stopping at many of the overlooks to take in the view. We planned to return the next day, starting at the Mammoth Springs location. We were spending the night in Gardiner, just outside the North Entrance- Betty managed to take us right there.

The next morning, we were in the park early, on our way to Mammoth Springs, which truly are mammoth! As we drove through the little village (Yellowstone is set up with several different villages in the park that provide visitor services, including visitor information, restaurants, and small stores) just prior to the springs, we were surprised to see a whole herd of elk just wandering through the village. Everyone was gathered around taking photos, so we joined in. Some of the fawns still had their spots. They didn't seem too nervous, but guess they are big enough to protect themselves if anyone gets too close.

Mammoth Springs was truly amazing. We spent about 1 1/2 hours walking around the area, taking multiple pictures of all the strange and beautiful formations. You really could take a photo around every corner! We then took the eastern side of the Grand Loop highway and were surprised at how different this side of the park was from the other side. There was much more elevation as we headed for the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. When we reached the Canyon, we decided to take a short hike along the Canyon Rim trail. In looking into the canyon at the turquoise blue river and the yellow,red, black, pink colored walls, we could truly understand why early visitors to the area were considered liars when they returned East! It was a beautiful and other-worldly scene!

We returned to Gardiner, stopping to see waterfalls we had missed on the way out. Dale decided this was his favorite park. I think for me, it is still a tie between Tetons and Theodore Roosevelt...

Travelers warning- bring a picnic lunch. Yellowstone has lots of beautiful picnic spots, and the food available for purchase in the park is fair to poor, and way overpriced!

Grand Teton National Park

After spending the night in Buffalo, WY, where we had a great meal at the Winchester Restaurant (and where I left my favorite brown hoodie), we set off for Grand Teton. The drive was great, although longer than we anticipated. We drove over the Bighorn Mountains, which were very scenic, and encountered some unexpected road construction that delayed us awhile As a result of the delays, we approached Jackson Hole late in the afternoon and were treated to a view of hazy, late afternoon, looking into the sun views of the Tetons. They were spectacular! The Tetons are very young mountains. Their jagged tops rise straight up out of the flat Snake River valley, with no foothills, making them look even more dramatic.

We spent the night in Jackson, where we wandered around the town, checking out the multitude of galleries (we have found they love bronze sculptures in the West), and had dinner at a local brewery. Jackson Hole is a little "high end", but definitely worth seeing.

All is serendipity on a trip like this- we almost forgot we wanted to check out Jackson Hole ski area before we left on our "scenic drive" of Teton, so we checked with the hotel person on how to get there. She told us it would work fine- go to the ski area, than take the back way to where our drive would start, part of the drive would be unpaved but well-maintained. Well, just a 1/2 mile before the park Visitor Center, we spotted a young moose in wetlands right next to the road- not more than 30 feet away, who was not at all upset about us taking pictures.

The drive around Teton was just spectacular. We were unable, due to the number of people, to take our first choice of hikes, so drove further north to Jackson Lake. We passed by so much beauty (as Dale said, you could take a picture around every corner), that we finally just drove. We opted to take a 3 mile hike at the northern end of the park, which took us along the shore of Jackson Lake, and past 2 glacier lakes- Heron Lake and Swan Lake. We were surprised at the number of wildflowers everywhere- wild lupine, sunflowers, Indian paintbrush, wild geranium, and others that I don't recognize.

Overall, one of our favorite parks thus far! Tomorrow, we head to Yellowstone.

Just an aside- we have been surprised at the lack of population in the towns we have visited (for example, Buffalo had a population of 1100)- yet they seem to have several nice restaurants, and several hotels, though I am not sure where they shopped for food or clothes... A very different life style from what we are used to on the East Coast.

SD Badlands, Crazy Horse, Rushmore and Devil's Tower

After leaving Pierre, we drove west to Badlands National Park. On first impression, although beautiful, we were somewhat disappointed. (Perhaps compared to the first at TR...) The landscape was similiar to the Badlands in N. Dakota, but not as dramatic, and there were lots more people. However, the western portion of the park was gorgeous- lots of colorful red and yellow cliffs, dramatic rock formations, and a view that went on forever. We did several short walks (really too hot to hike, and Dale was nursing "hikers' toenail" from our previous hike).

After leaving the Badlands, we went (on Fran and Linda's suggestion) to Wall Drug- what started as a drug store, than added on and added on with everything from souvenirs, food, ice cream (which we tested), jewelry, clothing, cowboy hats and boots- you name it, they had it.

We stayed in a small town called Hill City, about 5 miles outside of Rushmore. Hill City, during the gold rush years, was known as a gold mining city "one mile long with a church on either end and hell in the middle". Now, it is a nice little western-style town with several restaurants, art galleries, and shops. We spent a few minutes admiring a statue of a horse made from various metals, including spoons, shovels, pistons, etc. It sounds strange, but you would have thought there was a real horse inside all that junk!

We visited Crazy Horse memorial, a huge undertaking sculpturing a statue of Chief Crazy Horse on horseback from the side of a mountain. So far, after many years of work, they have his face and some initial trimming of the mountain that will be the horses' head. If completed, it will be the largest such sculpture in the world.

We then went on to Rushmore, a National Memorial site. It was very well done, beautiful setting, and not an expensive visit. We were somewhat disappointed to find that there was not a public hiking trail up the back of the sculptures, as we had been told. We did walk the Presidential Trail, which was basically a boardwalk consisting of stairs. Lots of stairs! The trail was closed part way up, as there was a work crew on top cleaning up after the 4th of July fireworks (which we were told were disappointing, as the fog came in and none could be seen, only heard!). We went back that evening for the lighting ceremony, which was very impressive. A history of each of the presidents on display was given, and the characteristics which caused them to be chosen for the memorial. (Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and T. Roosevelt)

The Needles highway is a scenic road near the memorial, which we decided to take. Unfortunately, we didn't enjoy our first "pass", as we misjudged distance and gas, so the last 6 miles was a white-knuckle drive, sure we were not going to make it. We drifted into the nearest gas station, taking on 16.25 gals in our 16 gal tank! I think the only reason we made it was all the downhill the last few miles! We did return the next morning (after filling our tank)- the drive was spectacular, with single lane tunnels blasted out of the mountain, unusual rock formations, beautiful views- worth returning for!

On the way further west, we decided to drive through Deadwood, where Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane were buried- a classic "old west" town. We visited the cemetary to see the gravesites, than had lunch in town. We than headed toward Sundance, WY, as we had been told about Devil's Tower, a National Monument, than had really impressed Dale's brother Dick. After arriving, we wished we had not stopped in Deadwood and come straight here. The Devil's Tower rises straight up from gentle rolling land, able to be seen for many miles. It was (and still is) a sacred place to the Indian people, as well as a "must climb" for serious rock climbers. In walking around this huge monument (876 feet tall, the flat top is 1 1/2 acres), you could see prayer flags and prayer bundles hung from trees by Indian visitors to the site. There were a number of hiking trails around the monument, but we arrived too late to take advantage. Very impressive, and happy we went there.

We headed off to Buffalo, WY for the night, on the way to Teton NP- we had our first visit of the Tetons from Rt 90 as we headed west. Looking forward to exploring Jackson Hole and the Tetons.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Theodore Roosevelt once said "I never would have been President if it had not been for my experiences in North Dakota". Well, neither of us intends to run for anything, but TR's national park certainly made an impression on us. We drove to the park across beautiful rolling prairie which suddenly and dramatically gives way to multicolored buttes and canyons. It makes an immediate impression of wildness and beauty. The park is divided into 2 sections, the South Unit and the North Unit. We spent our first day at the South Unit, which is just outside the little town of Medora. We saw several herds of bison, which were reintroduced to the park in the 60's. We passed through several prairie dog towns, seeing lots of adults and babies. In addition, we saw a number of wild horses (actually feral horses, as they descend from previously domesticated stock), which looked really healthy and beautiful. We hiked several short trails, getting back in off the roads. Although the park was not crowded, the hikes gave us more of a sense of what the area was like in the past.

We spent the second day at the North Unit, which is about 50 miles north, more isolated, and less visited. We read that some feel the North Unit is the more beautiful, and we are in total agreement. This area was more dramatic- higher buttes, deeper canyon, more varied terrain, and more vivid colors. Although there are no wild horses here, there are a lot of bison, prong-horn antelope and bighorn sheep. We spotted all but the antelope. On the advice of one of the rangers, we decided to hike a 4+ mile trail (the Caprock Couley trail), as we were told that it would take us through all of the varied types of terrain you would see in this part of the park. What an incredible hike! It started in the more arid area, getting close to some of the unusual rock formations, than into cool woods (with very slippery muddy clay surface) on the north side of the canyon. We noticed we were following the same path previously walked by a bison, and not long before us. We took a moment to determine we were all headed in the same direction. We were not anxious to come face to face with a 2000 lb bison who can run 30 miles per hour on this narrow trail! We continued on, climbing up to a beautiful open grassy prairie area where we did spot a lone bison relaxing on a small outcropping, looking out at the view. Thankfully, the trail went the opposite direction.

The next section of trail was a real surprise- it took us to one of the highest points overlooking the canyon, on hard, compacted clay mixed with volcanic ash, formed by wind and water into unusual shapes. This section was truly spectacular! On the way back down into the canyon, we ran into John, one of the back country rangers, who is responsible for maintaining the trails, checking the fencing that surrounds the huge park, and various other duties. He has worked this park for 30 years, and agreed that it was truly special, with part of the attraction being the lack of people (the place was nearly deserted).

We ended our day by completing the drive around the park, and spotting 2 bighorn sheep. What a great day! We headed back to Bismarck for the night, with plans to head to S.Dakota the next day.

We headed to S.Dakota on one of the scenic drives we had read about. We agree it was beautiful, through several Indian Reservations and rolling, open prairie. We have never seen so many hay fields in our lives. I think Dale said it best- "It's beautiful, but enough is enough!" However, we did manage to spot a couple of prong-horn antelope crossing the road, which made the drive worth it. We ended our day in the capital of S.Dakota, Pierre. We will head for the Badlands and Mt. Rushmore tomorrow.

Duluth: where the Great Lakes Begin

We arrived in Duluth, MN after a pretty drive through the farm lands of Wisconsin, viewing the city first from Superior, across the river. Dale, having grown up at the "end" of the Great Lakes in Cape Vincent, NY, always wanted to see where the Lakes began. Duluth is certainly more industrialized than his home town, but they have done a nice job with the waterfront area. There is a walking path that runs about five miles along the lake. There is a maritime museum, maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers, 2 ships- one Coast Guard and one 650 foot Lake freighter that are maintained as museums, as well as the usual restaurants and gift shops. There is also a unique elevator bridge, which raises to allow the ships into the port of Duluth.

We took a walk through the drizzly rain (notice a weather-related pattern here?) around part of the port area while waiting for the museum to open. The lake freighter was offering tours that looked interesting, so we went on board to hear about the history of shipping on the lakes, the history of that particular ship (built in 1938, retired in 1977 after the huge 1000 footers were built), and the life of sailors on board this ship. The gentleman who gave the tour was very knowledgeable in this aspect- his father was a lake captain, he served in several roles on lake ships during the years, and his brother served on the Edmund Fitzgerald (the sinking of which was immortalized by Gordon Lightfoot). He quit and went to another ship 2 months before the boat went down. Overall, it was a great morning. We had lunch, than headed out west through some very uninhabited area of MN on the way to Fargo, ND. The highlight of the drive was crossing the Mississippi for the first time in Jefferson, MN. We spent a night in Fargo, than went on to Bismarck as our "jumping off spot" to Mt Rushmore region.

Unfortunately, with the July 4th holiday, bookings in the Rushmore area were pretty full and expensive, so we have opted to head for the Badlands of N. Dakota- Theodore Roosevelt National Park- which is less well-known. We'll let you know how it goes!