Dan's North American Journey--4 months on the road

[DHC6twinotter]

Post 16: Waterton Lakes International Peace Park in Alberta, Canada

I'm not forgetting about my part 2 of Glacier to post, but for now, I'll post about my side trip to Waterton Lakes National Peace Park in Canada. Waterton Lakes is the Canadian side of Glacier. It's a much smaller park, but almost just as beautiful as Glacier.

First stop was the town of Waterton. Neat little town with nice views of Waterton Lake. The US/Canada border crosses the lake, and the south side of the lake is in the United States.



On the backside of town, there are some pretty neat falls. I never noticed the falls the last 3 times I've been here. I discovered it while I was trying to find the road to Cameron Lake.



I finally found the road to Cameron Lake. It was actually pretty well marked--when you are coming from the other direction. Cameron Lake also lies on the US/Canada border. Last time I was here, the lake was frozen over and there was an avalanche on the US side. This time, however, the lake was busy with boaters and tourists.



Next I headed over to Red Rock Canyon. It's a great drive with lots of twists, nice scenery, and a good chance to see some wildlife.



After spending the day in Waterton, I headed back to Glacier. Just south of the Chief Mountain boarder crossing, I stopped to take some pictures of the setting sun.

I thought the shadows being cast by the clouds were pretty cool, and not something I've ever seen before:



And took a picture of the setting sun over Glacier:

[DHC6twinotter]

thanks again for posting your trip; I was thinking of passing up on the badlands park but now I definitely will include it.

Awesome! The badlands is a neat area. I recommend the drive down Sage Creek Rd., even if you don't plan on camping there. That's probably your best chance at seeing some wildlife. You can also enter/exit the west side of the park on Sage Creek Rd., which, irrc, goes to 44. 44 then goes on to Rapid City.

[DHC6twinotter]

August 6. Right now I'm in Rocky Mountain National Park. I just arrived today, and haven't gotten to see much of the park. I'm sitting in my car typing this as a thunderstorm is going through the area. A super cool park ranger told me a good place to bum some internet, and even gave me the wifi password. I'll try to post this update once I get some internet tomorrow.

I've gotten a bit behind at posting updates again, and I'm sorry about that. It looks like my updates are about 2.5-3 weeks behind my actual location. I'd like to get back to my updates being less than a week behind my actual location.

Post 17: Glacier National Park part 2

Remember Al and Mary Berry, the couple I met back in Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota? In my last post, I forgot to mention that I ran into them at St. Mary's Lake in Glacier National Park, and again in Waterton Lakes National Peace Park in Canada. What are the odds of that!?

Anyways, on my last day in Glacier National Park, I took the drive down the Going to the Sun Road. It's said that the Going to the Sun Road is the most beautiful drive in the United States. It's definitely fantastic, but I've been on some other roads that would rival its beauty. More on that later.

The east side of Glacier, heading towards Logan?s Pass.







I always thought this small gorge was really neat. The gorge is only about 4' or so wide at the top, and the river runs about 20' below the top of the gorge. I've wondered how many people and/or animals have fallen in.



There are several trails to hike on starting at the Logan's Pass Visitor Center. I wanted to see Hidden Lake, which was a 1.5 mile hike in. The trail was super slick, and after going about half-way and almost falling a few times, I turned around and headed back. I definitely wanted to see the lake, but I really didn't want to fall and break my camera. I should have thought things through a bit, and just left my DSLR in the car and taken my old point-and-shoot instead. Next time, I'll make the hike!





There were a few goats at the visitor center as well.


During each spring when the visitor center is dug out of the snow, metal plates help metal detector equipped snow removal teams find the steps.




The last three times I've been here, I was never able to make the complete drive through the Going to the Sun Road. It was always snowed in, and the farthest I've made it was Logan's Pass. This time, however, the road was open the entire way, and I was excited to see what lies west of Logan's Pass.



The west side of the Going to the Sun Rd. seems to have more waterfalls. Many of them are really easy to miss, especially for someone who is driving westbound. This waterfall I missed, and I had to do a couple of U-turns to get another shot at it.



A couple more waterfalls.





I had a blast in Glacier, and I will definitely be back. Next stop: Kalispell, Montana, then on to Idaho.

[DHC6twinotter]

Post 18: 2 Months on the Road.

I've been on the road for 2 months now, and I've had a blast. Here are some stats so far:

Miles driven: Just over 9,000.

Favorite roads: Beartooth Pass in Wyoming and Montana, Going to the Sun Road in Glacier NP, Montana state roads 43 and 278 from Hwy 93 to I15.

Favorite Park: Probably Glacier/Waterton.

Favorite Town: Sandpoint, ID; Colorado Springs, CO; Cumberland, MD; Wisdom, WY; and I'm probably forgetting a few.

Favorite food: Pahaska Tepee on the east entrance to Yellowstone. Awesome breakfasts!

Worst Food: China Buffet in Missoula, MT. Everything tasted off, even the chocolate pudding.

Favorite campground: Island Lake off of Hwy 212 on the NE entrance to Yellowstone. It's a National Forest Campground about 10 miles south of Beartooth Pass. KOA in Lyman, WY and Sage Creek Campground in Badlands NP were great as well.

Worst campground: Some National Forest Campground just south of Estes Park, CO.

Dumbest drivers: Aspen, CO.

Best gas mileage: 24.2

[DHC6twinotter]

Post 19: Montana to Idaho

From Glacier National Park, I headed west on Hwy 12 to Sandpoint, Idaho.

Much of Hwy 12 runs along the Kootanai River. It was a great drive, and at one point, I stopped at some county park and hiked down to some falls.



I also passed over a dam and hydro electric plant somewhere along Hwy 12. I took a dirt road that was supposed to lead me to a better view of the dam, but I couldn't find the right turn-off. It was still a cool drive, and I managed a picture or two.



I stayed overnight in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Kalispell, MT. Wal-Mart parking lots aren't my favorite place to stay, but I got tired of trying to find a campground. This Wal-Mart had a bunch of RV's parked in front, and looked more like a campground than anything anyways.

As I was pulling into the Wal-Mart parking lot, I noticed a familiar looking Volkswagon/Winnebago camper. Could it be Al and Mary Berry? I drove around the camper, and sure enough, there were Michigan tags and a giant multi-colored map of the USA on the side. I could hardly believe it! I said howdy, and they were just as surprised to see me. After trying to convince each other that neither one of us were stockers, I headed next door to catch the new Batman flick. Great movie!

The next day, I headed west to Sandpoint, ID. Sandpoint is way up in the skinny part of Idaho, and lies on the edge of a pretty large lake.





Why go to Sandpoint? Several years ago, I was thinking about applying for a job at Quest Aircraft, located in Sandpoint. They make the Quest Kodiak. The Kodiak is a fairly new single engine turboprop specifically designed for bush operations. Anyway, at the time, the company wasn't very stable, and I decided it wasn't someplace I wanted to work. However, I did do some research on town, and it looked like a cool place. So, I decided to swing by on this trip.

As usual, I didn't take any pictures of the town, but I did get a picture of this:



"Traffic Revision Ahead"? That's almost outside the scope of my vocabulary. Why couldn't they just have said, "New Traffic Pattern" or "Lane Shift" like everywhere else? People in Sandpoint must be smart!

On a completely unrelated note, I noticed that many semis in the northwest have many more wheels than the typical 18 wheeler. On the east coast, 18 wheelers are the norm, but here, it seems they are the exception rather than the norm. Most of the flatbed, tanker, livestock, and grain trucks have at least 26 wheels, and some, like the one pictured below, have 30.



Longest truck I saw had two long trailers, the first being a tri-axle lowboy with a combine on it, and hitched to the rear was a 48' grain trailer. Wish I had a picture.

[DHC6twinotter]

Post 20: Idaho back to Montana

While I was in Sandpoint, I bumped into Al and Mary Berry again. This is now the 5th time I've seen them. So crazy!

Once I hit the western part of the U.S., I've tried to avoid driving on interstates as much as possible. It seems like there is so much that is missed when driving down the interstate. So, from Sandpoint, Idaho, I took state rd 200 to Missoula.



I stayed overnight in Missoula and ate some pretty terrible Chinese food. That evening was rough, but, feeling better the next day, I was off and on Hwy 93 south to state rd 43.



93 is a great road with some amazing scenery. Right at the continental divide, which is also the Idaho/Montana border, state road 43 turns off to the left. It runs along the top of the continental divide for a bit before heading back down into Montana. This stretch of road, along with state road 278 would become one of my favorite areas.

I wasn't on 43 very long, when the mountains gave way to a large valley. After the long climb up to the continental divide, I was expecting a long descent as well. The valley was a surprise, and probably one of the reasons why I liked this area so much. The west side of the valley had snow-capped peaks, and a row of smaller, but still impressive, mountains to the east.



There wasn't a whole lot in the valley. There were some ranches and a couple of small towns, Wisdom and Jackson, but not much else. It was a pretty desolate area.





I stopped in the town of Wisdom for some pictures. Even though this was a weekday, it seemed like everybody from town was out and about having a good time. Everybody seemed to congregate around this roofless flea market, which was one of a few buildings in town.



Just outside of Wisdom, I took a right turn on state rd 278. This was another fantastic drive, and I stopped by the Wisdom Airport. There wasn't much there: just a grass strip, an outhouse, and an old hanger in the background. I love this area!





278 followed the valley for a bit, and I hit some rain at the southeast end of the valley.





After heading over a seven thousand something foot pass, I ended up on I15. I took I15 north a couple miles and stayed overnight in Dillon, MT.

[DHC6twinotter]

Post 21: Yellowstone, Part 1

After staying overnight in Dillon, Montana, I headed down I15 for a few miles before picking up a dirt road in Modina, Montana. Modina was a fairly big dot on my map, and, not knowing the condition of the 40 mile long dirt road I was about to take, my original plan was to fuel up in Modina. Before I left Dillon, I changed my mind at the last minute and decided to fuel up there. I'm so glad I did! Modina was practically a ghost town, with only 1 or 2 inhabited houses. This shouldn't even be a dot on the map!



So, after taking a couple pictures in Modina, I headed east on this dirt road. Looking at my map, this was the most direct route to Yellowstone. There were no paved roads for probably 50 miles in either direction. Not knowing the condition of the road, I texted my route to seanzorz so somebody knew where I was going to be. The road turned out to be pretty good, and pretty scenic.





After driving for nearly 40 miles on this dirt road, I came to a "T". I don't know who decided to put the "T" in the road, because, according to my map, it isn't supposed to be there. This is supposed to be a straight road. So, eeny meeny miney mo, and off to the right I go. After driving about 20 miles or so and passing a few dead cows along the road, I arrived to Hwy 20.

I hopped on Hwy 20 for a bit, and finally arrived in Yellowstone. Woohoo! I stayed overnight in a Yellowstone campground, and the next day I headed up to Mammoth.







I also took some terrible wildlife picture:





Yellowstone is a great park!

[1leglance]

your pics are really great and I like the commentary you add.
Of course the bits about missing your spoon were funny but the tomato bit & the tin lid were over the top...thanks for that.

Please keep posting your report, it just what I would like to be doing instead of working away

[DHC6twinotter]

Post 22: Beartooth Pass

Right now, I'm in Prescott, AZ. It was a dark when I arrived, but from what I've seen, Prescott is a really nice area. I'm still farther behind with my updates than I'd like, but hopefully I can get a bit more caught up over the next week.

Anyway, after staying in Yellowstone for a day, I headed out Yellowstone's northeast entrance and took a drive up the Beartooth Pass. My original plan was to spend a few hours on the pass, but the area was so fantastic that I ended up spending a day and a half in the area.

The landscape was amazing, and this is probably one of my favorite drives I've been on. The weeds were in bloom, and added some really nice color.





The Beartooth Pass is only open for about 5 months a year, but snow storms may occur during the summer. The road curves its way along the Montana/Wyoming boarder and climbs to nearly 11,000'. My favorite part of the road was this portion with switchbacks.



The view from the top of the pass is fantastic!







I camped overnight in the Island Lake Campground, which was about 10 miles west of the beartooth pass. This campground was really nice, and the vault toilets were spotless. The elevation here was about 9,000' and some of the campsites had a nice view of the lake:



The next day, I headed a bit further west and picked up the Chief Joseph Highway. I didn't know anything about this road, but I had several people recommend the drive, so I figured I would check it out. The first 10 miles or so were unimpressive, but after that, the views became impressive.





And I stopped at Beartooth Lake for some pictures.



Beartooth Pass is a fantastic drive, and it's one of my favorite roads. It's definitely a drive that any visitor to Yellowstone should take.

I'll post part 2 of Yellowstone in my next update.

[hrt4me]

my wife and I will be following in your path in a few weeks, so this gives us something to look forward to and help us in our planning...