Glacier National Park

Friday, Oct. 8, 2010
We're the only campers in this KOA campground in St. Mary, MT, near the main
gate for the Glacier National Park.  We went into the park, and drove the eastern half
of the "Going to the Sun Road".  This took us to Logan Pass, which is on the
Continental Divide.  Up there, it was really in the clouds.  The middle of the road,
from there to Avalanche Pass, is closed for construction.  Soon, the entire road will
be closed due to snow, and lots of it!  The views were spectacular!  These
mountains are magnificent, with streams and lakes and trees - oh my.  I took lots of
pictures, and have only put a few here on the blog - and, there's still probably too
many!  EVERYthing in St. Mary is closed, but some people recommended the
restaurant at Duck Lake.  The food was really good.  We met a lawyer and his wife
today, from the Bronx. They flew to Chicago, bought a really small, but new,
Winnebago, and have been camping.  They've never done anything like this in their
lives.  Their daughter thinks her parents are now trailer trash!  There was a group of
people up at Logan Pass from Alberta.  We're dressed in layers, and the wind is
really whipping around.  They're in shorts and sandals!  The one guy did put on a
windbreaker finally.  Amazing.
Tomorrow, we have to beat feet towards Seattle, because we have a condo
reserved for the 11th - about 650 miles away, through mountains, etc.!

view from our camper this morning

Glacier views

look how clear the water is!

what looks like a snow cap is actually the remains of a glacier

this is at Logan Pass - we're in a cloud, not rain!

where'd you say that road was??

note the orange marker for the edge of the road - don't go there!

happy, happy, happy!

Thursday, Oct 7, more Montana!

'Our' lake as the sun starts to rise

Big Sky in the morning

sunrise

sunrise

can't stop taking pictures of that sunrise!

last one, I promise!

stream down from the dam at our lake

ok, I lied - this is the last one! 

real life cowboy!

just moseying along....

get along little dogie

whoa!  wrong way!

a bit of a ham!

so close I could touch them

can't stop taking pictures of the cowboys!

beautiful view once we got free of the cattle drive-that's a bluff at the edge of the grass

little stream at the bottom of the valley

same stream - where's my wide view lens??

Another WOW day.  Go up as the sun was lighting up the sky, and took some amazing pictures of the lake and the sky.  Not a soul in sight, but one bull down by the stream.
We stopped in town for a huge breakfast, and we're now driving up Highway 89, through immense stands of lodge pole pines, with streams winding through the low parts, lined with some kind of lovely bush that is gold and red mixed.  Then suddenly, there would be grass-only plains areas with craggy mountains some distance away - what a contrast!  We're going through some mountains, so some up, then down.

Tonight, we'll camp in St. Mary's, Montana, at the east entrance to Glacier National Park.  We plan to spend 2-3 days camped there, using the car to navigate the mountain roads.

OK, I'm just going to say OH MY GOD!!  We came on a sign that a cattle drive is up ahead, then we saw real evidence that indicated LOTS of cattle came by recently...and, then we came upon an honest to goodness cattle drive.  There must have been 300 or more head of cattle, with real life cowboys and girls, on the road, in the ditch beside the road, in folks' front yards.  We just carefully made our way through the herd (took about 30 minutes), got lots of pictures.  Amazing experience - I've never seen anything like it and wouldn't have missed it for anything!

In the next town, Great Falls, we stopped for lunch, and to find a truck wash - you wouldn't believe the amount of cow poop you can accumulate on a truck, trailer, and car - eauuuu!  Even after the pressure wash, I can still smell a bit of eau di cattle....Back to the truck wash one more time, and we're clean!

We got our first look at the Rocky Mountains this afternoon - magnificent!  First mountains that are higher than the tree line.  Also, aspen trees lined the road.  We're camped up on a hill right outside of the Glacier National Park.

Wed, Oct. 6...Montana

sunset at our private lake!

at the memorial for the US soldiers who died with Custer

sculpture to honor the Indians who died in the Little Bighorn Battle

one more sunset picture....

Well, this campground (Crazy Woman's) we just left was not our finest hour.  It was more a working man's camping area - everything from a guy living in his tent to people in expensive rigs.  Lots of big trucks with construction equipment, all parked cheek by jowl. Oh well, you can't win them all!
Today, we see rolling middling-sized hills, dotted with scrubby cedar trees and sagebrush.  Dry grass covers all.  We can now see beautiful mist-covered mountains way off in the distance (Bighorn Mountains?).  Trees of any size are so rare, that we figure they are landmarks, as in "When you get to the tree, take the next right!". 
We notice that all the local trucks have cattle guards on the front.  Sheesh!  I hope we don't see any cattle up close!
Near Buffalo, Wy, there were some irrigated fields that were really green - wow!  And lots of trees around the town.  And then, POW!, a lake, pretty sizeable for this part of the country.  We got to see one of those irrigated fields up close, and what I thought were sheep or goats grazing turned out to be pronghorns - about 50 or 60 of them!
The mountains are much clearer now.  Some of the more distant mountains rise above the tree line.  The grass grows to a certain point with no trees, then only trees, then the trees stop and there's nothing but mountain.
Now, we see some mountains that look entirely black, and, at their base there hangs a bank of white fluffy clouds - I don't think there's a body of water there, so we can't figure out why the clouds are there.  But, it is lovely!
I've written the preceding paragraphs in under 2 hours - what's amazing is how the scenery changes so quickly.
We stopped off at the site of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, renamed from Custer's Last Stand.  I liked the presentation.  This National Monument honored the warriors on both sides.  "It was not a massacre, it was a battle between two armed forces."  Both sides were trapped in their time, in their traditions and culture, and both fought for what they believed to be right as they were taught.  Interesting, and somehow seems right to me.
We left the interstate at Billings, went through town, then up to these amazing cliffs overlooking the city.  Once past the cliffs, we were immediately back in farm/ranch country - what a change in just a brief couple of miles!  Now well within Montana, we are seeing these wonderful limestone or sandstone (not sure which) cliffs that just jut out of the plains area.  They're a lovely beige and rose color, and have pine trees growing at the top.  Really striking-looking.
This afternoon we drove through some amazing country, listening and singing along to some old country tunes.  One minute, it's "I'm so lonesome tonight" to "The Streak" - laughing until tears ran down my face!  For those of you much younger than I, try listening to that song, The Streak, by Ray Stevens, on the web.  Hysterical!
We were headed for a campground in White Sulphur Springs, but we came across a lovely lake right at sunset.  It's in National Forest, and there was a 'road' down to the lake with one other camper.  So, we decided to pull off, and enjoy the sky tonight - no lights, no city, no sound at all.  The camper has a generator, which we will use as needed. So, we took a blanket outside, bundled up against the breeze and maybe 50 degrees, and just laid there and looked at the stars for a while.  Magical - the Milky Way was so obvious!  We watched the stars move position from when we first started watching.  When we spoke, we whispered.  When a car would come down the road, it seemed like such an intrusion!  Our night vision was so good, that we went for a short walk.  Can't wait until tomorrow morning when I'll get pictures of the sunrise over the lake with the mountains in the background.  What a difference from our campground experience last night.  Dan said today that this whole trip has been a 'wow' - every turn, every day we have seen so many wow's!  I am truly blessed - we all are, by this wonderful, huge, beautiful, free country!  Goodnight, John Boy!

Bye South Dakota, hello Wyoming!

Tuesday, 10/5, we left Custer State Park, heading for Spearfish Canyon.
Yesterday evening, we stopped at an overlook - especially with the binoculars, we could see for miles and miles.  The first part was some ridges of mountains, green with evergreen trees.  The last ridge we could see was totally black - from that distance, we could see why the plains indians called this area the Black Hills.  The young pines' trunks are black.  Beyond that ridge of distant black hills was plains as far as you can see - amazing how the topography can change so drastically in so short a distance!
As we drive along today, we see craggy hills covered to the top with pines.  Occasionally, there is a stand of poplars, with their welcome bright yellow to accent the vista.  No wild animals yet today, although there was one sign that tickled us:  "Slow turtle crossing".  I've never seen a fast turtle...!
Huge (not by Michigan standards, but big nonetheless) Lake Pachola, formed by a large dam, is lovely.  Out in the lake stands an island that was, before they made the lake, a pretty sizeable craggy peak.  On top of the peak someone planted an American flag that proudly waves.  I LOVE these South Dakota rock climbers!
Spearfish Canyon was really beautiful - lovely Spearfish Creek ran beside the road. In winter, the bottom of the creek freezes first!  And, it flows from spouth to north.  We stopped in the town of Spearfish, at Spearfish Canyon Country Club - I played golf in one of the most beautiful places in this part of the country.  What fun!
We drove through Deadwood - a bit hokey, and all touristy.  They did have a lovely county courthouse - picture taken!  The town of Lead (pronounced leed, we hear) was a charming mountain town.  The area around here is very mountainous - reminds me of Colorado with smaller mountains.  These don't go above the tree line.  I was glad Dan was driving - one large truck's brakes were smoking like crazy as we went down the mountain into Deadwood.
We're driving through part of Wyoming - such different terrain, AGAIN!  Huge sky, gentle rolling hills, ranch country, with mountains in the distance.  We'll camp tonight in Gillette, at a place called....are you ready?  Crazy Woman Campground!!  What a hoot!
We're actually driving on Interstate through Wyoming - otherwise, the route we had planned wouldn't go to Wyoming at all!  Along this Interstate, they have some huge snow fencing.  In Michigan we use 1 inch vertical boards, wired together.  Here's they're at least 10 feet high, reinforced wood with steel!  And, we saw that this road is closed during the winter - can you imagine, an interstate highway closed?  The sign said "If flashing, exit at Sundance".  Sundance wouldn't be such a hardship if Robert Redford were home!  We decided not to stop at his house - after all, we didn't call to let him know we're coming...
These hills are truly beautiful - the shadows make for interesting patterns.  There are plenty of evergreens growing on the hills, but the hills are lower than we saw in South Dakota.  And the view goes on for miles.

Spearfish Creek - lovely

County courthouse in Deadwood, SD

In Spearfish Canyon

from 8th Tee - must go between trees, over grass...

way down in parking lot, can just see Dan's truck where he's working away while I play

9th Tee - way high - even I can hit a decent drive from up here.  Green is behind the sand trap

pretty long hole for me

my shadow as I take picture of 9th fairway

Tomorrow, Montana!