North Dakota bound

Saturday, June 21  Day 25

On the road again. Headed for North Dakota and Theodore Roosevelt National Park NP in Medora, Passed a pasture full of sheep.  The terrain had changed dramatically. Instead of rolling hills there are steep hills full of rocks. The town of Medora is on the Little Missouri River. I never knew such a river existed!!

Keith liked this campground because the owner helped guide us into our site!

Walking around the campground, we saw a flock of eagles (15) flying in wide circles just north of the campground. They were beautiful. Tomorrow we explore!

Traveling through Montana

Day 24  June 20

Our plans were to go back to Avalanche for pictures since it rained and was cloudy on our first trip there. However, clouds were still around so we packed up and left Glacier heading for White Sulphur Springs, MT. We arrived at Conestoga Campground late in the afternoon. Google Maps sent us to the wrong place first, but we finally found it. Weather was showers off and on all day. This was just a short overnight. The woman who worked in the office was from Michigan (Birmingham!!).

Just an extra here

We have had very limited wifi service and iffy phone coverage. I am not going to publish anymore about our trip until we get home. Plus, blogger is driving me crazy when I try to type information. I hate it.
More to come.....

Last full day in Glacier

Thursday, June 19 Day 23

Despite the clouds and drizzly weather, we headed around to the other side of the park (75 mile trip one way). Our first stop was Two Medicine, near the East entrance. We had a picnic lunch along the river.This is the view from our picnic table








 Then we took a short drive to this beautiful falls!

  

Continuing our drive we made a stop at a deli to buy a whole huckleberry pie (it was delicious!!) We drove through the town of Babb (Keith wanted me to include that tidbit in the blog...) We went to the Many Glaciers entrance where we climbed up to the Apakuni Falls. (and I do mean UP). It was a 1 mile hike with a climb of  700 ft. It was hard, but so worth it for this view of the falls.Plus there were such pretty wildflowers on the path!

 

We went to a ranger program at the campground. It was about the early years of Glacier NP. Great Northern Railroad promoted the Park as an alternative to a European cruise for wealthy people on the East coast. Many lodges were built in the Park and "dudes" arrived to experience thrilling trail rides. So, in the early years Glacier was a dude ranch for the wealthy!

Day 22 Wednesday, June 18

Many of the roads were closed due to snow, rock slides/avalanches or construction. We are unable to ride through the Park from the west entrance to the east entrance. So we drove as far as we could (14 miles in the rain) As we got closer to our destination the temperature dropped to 34 and the rain was mixed with snow.

 This was taken after the temp. went up a bit!  We were.in Avalanche of all places! The rain stopped and we were able to walk down to McDonald River and enjoy the falls and the bridge across the river.

We drove in the other direction towards Huckleberry Mountain but didn't see much. It was pretty deserted and we didn't want to hike the trails there (I was afraid we might run into a grizzly bear ) so we sent back to our campsite.

Day 21 Glacier National Park

June 17

We had a steady rain all day. We grabbed our umbrellas and went to the McDonald Lodge for lunch. This is one of the oldest lodges in the park and it just celebrated its 100 birthday on June 14. When you come to the lodge by car you are at the back of it. 100 years ago the guests all arrived by boat, so the front of the lodge faces the lake. It is very rustic and the interior hasn't changed much in 100 years, except for electric lights and WiFi!

These "buses" are all over the Park. They shuttle people to various places.
We survived a rainy day. No campfire tonight.

Day 20 traveling to Glacier National Park

Got off to an early start heading for Glacier National Park. It was raining. The storm system followed us all the way. It would stop for awhile and then catch up to us. It was not a driving rain, just an annoying one. The ride was beautiful through the mountains and along rivers. Part of it was along the Northwest Passage scenic byway. We traveled through the Nez Perce Indian Reservation and along the "wild and scenic" Locha River (at least that is what the sign said). We never knew how diverse and beautiful Idaho is. We thought it all looked like Boise...

Into Montana finally with rolling hills and mountains in the background. Lots of horses and cattle here. Just beyond Missoula we passed under and "animal bridge" made so the animals can go from one side of the road to the other safely (like some of the pedestrian bridges we have in Michigan!

An interesting sign we saw along the highway read "Be polite. Don't tailgate." Can you imagine that along I-75!!
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Arrived at our beautiful campsite in Glacier Park in the Fish Creek Campground. This sign greeted us as we got there.

We finally were able to have a campfire! (first one on this trip)

Day 19 Grangeville, Idaho

June 15 Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all Dads. It was my father who exposed me to camping (it was tent camping back then) and exposed me (and my brother) to the beauties of nature in this wonderful country of ours. Thanks Dad--miss you.

After church we set out to explore Grangeville, in the north central part of Idaho in the panhandle. There are 5 rivers here, plus fantastic mountains and prairies with amber waves of grain, and lots of narrow winding roads here. This is where the Nez Perce Indians lived long before the white men came and displaced them.
With just one day to spend here, we chose to drive along the south fork of the Clearwater River. We started at the top and worked our way down to the river.

Fishermen were along the shore of the river trying to snag some salmon. What a great way to spend Father's Day.

Stopped at a bridge that crossed the river.

There were some rain showers (of course) as we headed back up to the top of the canyon. This rock was sticking out right over the road.

Back in Grangeville, we spotted a well named restaurant. We miss our dogs!!

We had grilled steaks for dinner. It rained all night.

On the road again

June 14, day 18 Flag Day

Time to hit the road again. We left around 9:00--had to miss Elise's swim meet (she got 1 first place and 2 second places).We will miss these faces!

 Picked up the trailer and started following Google maps. We had to make 2 U turns because we were given wrong directions. We wanted to go to northern Idaho and next thing we knew we were told to go into Nevada!! Finally got the map to work correctly on Keith's phone and we were off. We did drive through a sliver of Oregon. The western part (going north) of Idaho is beautiful--ranches with lots of cattle (or stock as the road signs warned us to watch out for--like our deer signs in Michigan), mountains full of tall pine trees and then the canyons  that we went over and through along the Little Salmon River. Near
Hells Canyon we went through the town of Riggins. The rapidly moving river was full of fishermen--the salmon are "running".This was Idaho's version of congestion (the road was full of cars and campers and tents parked/pitched all along the roadside).

We arrived at Bear Den RV Park in Grangeville, Idaho around 3:00--Pacific Time. We have traveled through 4 time zones on this trip!! We are up high on a plateau with a great view of the sunset! Tomorrow we explore...

9 Days in Boise, Idaho

June 5-13


We have been in Boise for just over a week now. We put our camper in storage because Kelly and Craig are trying to sell their house as they get ready to move to Alaska. The timing of our visit here was not the best. We arrived the day after the last day of school for the grandkids. They wanted to be out playing with their friends, not entertaining grandparents. Craig was already in Anchorage so Kelly was holding down the fort. I remember when Keith left for St. Louis and I was still in Connecticut with 2 young children and a house for sale--not a pretty picture. On top of that Kelly is still working. The kids needed to get to VBS, swim team practice and other activities. It has been a hectic week for all of us. These are some of our highlights:
Friday night and half of Sat. was the subdivision garage sale. Kelly had lots of stuff she didn't want to take to Alaska. It was very busy and she did manage to get rid of most of the big stuff. Goodwill picked up what was left.
Since Kelly was working so much, we took the kids out to eat many times. We went to the Westside Drive-In

. It was an "eat outside" place that was perfect for them An interesting item on the menu was "ice cream potato" which we all enjoyed (the Woodmans eat LOTS of ice cream!). My picture didn't turn out, but it looks liked a baked potato. Guy Fieri from Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives did a piece on the place (they have his picture on display there.
Sunday, after church, we went to a BBQ and picnic in a park that was put on by the Tri Club that Kelly coordinates and coaches. Sat. was the Boise Ironman 70.3 (half triathalon) and many of the participants were there.
 On Monday we did many errands, the boys went to VBS, Elise to swim team practice and  Kelly to work.
Since Kelly was off on Wed. we wnt to lunch at the Sun Ray Diner and then to Goody's for ice cream.

 We go to Goody's for their homemade ice cream every time we are in Boise. It's a bit sad to realize that this is our las time to go there.

Friday was our last full day in Boise. Kelly went to work, the boys went to the last day of VBS and we took Elise out to breakfast at the Merc (Mercantile Cafe in their subdivision). The French toast was yummy!

Not to be left out, we took Kelly and the boys out to lunch at Eddie's Diner, another favorite of ours. It looks like a diner from the 50's and 60's (it's silver) and has old photos hanging on the walls. Plus, the food is really good there.

Day 9 On the road to Boise

Left the park via the West entrance. It took almost 80 minutes to get out of the park. Lots of traffic co and thenming into the park. During our time at Yellowstone we went though 4 of the entrances! Saw lots of animals on the way out.
Once out of the park we traveled through a small portion of Montana and then into eastern Idaho. This part of Idaho is pretty flat and boring. It was windy which made pulling the trailer difficult.
Arrived in Boise around 5:00. It was so good to see familiar smiling faces!
Our week here will be hectic. The house is for sale so we have to keep it spotless. Kelly is still working. There is a community Garage Sale Fri. night and Sat. The kids have VBS next week. Elise has swim team practice every morning..... I get tired just thinking about all they have to do!

Day 8 Last full day in YellowstoneI

June 4, Wednesday

Today is our last day at Yellowstone Park. We went to Indian Pond (near our campground) for a ranger led 2 hour hike and talk. When we got there we were told that a grizzly bear was on the trail and we were waiting for the bear patrol to come and advise us. They finally showed up, assessed the situation and told us not to go into the woods. So we started in the meadow. After about 20 minutes it started to HAIL, thunder, and then rain. We decided to leave (and so did everyone else.

It rained most of the day. We read, knit, packed up our stuff and then walked through the campground (its huge) during a lull in the rain showers.

Day 7 Yellowstone National Park

We got off to an early start as we set out to do more exploring of the Park. Our first stop was in the Hayden Valley where we viewed the rapids on the Yellowstone River (longest undamed river in the U.S.).In July this spot is full of trout swimming against the rapids to get to their spawning spots. You can see the fish jump about every 15 seconds!

Sulphur Caldron was next. The pH of the pool is nearly that of battery acid and the yellow color is caused by bacteria living in the pool.

Mud Volcano thermal area was just a short distance away. You could smell it from inside the truck! This is where we saw our first bison. They like to spend the winter here because the ground is always warm. We saw 4 bison up close! This one was rolling around on his back (like Dudley) to scratch!

 

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone is where we spent most of our day. It is spectacular and get up close to the falls! The canyon is 1,200 feet at its deepest point, 4,000 feet across and 24 miles long.The Upper Falls is the shorter of the two and is upstream from the Lower Falls. This is a distant view (across the canyon) of the Upper Falls.

We got right next to the spot where the water begins to go over the falls!

At the lower falls there us a path that leads to the bottom of the canyon. It is very steep with lots of switchbacks, but we made it! Climbing back up was the hard part, but it was well worth it.

The canyon walls from the bottom!

And from Inspiration Point!

We headed north and stopped at several overlooks. The scenery often changed and we saw lots of animals--bison, elk, moose, and geese. This bison was right next to a smelly geyser!

Tower Falls

We also took a side road to see the petrified tree. It started to rain and did so for the rest of the drive.  We went to the North entrance and briefly left the park so we could see the Roosevelt Arch. We were actually in Montana at this point and the rain stopped for a very short time.

Love the inscription--"furor the people."

It rained all the way back to our campground. The sun came out briefly, giving us enough time to walk to the store for coffee and ice cream. After dinner, it rained some more. We sure are glad we are not using a tent anymore!