Glacier National Park

Internet was quite difficult recently!  From Yellowstone NP we drove to Glacier NP which borders  to Waterton Glacier NP in Canada. The area around Glacier NP is only speckled with smaller townships or villages, one has to be lucky to get internet access at all.

However, Glacier NP makes more than up for this shortcoming. It is without doubt the most beautiful piece of land we have seen on our entire trip so far. The normal thing to do is to drive the Goint-to-the-sun Highway, a parkway built in the 1920's that apparently offers incredible scenic views. As usual, not so for us. The road is still closed due to snow at Logan Pass where snowdrifts are up to 50 feet ( some 15 meters) thick and are usually cleared around June 18. Not so this year! We had bad weather when we left Yellowstone NP for Glacier NP and that accumulated to mere snow at Logan Pass. We drove to Kalispell near the West entrance of the park to collect some forwarded mail and check on the road conditions. Result: there would be no open road for at least another week!

Our site at Two Medicine Lake

On our way to Glacier NP we had stayed the night at a small, lovely State Park at Big Arm where the host had shown us two campgrounds not to be missed on the East side of the park, Two Medicine Lake and Many Glaciers. So that's where we went. We couldn't have done any better!

At Two Medicine Lake we found a beautiful site on the lakeshore. The next day we went on a hike with a female ranger up into the mountains with superb vistas over the glacial valleys and the surrounding mountains. On the way we saw lots of squirrels and a herd of male bighorn sheep with their huge horns. On day three the weather turned to rain again so we made our way to Many Glaciers. After a day in the rain there we returned to St. Marys to do our washing and check our email at the campground. Next day it was back again to Many Glaciers.

The weather turned again over night to a beautiful morning which we used for another ranger-led wakl into the mountains, this time to a glacier lake, a trip of about 16 km's in total with an elevation gain of some 1700 feet ( ~500 to 550 meters). O ly a couple of minutes into the hike it happened: we saw our first moose. It just came out of some shrubs maybe 30 meters away , looked shortly at us and then moved on slowly, totally ignoring us.

You must know that I have been looking out for a moose for 19 years since my first business trips to Scandinavia and I have not seen a single one. Now, finally, here it was, brilliant. Not too long after Claudia spotted a blonde grizzly bear on the other side of the valley, maybe 300 meters away. Thanks to our latest purchase, a pair of binoculars, we had a good look at it before he/she disappeared into the greenery there.
The lake was beautiful as well when we reached it after three or so hours of walking through bush, over rocks and in the snow, so the whole day was a great success.

The advantage of those ranger guided tours is that not only do you hike in a group, which comes handy if the grizzly is not on the other side of the valley, but happens to cross your way. Another thing is the information the rangers give you about the environment, rock formations, plants, animals, whatever.

Next morning, the forecast was for rain coming up in the afternoon, so we decided to use the fine morning for our drive to Waterton NP and into Canada. Good decision, that! The drive on the small country roads into Waterton NP is beautiful in itself - well except for that part where it runs through an Indian reservation. Here houses are often run down and messy, rusty old cars everywhere. The landscape however was stunning with the blue sky, especially as we had missed out already on the Beartooth Highway into Yellowstone NP and on the Going-to-the-sun Highway.

Waterton GlacierNP, however, is quite the opposite of Glacier NP. Despite seeing more wildlife (elk, bears of all kinds, boghoorn sheep, mountain goats, you name it) we didn't like this park too much. It is completely and utterly commercialized, not for us!
So, after one night there we're on the road to Calgary and on to Banff and Jasper National Parks.

Yellowstone National Park

From the Bighorn Canyon we continued our trip to Yellowstone and stayed in Red Lodge at the entrance to the Beartooth Highway. At the ranger station at Bighorn Canyon we had learned that the Beartooth Pass would be open any day... except if the sign at the bottom of the pass said 'Closed'. OK....hmmm.
Red Lodge is another nice, but sleepy small town, not really much to do there. When we reached the infamous sign post it -of course- flashed in beautiful bright yellow letters 'Pass Closed'. Yay! There was no other option than to hope for the next day and find a place for night to stay.

As we wanted an early start for the next morning we went to a small public campground some 12 miles into the highway. Boy, were we lucky! This campground was one of the most beautiful spots we have parked Shorty for the night at on  the whole trip. Clear blue skies, some white-tailed deer to pay us a visit in the evening, a little bear scat right next to our site to increase the tension a little - it was just perfect.
Next morning - even better. Still blue skies when we left the campground, the pass open for traffic, yeehaa - here we come.

But - oops - when we approached higher altitudes clouds began creeping in and finally, pretty much at the start of the most beautiful stretch of this road we were sitting in the clouds, zilch visibility, rain later that wouldn't stop all day. What a bugger! You have to know that the Beartooth Highway is one of the most highly acclaimed drives in the States, plain beautiful, spectacular, almost 11,000 feet ( 3,350 m) high and all we see is mist, rain, well, some 3 meters of snow on the roadside on the higher part. This is soooo mean!
Even the bison we encounter later that day couldn't make up for it.

Anyway, we overnight at Mammoth Hot Springs at the Northern end of that big loop that leads through Yellowstone NP and the next morning, the sky was back to blue. Did I mention that this was mean?
We continued our trip along that loop through geothermal landscapes, the usual stuff like in Rotorua, New Zealand, just smaller and by far not so impressive. Lot's of impressive scenic outlooks, however, woods in the foreground and snowy mountains in the back, the odd lake in between, nice.

After traversing another pass it went up North again on the East side of the park. This the more mountainous part of the park, hence the more spectacular. Hundreds of bison along the way - a sight you do not have every day, no fence, nothing -  a glimpse of a grizzly bear with 3 or so cubs through the scope, this is not too bad. The highlight, however, is the Yellowstone Canyon, impressive waterfall and absolutely bizarre colours for a canyon.

Overall, I have to say that Yellowstone NP is a beautiful park, a huge variety of sights in rather short distance from another, and despite the individual attractions not being the most impressive we have seen, the combination of all of them does it! Well worth visiting, this park! 

... and on to Yellowstone National Park

On the last night at Niagara Falls we have decided to skip Detroit and Chicago on our way to Yellowstone NP despite the advice from a fellow camper that especially Chicago is a city well worth visiting. Detroit is rather the opposite, apparently. Anyway, we decide to drive North through Michigan along Lake Huron, then go West across more of Michigan into Wisconsin, possibly stay a couple of nights near the Apostle Islands near Superior on  Lake Superior before crossing Minnesota and North Dakota  on the way to Montana. The whole drive is a mere 3500 km's, so that could take a couple of days :-).

In the end, of course, things turned out a little different from our plans. After the first 200 km's through Canada we arrived at the border station to the US in Sarnia. We thought re-entry into the States would be easy as, but no, the officials didn't think so. The young lady from  border security was a little suspicious of our 9 month permit for the States. So we were called in , Shorty was searched for whatever and we were interviewed about our trip, our plans and so on. In the end it wasn't more than a nuisance but it still took more than an hour to enter the States again.
We stayed at a small state park close to Port Huron for the night as Shorty needed some maintenance work, oil change and a bit of grease here and there. You all know that I wouldn't trust anybody with such an important job, hence we stopped at the local Walmart for oil and parts and I did the job right there on the car park.

From Port Huron the drive went on small country roads to Bay City, nothing spectacular on the way, some woods initially to be increasingly replaced by farmland. This got worse closer to Mackinac Bridge in the North of the peninsula, a more or less boring ride.

 Hmm, I shouldn't have said that, because it got even worse! After crossing into North Michigan we went to a small state park near Tahquamenon Falls, apparently the second biggest waterfall after the Niagara East of the Missouri river or so, don't ask! Anyway, it was nice, not too bad, but we were asking us whether that was worth the extra miles. From here on to a The Lake in  the Clouds, another state park West of Tahquamenon. Again, not shabby, but the name is the best part of the lake.

Some  interesting people on the road....

However, I shouldn't have complained because the drive was pleasant, certainly not too boring, so what. There's always North Dakota to come!

So, next destination: Apostle Islands at Lake Superior. On the way there we learned that we actually can't visit the Islands as this is pure boating country. Without a boat there is not much to do except walk some shorter walks through the woods and along the beaches which are nice but definitely not that great. On top of that on our approach to Superior the temperature falls from around 26 degrees Celsius near Marquette earlier in the morning to around 8 degrees early afternoon. Not too inviting for a kayak tour on the lake!

We say goodbye to Wisconsin and continue into Minnesota. Again, a mixture of woods and farmland, nothing to report really. I had warned Claudia that this would probably be the most boring part of the trip and so it is. Don't get me wrong, the landscape is sometimes pleasant, sometimes not so much, small , rather boring towns, some seemingly deserted, nothing that I really remember on that stretch of land.

Totally different, however, is North Dakota! This is absolutely the most boring landscape we have seen so far, huge farms and nothing else. They actually have raised the speed limit on the highways to allow people to get through the state faster. That would be the only reason for the higher limit.

Ok, next state: Montana. Quite the opposite of North Dakota. Close the border even North Dakota spits out a little extra for the weary traveller: the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. It's here where TR shot his first buffalo in 18.. or so, a landscape that reminds us of Cappadocia in Turkey. The area is a kind of canyon like landscape with eroded hills with rock pillars and all, not bad. Bison ( buffaloes)  are roaming free here, interesting colours on the cliffs.

This type of landscape continues into Montana, at least at the start, there is some farmland later. One thing that cannot be missed is that Montana is cowboy country, we actually see two of them with a herd of cows along the highway to our station for the night in Miles City.

The city's highlight of the year apparently is a horse fair earlier in the May, otherwise the small town is .....interesting. Claudia and I go for an orientation walk after the long drive to discover - nothing really. There are one or two pubs or bars, a restaurant and everything seems dead at 6.30 in the evening.

There's actually a development we like really a lot: the further we get North the longer the days are getting. In OZ and in Thailand it got dark usually around 7 or so, now we experience long evenings where it gets dark at 10 or even later. Beautiful!

 Bighorn National Recreation Area

Ok, next day on to Billings for 2 new tires after one disintegrated and took its twin with him down the road. Claudia has found a small National Recreation Area with a canyon again, that's where we will stay for the next 3 nights to recover from the long hours of driving. We have to burn some time anyway as both Beartooth Highway into Yellowstone NP and the Going to the Sun Highway  through Glacier NP are closed due to snow.

They are doing some great skies here

Meikel, Elke told us that you are looking into houseboat designs at the moment. How about that one in the canyon ? I'll enlarge it for you