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

Canada- here we come ( take 1)

Well, there was not much of slowing down, we're in Canada. After 3 nights at Salisbury Beach we went on an unspectacular, but still nice 2 day trip through Vermont to Montreal, Canada. Montreal is rather -hmmm, how do I put this nicely? - uninspiring which wasn't helped by the cold an d drizzly weather and the fact that most of downtown seems to be torn up for building projects. It took us about 1 1/2 hours to realize that this is not for us, so after the second night we hit the road for Ottawa.

The contrast couldn't have been bigger! Ottawa is a beauty, it was a lovely sunny day, Ottawa is possibly the most bicycle accessible city we have seen, in short: perfect! We did our sightseeing in the morning and spent the afternoon on a 30 km round trip along the Rideau Canal and river. This was the end of the annual Tulip festival, meaning heaps of people out and about. It appears that the Canadians are quite a different bunch from the Americans. At least half the city must have been doing something outdoors. A great day!

But again, as Claudia and I are not the ones for museums, one day was enough to see most of the sights. The weather was cooling down as well and with the forecast for more rain we hit the road again for Toronto and Niagara Falls next.

As far as we have read about Toronto this city might not be what we are interested in. The main attraction apparently is shopping in underground malls, huh? When  we reach Toronto the weather is cold, it's tough too find a car park for Shorty, so what the heck, we bypass Toronto and move on to Niagara Falls straight away.
We have picked a 'quiet' - it is actually everything but quiet as this is Victoria Day weekend, a long weekend that starts the camping season for many campgrounds in this region - camp ground at Niagara Falls on the Lake, about 16 km from the Falls. As it rains all afternoon, we use the time for some washing and cleaning up.

Next morning the sun is up early and so are we. We are on our bikes by 8 o'clock and pedalling our way up a hill to the start of  a bicycle path that runs along the Niagara Falls Parkway through the Niagara gorge. Being that early has the advantage that despite this being one of the first really busy weekends we have most places we get to to ourselves. That's just the way we like it !

On our arrival at the falls an hour later they are hardly visible at all through all the mist they produce, so we indulge in a nice Coffee Latte in a very stylish paper cup from Starbucks :-). Half an hour later the sun has burnt away most of the mist and the falls present themselves in all their beauty. The falls are impressive, no doubt, the thundering noise is deafening, the spray a little too cool for my liking, but... again it's all too accessible or Disney-like, casinos and hotels a mere hundred meters from the falls, several cheap entertainment businesses as well . Claudia and I are more purist and think that one doesn't need to 'spruce up' an environment like this. Every Friday and Sunday they have hoge fireworks and the falls are illuminated in different colours.

Initially we had considered  doing a tour on the Maid of the Mist, the boat that takes you right into the middle of the Horseshoe Falls, the Canadian part of the falls. After seeing that the boat - even at that early hour - is crammed with tourists, all nicely packed in blue plastic raincoats, we again decide to skip this and just enjoy the views as they are from the rim of the gorge before returning to our old trustworthy Shorty around noon.

After 3 months

That's what we've done so far, around 8,800 miles or 14,100 km and still loving it!

Over the next weeks I will add pages with more specific tips for people wishing to undertake a similar trip

Washington and on to Boston

The last 2 weeks have been rather uneventful.
In Washington DC we had a nice campground close to downtown and university, so we went there by bus and underground on the second day. The night before we had been on a commercial bus-tour to all the sights, actually rather boring. At least we knew now what we wanted to see again at daylight!

National Mall, White House, Capitol, all that stuff is kind of interesting, but it actually feels a bit like a patriotic Disney World to me, maybe because Washington is not an old town that has grown over time but was planned as the capital city around 1790 or so.

 
You can spend an afternoon there but that's more than enough. The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History maybe famous from the movies but stands no chance to Te Papa in Wellington, NZ.

In the end, we got back early to the camp ground and went for a bike ride around the university area. Washington claims to be the tree capital of the world or so and they may be right here.

From Washington we went on to Gettysburg, the region steeped in history of the American Civil War, battlefields all over the place, patriotism again seeping out of everything you see. The town itself is still smallish, of course touristy but we start to encounter a new problem: more and more the camp grounds are still closed for season, the weather is also deteriorating, getting cold sometimes, rain also, hmmmmm.

Anyway, we bypass New York as we have been  in Manhattan for 3 nights last year and are not really keen to see more of it. Last year's visit was great but so far our second visit to places we had visited before never were able to compete with the first visit. The next stations of our trip are in West Connecticut and Massachusetts, in New  England. Roads through the countryside, woods and beautiful houses and villages mark our way for the next couple of days, one day we saw an Amish horse cart parked at Wal-Mart, funny world. We like that a lot, only problem is to find a place for the night. We would love to stay somewhere for a week or so, but cold and sometimes rainy weather make it difficult. We are driving far more than planned at the moment and are about 3 weeks ahead of the lose schedule we had made up before our trip.
Soooo, well, the beach is always an option, there are more campgrounds also, back East to Cape Cod!  Again our expectations are completely and utterly wrong. Cape Cod - being close to Martha's Vineyard , the island for the famous and rich - we expected to be covered in holiday resorts, high-risers, you name it.
We found a beautiful - although touristy - small town , however, named Provincetown at the end of a rather thinly settled peninsula. Nice campground there because rather empty - off-season !-  and a couple of relaxing days. Claudia had an amazing encounter with a dragon-tail turtle during a bike ride around the dunes!

More of those after passing through Boston on a cold and windy day. We didn't see too much inviting when driving our RV through downtown, there are no RV parks close to the city, so we went on to Salisbury Beach where we are at the moment. Huge state reserve here, but luckily only a few campers.

We definitely need to slow down if we do not want to reach Canada in the snow :-). Last night the forecast for Montreal ( probably a week of travelling from here) was for round 4 degrees Celsius and snow with rain.

Tallullah Falls to Washington DC

For the last 2 weeks we have been driving a lot. At Tallullah Falls we again had to decide whether to follow the coast to New York or go inland. In our trip planning we had some good help from the Road Trip USA website www.roadtripusa.com . Obviously the trip along the coast is through either developed resort towns or 'forgotten' small towns. The inland route this guy proposes is along the Blue Ridge Parkway that runs close to the Appalachian Trail - a hiking route of 2100 miles in total- and connects the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina to the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.

The drive is a total of around 300 miles along the ridge on narrow windy roads with views to the valleys on either side. Couple of smaller towns along the way a few miles from the parkway, nothing spectacular, but still lovely to visit. So far the weather is fine, some cooler mornings in the mountains.

Claudia and realize that for the next couple of weeks there won't be any really spectacular parks or places to visit, on the other hand we cannot rush through to Canada as we don't want to arrive there late in April or so.
Therefore after leaving Shenandoah National Park about 100 miles to Washington DC near  Fredericksburg we return to the coast i  hope of finding a quiet, nice place on the beach to stay for a week or two. The route leads us through Civil War country, battlefields all over the place ( it will be worse later North of Washington near Gettysburg).

When we finally arrive at Virginia Beach to stay at a State Park close to town, we learn that the park is booked out due to a wedding and the fact that half of it is flooded from recent rain falls, anyway. Doesn't matter, Claudia and I don't like the area too much anyway, another resort town with shopping malls, fast food , all the touristy stuff.
So we hop on the 20 mile long bridge-tunnel combination to Northampton where we hope to find another spot to stay. The state park we had in mind here is closed til spring 2010, so it should be open by mid April, right? Nope, wrong, still closed, maybe spring starts on June here :-( . Next is a private RV park on the beach, looks nice from the distance. On asking about a site they increase their advertised  price from $31 to somewhat around $ 49 for the night. So, Claudia and I happily tell them to stuff that site up theirs  and we keep going.
The first few miles after the bridge looked quite ok, quiet but well kept. Then the landscape changes totally. A lot of seemingly deserted houses appear on the roadside, abandoned workshops, mills and even smaller villages. The area looks totally run down and poor. Of course, there are no campgrounds at all, forcing us to keep driving til later in the afternoon until we find a state park to stay for the night.
Then again, on our way to Washington, it turns to wealthy resort towns again . This is exactly what the guy from Roadtrip USA mentions a couple of times. In the States you can find real poverty in direct neighbourhood of total wealth. Sometimes this is a little disturbing. Anyway, past Annapolis to our RV park close to the center of Washington DC.