June 4 to June 7

From Billings to Great Falls to Glacier NP to Canada - On Saturday, June 4 we took our time getting ready and out the door.  We relaxed, slowed down the pace, and checked out of the motel around 9-9:30 am.  We stopped for breakfast and were on the road about 10-10:30 am.  Later than usual.

We drove I-90 west to exit 340 near Livingston where we took US highway 89 north through deserted country.  Past White Sulphur Springs we crossed the King’s Hill Pass (7,393 feet) with snow on the side of the road and past the Show Down ski area.  We drove through an old mining town called Neihart and as the highway descended, the rapid flowing Belt Creek increased in speed and amount of snow runoff water.  We finally made it to Great Falls, Montana, and to the home of friends, Bill and Kay Quast.  

Bill took us into the town of Great Falls and we stopped to let Rita shop at the Big Sky Quilt Store while Bill and I walked around part of the historic area.  Next we drove to see the falls on the Missouri River called Great Falls.  The Missouri River has five cataracts close together and when Lewis and Clark reached this place on the river they had to portage or carry their boats a good distance in order to continue their trip west.  We walked over a swaying bridge that suggests only six people at a time as it collapsed a year ago into the river, to a small island in the Missouri River.  Scary when you see the river nearly over its banks and flowing rapidly towards Iowa, Missouri, and the Mississippi River.  From the island we had great views of the Great Falls with a tremendous amount of water cascading over it.  Finally we went to dinner, and had good conversation at their house until time to go to bed.

Sunday we woke early but had a leisurely brunch before attacking the day.  This far north the sky lights up around 5:30 am and dusk lasts until 10:00 pm before it really starts to get dark.  And this was another day of great weather with sunny skies and temperature up to 82 degrees.  We spent half the day at the interesting Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.  One could spend all day here or more – there are hundreds of signs to read and displays to look at as well as movies and talks throughout the day.  

From the Center we walked the short distance to the Giant Springs which releases millions of gallons of fresh spring water into the Missouri River daily.  We drove to a vantage point overlooking Rainbow Falls, another of the five cataracts.  After a drink we headed south of Great Falls to the village of Ulm where we toured the First People’s Buffalo Jump which has been documented as used by the Plains Indians from about 900 to 1500 AD.  We ended the day with dinner at a distinguished restaurant called Jaker’s.  Rita and I had our first rainbow trout of the trip.

Monday morning we said good-bye to Bill and Kay and headed north on US highway 89 through Choteau and Dupuyer to Browning, the capital of the Blackfoot Reservation.  We continued north to St. Mary where we entered the Glacier National Park.  Our luck with good weather finally ran out and the tops of the mountain peaks were obscured with low clouds.  We drove the Going-to-the-Sun road as far as it was open which was the Jackson Glacier Overlook.  We had faint views of the glacier but we weren’t too concerned because a) the glaciers in this park have been disappearing over the past century and will all be gone by 2020 and b) we have seen glaciers before elsewhere.  We did see two young elk and an osprey nest with a half-grown chick. 

We drove back to St. Mary where we stopped at the Park Café, a recommendation from Rachel.  We split a sandwich and then each had a slice of pie.  The Park Café specializes in pies and has about a dozen different ones to choose from.  Their slogan is “Pie for strength”.  Their other slogan is “Yay Pie”.  

We drove to Browning once more where we picked up highway 2 west which skirted the Glacier National Park.  This highway hugs the Middle Fork of the Flathead River which was flowing rapidly and nearly over its banks – like all the rivers we have seen in this part of the country.  We drove into the village of Kalispell to have a look around then headed back to the Glacier National Park entrance at West Glacier.  Again we took the Going-to-the-Sun road as far as permitted which was to the Avalanche Creek camp ground.  Finally we checked into the rustic Lake McDonald Lodge where we had reservations for the night.  This lodge was built in 1895, is on the National Historical Landmark list, and was welcoming with huge beams and timbers incorporated around a fireplace that was about 12 feet wide and over 6 feet high.  We loved the lodge even though our room was small – they all are.  We had an excellent meal at the lodge restaurant with a window table overlooking Lake McDonald.  We walked a bit after dinner and then sat in front of the roaring fire until time for bed.

I suspected we couldn’t continue on this trip forever without some inclement weather.  We woke to rainy skies that lingered around most of the day.  We departed West Glacier and headed north on US highway 93 through the pretty little town of Whitefish to the Canadian border where entrance was quick and easy.  They didn’t even ask us about our car insurance which we thought was serious business.  We took the highway east into Alberta crossing the Rocky Mountains once more.  We also had to stop for a small herd of Rocky Mountain sheep to cross the road in front of us.  We drove through coal mining villages on highway 3 and then headed north on highway 2 to Calgary.  We discovered that Calgary was hosting a large oil exposition and hotels were full up.  We did not have reservations.  But we got online and found a room at the last moment.  The motel was full by the time we drove into town and finally located it.  

After checking in we asked the Indian (sub-continent) at the front desk for recommendations for Indian food and he steered us to Namskar restaurant where we had an excellent dinner.    Getting around Calgary was confusing because they have numbered street s and numbered avenues and they intersect.  But we managed to find the restaurant and our way back.  

Our itinerary has changed a little bit from its original plan but we will still leave Vancouver on June 15 because we have ferry reservations.

June 3 - From North Dakota to Montana

From North Dakota to Montana – June 3, 2011

We woke to cooler weather with stiff winds but still plenty of sunshine.  We headed west on I-94 and stopped to do a quick look at Theodore Roosevelt National Park which is sometimes referred to as the Badlands of North Dakota.  We told Rachel and Deana good-bye as we were continuing on to Montana and they were spending the day in both North and South sections of this park.  They return to South Dakota tomorrow and Denver Wednesday to fly home to North Carolina.  It was good fun to be with them for a short part of our trip.

Rita and I continued west on I-94 which soon took us into Montana.  We battled a strong headwind and our gas mileage showed it.  We stopped for lunch in Miles City before continuing on I-94 west to exit 49 where we took Montana highway 47 south to I-90.  Soon we were at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument on the Crow Indian Reservation.  When I was growing up it was called Custer Battlefield but was changed in 1991.  This area had recent flooding problems when the Bighorn River overflowed its banks.  Our morning drive on I-94 followed the Yellowstone River which was nearly over its banks too.

We toured the battlefield on foot and by car.  We saw the hill where Custer and his troops made their last stand.  A white headstone was placed where each US trooper, civilian, or scout were killed.  A granite headstone was placed where Indian warriors had fallen.  There are a lot of white headstones scattered around and few granite ones.  We saw the one with Custer’s name on it.  His body was dug up and buried at West Point shortly after the battle.

The day ended when we drove to Billings, Montana, and checked into our hotel for the night.  Now for a short walk to dinner and, hopefully, a good night’s sleep.

The Badlands of South Dakota - June 2, 2011

From the Badlands of South Dakota – We rapidly exited Rapid City this morning and headed east on I-90 to the northeast entrance of the Badlands National Park.  We stopped at the visitor center to get orientated then headed along the scenic Badlands Loop Road stopping at most of the overlooks.  The strange formations, created by wind and rain erosion, reminded me of Cappadocia in Turkey.

We opted to take the gravel road past the Pinnacles entrance road and were rewarded with great wildlife viewing.  We saw a large herd of buffalo in the distance (about 100) and at the Roberts Prairie Dog Town, we saw hundreds of prairie dogs and three buffalo close by.  We saw lots of birds in the park including a group of 12 white pelicans, meadowlarks, red-winged blackbirds, lark buntings, cliff swifts and a burrowing owl.  That’s the ones we could identify.  We were fortunate in that the recent rains and snow melt has created a lush green prairie that looks like Ireland.

After we exited the park we stopped for lunch at the iconic Wall’s Drug Store, built in 1931 and today more of an amusement park than a drug store and restaurant.  The food was okay.

We backtracked west on I-90 past Rapid City and Sturgis, to Belle Fourche where we took US highway 85 north into North Dakota.  This was the first time Rita and I have been in North Dakota and we spent the night in the town of Dickinson.  Tomorrow Montana. 

Black Hills of South Dakota

From Rapid City, South Dakota – We woke refreshed after a good night’s sleep and had an enormous breakfast provided by the nice owner of our B&B stay.  Soon we were on our way (in a convoy of two cars again) and made our first stop in Aladdin, Wyoming, near the South Dakota border.  We stopped at an old general store that advertised it was over 110 years old.  It had character and several funny signs on the front that I had to photograph.  By the way, if you aren’t getting my photographs, let me know and I’ll include you on the distribution list.

We soon crossed the border into South Dakota – first time for Rita and me.  We filled up with gasoline in Belle Fourche and turned south to Spearfish and Deadwood, the same Deadwood of the HBO series.  It was a wild gold mining town in the old days where Calamity Jane lived and where Wild Bill Hickok was shot in the back as he played poker.  Today all the nice old buildings have been turned into casinos.  We walked through the town which took all of an hour.

We continued to the town of Lead, home of the famous Homestake Gold Mine, past Hill City and stopped at the Crazy Horse Memorial which will be huge some day when it is finished.  We had lunch here and viewed the rock carving of Chief Crazy Horse as well as the many Indian artifacts in the information center.  

Next we drove to Mount Rushmore National Monument to see the famous rock carvings of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt.  We took a ranger led walk which was fairly short in distance and time.  After a while here we drove north through Keystone to Rapid City where we stopped for the night.

After checking into our motel, we drove into downtown Rapid City to eat dinner.  What a pleasant surprise is Rapid City!  Many of the nice old buildings are still in use and nicely restored.  Rapid City has many more nice restaurants than we expected and if they are all as good as ours was Rapid City is a good find.  We ate at Tally’s Silver Spoon restaurant and had an excellent meal at gourmet standards.  After dinner we walked around town looking at the al fresco diners enjoying the nice evening.

We have been fortunate in our good weather - mostly clear, sunny skies with temperatures in the low 70s.  The coldest we have had was 31 degrees with frost the morning we woke in Laramie.  How long will our nice weather hold out?

From Devils Tower, Wyoming

Devils Tower National Monument – After breakfast I went into Laramie with John Nelson to pick up his delivery of 25 baby chicks at the post office.  I had a nice tour of the University of Wyoming campus and downtown Laramie before taking the chicks home.  We had fun picking them up and trying to identify them from the catalog photos.  Rita wanted to stay and play with the chicks but we had to get on the road.

We drove east to Cheyenne, the capital of Wyoming, and stopped at the Luxury Diner where we planned a rendezvous with Rachel and Deana.  They had arrived in Colorado last week and had spent several days in the Rocky Mountain National Park hiking the trails there.  After a nice lunch we drove through Cheyenne viewing the capital building and the Frontier Days arena before getting on I-25 north.  Rachel drove their car in the lead and we followed.

The scenery is nice but gets monotonous as it is all rolling prairie and no trees or much of anything but grass and cattle.  But the highway was nice, we could set the cruise control on 80 mph and I averaged 35 mpg on this leg of the trip.  Gasoline is cheap in Wyoming, too, because they have very little tax on it.  We passed through Chugwater and Wheatland and at Douglas we exited onto highway 59 through more rolling prairies with lots of antelopes.  We saw lots of trains pulling dozens of cars loaded with coal and we saw many coal mines as well.  We finally arrived in the town of Gillette which bills itself as the “energy center of the nation”.  I think Houston would argue with them on that.

In Gillette we headed east on I-90 to Moorcraft where we took highways 14 and 24 to Lytle Creek Inn Bed and Breakfast where we checked into our nice rooms.  We piled into Rachel’s rental car and drove to the Devils Tower National Monument, the first National Monument created under Teddy Roosevelt.  So Wyoming has the nation’s first national park, Yellowstone, and the first national monument.

Near the entrance to Devils Tower we stopped to watch and photograph the hundreds of prairie dogs that live in a large prairie dog town.  They made us laugh with their antics of standing guard on their hind legs and then chattering loudly as we got out of the car.  We continued on to the park visitor center and after a short while there we did the 1.3 mile hike around the base of the outcrop.  The sun was setting and we snapped up several photos from several angles.  It is an amazing sight rising over 800 feet straight up from the surrounding terrain.  

As it became darker we headed to the town of Hulett where we had a nice dinner at the Ponderosa Café.  I enjoyed my bison burger and Devils Tower lager.  But now it’s time for bed after a long day’s drive.