Great Alaska Adventure - 2013

Departed Greenwood Village today (Tuesday, May 28) after having 2 emergency visits by a plumber. Last night as we eased into our final tasks, with the thought of leaving quite early this morning, Murphy's Law kicked in big-time. The garbage disposer(s) threw a tantrum--clogged and stopped working. Then everything backed up....dirty water full of garbage began bubbling up through both drains, but even worse, that same awful stuff began pouring by the gallons out of the cabinet beneath the kitchen sink onto the cherrywood floor.  Yikes! 25 sodden towels later the flood had abated.

First visit by the plumber at 8 am seemed to fix the problem(s). But a few minutes after he left, Don was doing dishes and the whole scene repeated itself. Called plumber to request he return immediately. Long story short: Despite using a 50 foot snake 4 times, pipes far away in the basement remained clogged. We'll have to have things fixed properly when we get home.  Until then, I taped 6 warning signs everywhere around the sink & faucet: DO NOT USE!

So we finally launched our Rollin Home northward at 12:25 pm, 3 hours after we had planned to leave. YAHOO, we're embarked on The Great Alaska Adventure!! Feels soooo good to be on our way, finally.

We zipped up I-25 to Casper, Wyoming, and rolled into our campground at exactly 6 pm. Not bad. We just finished having cheese & crackers w a bit of caviar to celebrate...and wine, of course!...followed by a green salad with chunks of grilled chicken/maple sausage. 

We never had rain along the way today, but drove under intermittent black clouds several times. As we drove north of Cheyenne, Wyoming, i could see in the rear view mirror a splendid full rainbow, very broad and colorful. What a good omen for our 110-day trek.

The sun is out and the skies are clear. Breezes are lovely. We're alongside the river near Casper at River's Edge RV Park. Good place! Decent price, gorgeous showers, very clean. I'm going to get busy unpacking "stuff" that I still have in duffel bags, and stowing it away in cabinets. Don is disappointed he can't get the NBA Miami-Indiana playoff game on cable TV here. But we've settled in, taken walks, and it's mellowing-out time. Yawn.

Everything unpacked...and would you believe it?...we still have 1 totally empty cabinet over the driver's seat and 2 large empty bins in rear cabinets. Miracles DO happen! Don swore I was taking enough clothes and accessories for 8 months on the road. Who, me?  This Itasca Reyo has an enormous amount of storage space in it...I'm really impressed!  I love this Rollin Home...best vehicle we can imagine. Even all the "extra" food I brought packs away neatly in cabinets above and below. Amazing. And of course we always carry 4 gallon-size bottles of fresh water with us , just in case!

Night all! More news tomorrow from Dubois, Wyoming, on our way to the Tetons. (Pronounced due-boys, by the way...no Frenchie stuff up here in cowboy country.

Klondike Susie (aka Salty Adventurer)

Lovely drive from Casper to Dubois, WY for 2 nights in Dubois. At first I thought, How silly to have planned 2 nights in Dubois this early in the trip! But it was a good thing we had 2 days here...Life Lesson #1 on this trip: NEVER EVER have the heater plugged in when I turn on the teakettle to heat water for tea in the morning! All power throughout the vehicle went off. Ugh! Blew out the GFI for the entire vehicle. 

We thought it was a circuit breaker or a fuse...DH knew where the breakers were and the fuses, and he tested everything. Fuses were OK. Still no power anywhere. Winnebago guy said it oight be the GFI switch.  Oh, yeah! First we had to locate the GFI switch...a call to Winnebago headquarters helped us on that one. No RV repair places anywhere close, though. Ugh Ugh. No local electricians answered their phones. DH left messages. Then DH did his walkabout thing, talked to several RVers here at the CG, and then had a conversation with the maintenance fella here at the fabulous Longhorn Ranch RV Park in Dubois. AHA! Maintenance guy agreed to stop by our rig and see what he could do...he's a trained universal technician from Wisconsin who can troubleshoot like a master! Less than 2 hours later, everything is fixed and working fine! What luck, what a find, what a sweetheart!

A late lunch at The Cowboy Cafe in Dubois, and a quick look through the 2 art galleries in town, and we went back to Longhorn to hang out, take walks, read for the evening. Sun is out, but the winds are ferocious. Very blustery. Snow is predicted tonight in Jackson Hole and possibly here as well.  The winds are literally rocking the Rollin Home...maybe it's a good thing we have my oversized hips and butt as ballast, huh?

Longhorn Ranch Resort and RV Park reviews:  Fabulous place! This is the way ALL RV parks should be!  We have a back-in spot right on the Wind River...flowing fast and deep, in minor flood stage right now but not up over the banks anywhere yet. Gorgeous setting, with high palisades across the river to watch at sunset.  Lots of trees here in the park, shady settings for RVs, big spaces, probably the nicest shower-rooms I've ever seen in an RV park!  All for $35/night for the "premium" spot. Wow.  We'd come back here in a blink! 

Not much to do in Dubois, though, and we decided not to drive to Jackson Hole today...just another chi-chi ski town. Yawn.  And it's pretty cold to do much long hiking anywhere. Gave me time to finish organizing all my Alaska Adventure itinerary materials, and resume reading Michener's "Alaska", which I started about 2 months ago. Had to quit in order to read books for my book club...

We're ready to start unhooking in order to take off...it's 11:15 am....pretty typical for us, I must say. We must be on vacation!  Another post tonight after we're in Colter Bay Village RV Park, in Yellowstone NP.  Hope the weather warms up a bit. 

WE made the trip north last year. Left early May and returned in August. We also had problems. Seems that one of the grandchildren dropped something in the commode and never told us. We found out after we were on the road for a week. Then the dog broke my wife's arm in Yellowstone. I wish you luck on the journey. If you get to Homer, check out a campground about 2 miles away called Deep Creek. Watch the boats being launched and watch all the Eagles. Great place to camp.

SaltyAdventurer said:

Snow is predicted tonight in Jackson Hole and possibly here as well. 

Longhorn Ranch Resort and RV Park reviews:  Fabulous place! 

resume reading Michener's "Alaska", which I started about 2 months ago.

Hope the weather warms up a bit.

Click to expand...

Dean and i found a nice place to eat on a corner in Jackson Hole, which had a small in size salad bar, but it was filled with small quantities (4 cups?) of FRESH, bite-size of probably 20 different ingredients.  As you go north, you will find less and less good-quality, fresh ingredients, so you may want to have lunch in Jackson Hole.

Thanks for the info on Longhorn Ranch Resort.  I will add that to my files because i can see us going back to WY.

Amen, sister, warmth is a good thing.  However, when we were in Fairbanks in '09, we had 90? and forest fires, so just don't hope too fervently. 

See the note on my log re Calgary.

June 1, 2013?
It?s 5:50 pm and I?m utterly exhausted, but such a pleasant and exhilarating exhaustion it is. Don and I headed out for a walk at 10 am and ended up taking a trail that went along the shore of Jackson Lake and then inland quite a ways to Heron Pond. We returned to the Rollin Home by 3 pm, with a total of 4 miles under our belts For me, this was a true miracle. My first real hike in more than 6 months of healing my broken upper-femur following a skiing accident Dec. 21, and endless exercises and physical therapy.

Many times I?ve wondered (and worried!!) whether I?d ever be ?normal? again, and if I?d ever be able to walk distances and do the hiking I so love. I?ve had so much continuing pain around my knee joint, in the thigh area (quad muscle) and groin/pelvic area that I knew I?d torn all the tendons, ligaments and soft tissue really badly. All the predictions were good: It?ll heal, just give it time. Six months? A year? More? By the time I returned today from our hike, I was tired and achy, and now, at this hour, I?m quite stiff and lame. But I?ll do it again tomorrow, by gosh! Because today proved that I?m coming back to my old self! Yee hah!!!

The trail we took today was gorgeous, the first half with constant views of Jackson Lake?s little coves and bays, with Mt. Moran and the Grand Teton across the lake as a backdrop. The second half of the trail was through forests of old-growth trees, many of them well over 90 feet tall, pointing to the clear blue sky. A very few wildflowers were blooming?tiny yellow 5-petal things in sunny patches, and tiny white 3-petal elfins. Too early yet for any others to show their faces. In a few areas where warm meadows had turned lime green with lush grass, bunches of yellow daisy-like flowers were abloom, faces to the sun.

This is one of the first relatively warm days in the Tetons this year?the high was about 65. And, for once, very little wind. Lots of people were renting kayaks on the lake, and about a dozen powerboats were headed out onto the lake from the Colter Bay Marina.
A lady from Florida working on her boat at the marina dock said it costs $1,800 a season (June through September) for their boat?s dock space. The lake, 20-some miles long, is 400 feet deep at its deepest point, and has good anchorages for overnight stays. Her husband catches trout, which they fix for dinners.

We had intended to take that trail we walked to Swan Lake, and then loop around to return where we started, but several posted warnings about a mother elk (cow) and her calf on the trail encouraged us to inquire of oncoming hikers whether they?d seen the elk or not. Several had, and Mama Elk was been taunted enough yesterday by hikers to be agitated today?feeling very protective of her young, she aggressively attacked one young woman who played dodge-em? with the elk by hiding behind trees before she retreated to safety and backtracked. So we decided to go as far as Heron Lake, rest up a bit, and return the way we came.

We had a picnic lunch outside at our picnic table when we reached the Rollin Home?a few crackers, Havarti cheese chunks, a sliced tomato, homemade cucumber pickles I brought with us, liver pate, and large-grain mustard with Guiness. A sliced apple for dessert. Just right.

Then a 45-minute nap. Both of us down for the count. Felt good. When I awoke, I immediately plowed into Michener?s ?Alaska??feels good to be reading it as we head for Alaska. And most of the Alaska I?m reading about are in the northwest part of Alaska, which we won?t even see. Alaska is such a huge landmass, and we?re seeing only a tiny part of it.

Don just got back from a walkabout among the RV campers?he talks to absolutely everybody. He just met a guy from Florida, 62, sold his business 5 years ago, owned a dock and seawall-building company in the Tampa-Orlando area. Knew the brother of a longtime friend of ours. More small world experiences!

A beautiful day in every way! Weather is perfect. Surroundings are gorgeous. People are friendly. Campground is only about half full. And my body is cooperating, finally.

Have to go out for another walk, down to the Lake, before the sun sets. G?night all.

Sunday June 2, 2013 Post:

We were both dead tired last night, Don from having walked about 6 miles, me from having trundled 4 miles yesterday on our trail hikes. Slept like babies, except for the perspiration-inducing heat at about 1 am inside the Rollin Home.

I was tossing and turning, throwing off all the covers, waking intermittently but not enough to take action. Don, however, resolved the problem, getting up to turn down the dials on the small ceramic heater we use at night when it?s quite old outside. It?s incredibly efficient, and very quiet, so we use it instead of the RV?s noisy furnace, which heats all right, but also wakes us up each time it switches on. In any case, Don had set the ceramic heater?s thermostat much too low before coming to bed last night. Hence, the heater was running almost continuously while outdoor temperatures were still quite mild. Oh lordy, did it get broiling hot indoors.

After things finally cooled down a bit, we slept well, restoring achy bodies for our anticipated walks in Yellowstone today. We headed for Old Faithful fairly early, stopping along the way as we entered the broad section of the ancient volcanic caldera at West Thumb, to walk the half-mile boardwalk past the many bubbling pools, paint pots, and sulfur-blue ponds, down along the glittering Yellowstone Lake. At one spot, we watched as 9 ducks (3 different species) dove deep into the lake for food just offshore?a fertile spot for their efforts because bubbling hot water emerges at that spot from an underwater ?pipe.?

The weather today has been perfect ? sparkling and cool, with clear blue skies this morning turning cloudy this afternoon. Temperatures in the 50s and low 60s until midafternoon when they rose to near 70, then cooling off as the day ended with cloudiness.

After our long walk at West Thumb?s attractions, we stopped for a brief picnic further along the road to Old Faithful at Scaup Lake, on our way down from one of the high mountain passes. We decided to eat outdoors on the shore of the small, sparkling lake. Don jumped out to get the chairs and a table set up, while I made lunch. But within minutes, Don changed his mind about our plan?he quickly tossed the chairs back into the rear storage bay and folded up the table and pushed it inside. Bugs were everywhere?hatches were taking place, and various kinds of flies were smotheringly thick. Inside was better, with windows open for breezes! We dined on fresh coleslaw with pieces of sliced sugar snap peas in it, a sliced tomato, some pickles, bits of cheese, and a few chunks of grilled sausage. Just right.

On to Old Faithful, where I took a short walk and then went into the gorgeous timber structure, Old Faithful Inn, for a dish of ice cream, and to try to find a Weekend WSJ and The New York Times while Don walked the mile-long boardwalk around all the pools and geysers at that site, and climbed the 200 steps to the overlook as well. We planned to meet at a bench by Old Faithful for the 3:08 geyser show. I learned no newspapers were available?only the Bozeman paper and USA Today. Yuck. Don did the walk and climb in exactly an hour, returning to our meeting spot just before the big blow.

Faithful was off by about 10 minutes, but it was a good blast when it finally took place.

We ended our day just outside the little town of West Yellowstone, at a KOA campground that is lovely?.great views of mountains in all directions, and far enough off the highway to be quiet for sleeping. A nice 2-seater swing at every RV site. But lousy wifi and phone service. Verizon does itself and its customer an injustice by having such poor service up here?and of course, Don is quote nuts without knowing what?s going on worldwide. Being out of touch for 3 days without good tv / cable channels and Internet for Don is real torture!

The wifi and Verizon issues are enough to cause us to cut short our planned 3-day stay here to only 1 night. Tomorrow we?ll move on to somewhere?maybe Mammoth Hot Springs, maybe elsewhere. We?re improvising at this point, which is fun.

I am insisting that we north and east through Yellowstone from here to the northeast corner of Yellowstone Park and on to Cooke City, MT. We just have to drive the fabled Beartooth Hwy (Hwy 212) between Cooke City ad Red Lodge, MT, which Charles Kuralt called the most beautiful drive in the world, where the rocks are so ancient that it is the closest we will ever be to the beginnings of time. Don has grudgingly agreed to do this, but I?m going to have a devil of a time finding him any place with good phone reception and/or good wifi connections. We ARE in the boonies!

Hot showers are beckoning tonight. I?m planning to make us an omelet for breakfast tomorrow morning.

Monday June 3, 2013 Post:

We have winter conditions here in Cooke City, MT. Lows tonight expected to be in the mid-20s. And we are in a motel?not an RV park in sight for 100 miles with any hookups. And by gosh, we?re not going back to West Yellowstone for love or money!

We were driving merrily along the Beartooth Highway 212 toward Red Lodge, MT, this afternoon as the skies turned gray and ominous. Temp was dropping, but, hey, we were going over mountain passes at about 7800 feet so that was logical, right? The scenery was so splendid it took our breaths away. Tall, jagged, pointy peaks in the west, granite and gneiss cliffs in another. Sandstone palisades in the third, and pinyon pine-covered high mountains frosty with snow in the fourth. Amazing. I can see why Charles Kuralt years ago called this stretch of highway the most beautiful in North America.

We climbed and climbed toward the pass to get to Red Lodge, and as we rounded a curve ahead of us was the big snow removal equipment. And a closed gate blocking the road. Hey, two signs we saw earlier in the day said the road was OPEN all the way to Red Lodge. What?s the deal, guys?

Mr. Snowplow Driver had just closed the gate seconds earlier. Only one car was ahead of us, getting an explanation of why the road was closed. Big snowstorm coming in, and winds were building. Drifts were already building at the pass, too. No-go tonight! Too dangerous. Maybe tomorrow. Oh, rats!

So we lumbered back to Cooke City (or Silver Gate, a tiny place with about 10 buildings, where we?d had a great lunch at the Log Cabin Caf?). Staying in the RV without electricity in the predicted cold wasn?t an appealing option. We decided to seek out ?the best of the worst? places in Cooke City, population about 125, which has three saloons, a gas station, six restaurants including a ?bistro? of sorts, and eight motels and lodges?.most of them pretty 1940s and 50s-looking, and shabby. One has tiny vacation cabins. Ruled it out. Super 8 had seen better days. Alpine Lodge & Motel said it had ESPN and Wi-Fi. Aha! Best bet. Don can at least watch the NBA playoff game on TNT between the Pacers and the Heat. He?s happy!

Actually, Don has not been a happy camper today. He threw out his back somehow this morning as we were getting ready to leave West Yellowstone KOA. Not good. He can hardly move. I drove all day?fine with me! I had a blast! 

A few more comments about our day: Neither of us had ever been in the northeast quadrant of Yellowstone NP. It is definitely ?the roads least traveled.? We passed a lot more geyser and bubbling pool areas on the way to well-developed and mighty busy Canyon Village. Then we turned north to Tower-Roosevelt, where we turned right and headed east, to exit from the northeast corner of Yellowstone. The roads are older, narrower and less improved on these routes. But the scenery is far more beautiful. It reminded us of when we were here in the early 1970s?Don said it even reminded him of when he visited Yellowstone with his family in the 1950s.
We saw several elk along the way, and some cars were stopped to watch some deer on a hillside. But as we moved along the Lamar River into the Lamar Valley, our experience turned magical. A huge herd of bison lead by a big bull was ambling down the middle of the road towards us. A very long line of vehicles was backed up, coming from the opposite direction. We were about fifth in line going in our direction. The bison were clearly heading for the lush fertile meadows we had just passed.

There were probably 50 to 75 cows, with at least 30 or 40 frisky, ginger-colored calves, come of them very young, maybe just days or a week old. They wandered at will between cars and RVs, going in whatever direction their moods moved them to follow, as if we tourists weren?t there at all. We watched as a cow licked her young calf with her huge tongue, and he licked her back. The bedraggled winter fur on the bison, some of it hanging off in long tangled shreds as spring moves in, reminded us of the dirty, matted dreadlocks we see on so many youngish street people in urban areas of the nation.

We had been given a wonderful gift?a great opportunity to watch bison doing what bison ordinarily do. After about a half hour, they had passed and we moved on.

What came next took all the remaining traffic off the road. We entered the luscious, fertile, lime green Lamar Valley, an enormous meadow rich with flowing water and grass. Hundreds of bison ? perhaps as many as a thousand -- were scattered across the landscape. Sun shone in patches. Some bison were laying on the ground, being lazy. Others were walking toward some unknown destination. Fuzzy calves were frisking and jumping the way young ?uns do when they?re loaded with energy. This must be the kind of scene Native Americans saw hundreds of years ago when they hunted bison in the summer, when valleys like this were filled with tens of thousands of bison. It was spectacular!

Every pullout was filled with cars and RVs. So we didn?t stop. But we passed a narrow point in the road and entered the next section of the Lamar Valley, defined by the Lamar River and crisscrossed by fast-flowing creeks. There, the bison were even more plentiful! And the pullouts were empty. We moved slowly toward a viewpoint.

Suddenly, Don and I both saw action to our left, uphill on the mountainside. Two huge bison were running full speed down the steep hill just ahead of us, clearly having no intention of stopping at the road for any traffic. We stopped to watch, all by ourselves witnessing this show. We saw it was two full-grown bulls with enormous heads and big horns. They bounded across the road at full speed, and continued on down into the valley floor. About 30 yards from the road, they suddenly stopped and faced each other, heads lowered, snorting, as if they were about to charge each other and fight. Then one bull shook his head violently side to side about eight times as if clearing his senses after such a fun run. They started quietly eating grass alongside each other, calm as can be. They were just playing a game!

Along the entire drive from then until we exited Yellowstone we saw hundreds of bison in every meadow and valley.
So here we are, watching basketball and figuring out where we?ll go tomorrow because of our unexpected detour. I don't think we?ll try to get to Red Lodge after the snows. It seems smarter to go back west a bit toward Mammoth Hot Springs, and out the northern gate of Yellowstone, headed for Glacier NP next. I?ll have to make a few phone calls to cancel reservations and make some new ones because of the change in plans, IF I can ever get some phone reception anywhere in these parts. We?ll see.

What an interesting read!  I wish I could send you some sunshine and good luck.  You're great problem-solvers.

X2!  You're a good writer with very descriptive words.  Thanks for the info on the bugs at Scaup Lake.  We'll be there in a couple of days and will avoid having lunch there!

By the way, Grizzly RV Park in West Yellowstone has Verizon which I'm using right now with an excellent signal.  As with all communications, just going over a hill can kill a signal and we've found that KOAs and similar campgrounds often are just enough off the beaten track that there's no signal.  We stay at one in Pennsylvania where we drive about a half mile to make phone calls.  They're just in a "dead" area.  Does you poor hubby know he'll lose his satellite TV on the way to Alaska?  On our return the first place we got it again was at Soldier Summit on the Alcan, but that was only because of the higher elevation there.  Lost it again and finally got it closer to the U.S.

ArdraF

Tuesday June 4, 2013

Backtracking through Yellowstone NP?s northern sector this morning was lovely, but we definitely won the lottery yesterday when we saw all the bison herds in action. This morning, huge bison herds were far off in the hills, mostly lying down in the grass, sleeping off their hangovers, I guess. We saw a few distant elk herds too, but almost nothing up close and personal like yesterday?s adventure.

Waiting for the Beartooth Highway 212 to open all the way to Red Lodge after heavy snowfall in the pass last night would have cost us half a day, and would have put us to the east of where we wanted to go today, so we eschewed that trip for now. We?ll just have to come back later in the summer sometime to take the entire drive along 212, over the pass, when snowstorms are no longer a threat.

Don?s back is a LOT better today?he?s using his walking pole so he doesn?t twist and strain it again. But things are looking up. He and I both drove today, through spectacular country, through gorges and valleys with huge mountain ranges on either side of us, sometimes close, sometimes distant.

We traversed the north end of Yellowstone to Mammoth Hot Springs, where we were finally able to get good phone connections. I made a bunch of calls, changing RV park reservations. Now we?re all set until after we visit Glacier NP and head north into Canada.

From Mammoth, we headed north to Gardiner, MT, and Livingston, following the Yellowstone River for a good part of the day. The weather was cold, with lots of low-scudding heavy clouds, but sun came through for part of the day. Temps stayed in the high 40s and low 50s all day?the whitewater rafters we saw on the Yellowstone River were hardy souls! They must have been freezing their butts off!

The views in Montana are as gorgeous as those in Wyoming?literally and proverbially. We were in deep gorges and on high passes many times today as we headed for Boseman and Butte. The fertile valleys heading west along I-90, interspersed with rolling ranchlands, were a feast for the eyes. Green, lush, limey in color, spotted with bright yellow flowers in many places.

We had a picnic while parked along the Yellowstone River as we changed drivers, snacking on sliced ham, bits of Tillamook cheese, and juicy, cold sliced apples that were very crispy and crunchy. Perfect lunch!

By midafternoon, we arrived in the little town of Anaconda, west of Butte, and pulled into our pot at the Fairmont RV Park. Nice place! Almost nobody here, but this is a big park in big, wide open spaces. Ranchland. Cattle strolling the field alongside our site for the night. Very clean bathrooms and huge showers?we definitely will take good hot showers in the morning while here. But, of course, the usual irritations and frustrations  with the Wi-Fi that every park promises to be wonderful but NEVER is! Signal is weak, and we keep getting kicked off our Internet connection about every 3 minutes. Don?s My-Fi is working a little bit better, but it too is fluky. Dang.

We took a nice long walk tonight around the park, as the sun was going down. Of course, by day?s end, the skies had cleared and the sunset was beautiful. Natch. Isn?t that always the way?!

Tomorrow we go to Polson, MT, at the southern tip of Flathead Lake, for the night. Then to Glacier NP for 3 days, where I hope to be able to do more long walks/hikes to get my leg & hip into better shape for Alaska.

Wednesday June 5, 2013

Wow, Internet access!!! What more can I ask for? We stopped for lunch at Famous Dave's in Missoula and they have a great wi-fi connection...not busy, so no one minds if we sit here and doodle the afternoon away on our computers.

We had a couple of little shopping errands so we took Hwy 93 south to go to Target, Walmart and a camping warehouse...found the O-rings for the hose hookups at Walmart. Man those spraying leaks drive us nuts when we hook up.  Got a small folding stool for Don to use while his back is bad, when he needs to "get down reeeeeal low" when hooking/unhooking and putting hoses & electrical cords away....the only thing that is illogical about RV design is that you practically have to get your ears on the ground to do backwater/graywater handles, sewer connections, etc. Dumb, and dumber....every mfr HAS to know that it's us grayhairs who have the big bucks to buy these things and live our dreams by traveling in them. And our bodies don't particularly like bending so low to handle all the "stuff".

Funny, though, we never did find the kind of re-usable camping water bottle with spigot that we wanted....a few years ago we bought a heavyweight plastic gallon-jug that was a large FLAT rectangle....had a huge opening for filling it, spigot worked wonderfully, and it was perfect for boondocking and carrying freshwater for drinking/washing etc. Nobody makes them anymore. Ours sprung a leak the other day and had to be discarded. I was sure we'd find another, and I would have bought 3 of them....3 would actually fit nicely under our kitchen sink in the Reyo.

The scenery this morning was terrific as we caught I-90 and headed northwest to Missoula from Anaconda. Sweeps the cobwebs away. On to Polson tonight. 

We can't say enough GOOD THINGS about FAIRMONT RV PARK in Anaconda...absolutely heaven on earth for RVers. Huge showers with fabulous showerheads. Impeccably clean. And a great value for us at $38 with the Good Sam discount. A terrific park in a great location...perfectly quiet and rural.

ArdraF said:

X2!  You're a good writer with very descriptive words.  Thanks for the info on the bugs at Scaup Lake.  We'll be there in a couple of days and will avoid having lunch there!

By the way, Grizzly RV Park in West Yellowstone has Verizon which I'm using right now with an excellent signal.  As with all communications, just going over a hill can kill a signal and we've found that KOAs and similar campgrounds often are just enough off the beaten track that there's no signal.  We stay at one in Pennsylvania where we drive about a half mile to make phone calls.  They're just in a "dead" area.  Does you poor hubby know he'll lose his satellite TV on the way to Alaska?  On our return the first place we got it again was at Soldier Summit on the Alcan, but that was only because of the higher elevation there.  Lost it again and finally got it closer to the U.S.

ArdraF

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Hi, Ardra,

Sorry we missed you and Jerry. We're sitting at Famous Dave's in Missoula using their free wi-fi. Works great, and the food's good too. Chili for me, pulled pork for Susan. We're going to Polson after we finish posting and surfing the Internet.

Wednesday June 5, cont'd

The KOA in Polson, which is attached to the Polson Motorcoach & RV Resort, is at the southern tip of Flathead Lake, a magnificent body of water 30+ miles long and 10+ miles wide in places, surrounded 360 by fabulous mountains. Polson itself is said by many people to be "nothing" but we thought it was a great little town. Quite the resort!

The KOA is certainly one of the fanciest RV parks we've stayed in anywhere in the US...the bathrooms are accented by granite countertops. And the price is very reasonable...$34 with our KOA discount. We were sorely tempted to cut our Glacier time a bit short and stay another day at Polson, believe me.

When we pulled in, the day was sunny and the tempo at 75 degrees...our first real taste of summer camping. We cooked out on our grill, ate at the picnic table, and sat outdoors reading until nightfall. A lovely evening. Slept with the windows open, for once. How quickly we've gone winter and snowy with freezing temps to warm summer nights! 

Before hitting the sack we decided to stick with our plan after all, and go on to Coram, just west of the Glacier west entrance. It's been many years since we've visited Glacier, and we'd like to see the park and do some hiking. So on we go tomorrow, up the east side of Flathead Lake towards another national park, prepared to oooh and aaah our way north, again.

Did you happen to go by the National Bison Range right down there near Polson, a very worthwhile visit. Glacier is one of my favorite spots and I manage to spend time there every year on my way South in the Fall and on my way North in the spring.

You have time in the morning to back track a few miles down to the Bison Range and do a drive through of at least the lower road....tons of up close and personal antelope and Bison....also have seen fox there and coyotes!! Lots of birds also...all from your car they don't want you out walking around.

Worth the back track from Polson it would only be 31 miles to the gate....

Enjoy,

Jim

Thursday June 6, 2013

Night is falling, and we're parked in the North American RV Park in Coram, MT, a few miles outside Glacier NP. I'm learning that we're WAY early to have worried at all about making any reservations...here at N. American, we're one of 6 RVs in the entire place, and it's good sized. We're parked in the back corner of the park, as far as possible from the road, which I asked for when I emailed them a while back. No problem, mon!

Again, the weather has been so nice today....warm, sunny, conducive to cooking out on the grill again. In Polson, we stopped at the locally-owned Super Foods and found wonderfully fresh, wild caught Copper River salmon for dinner. Yum!
Along the way as we drove the scenic route up the east side of Flathead Lake toward Kalispell, we stopped at the little resort town of Bigfork, which is quite the artists' colony. A friend had recommended it to us. Very good art galleries, and a great local artists co-op. A nice find! And a good way to stretch the legs for an hour or two. Looked as if Bigfork had some good restaurants, too, but we had bought fresh sweet cherries in Polson, and we snacked on those and turkey jerky for lunch.

it's been a restful day. Despite the heat, we benefitted from beautiful breezes after pulling in here. Watched the first game of the NBA finals and now we're ready to sleep. The mosquitoes have suddenly appeared from nowhere...we haven't had any bugs so far on this trip, until tonight. Skeeters are thick here! And the evening air is cool but not cold. No heaters needed, just our warm comforter. And we can hear the trains passing by in the distance, so I jsut have to leave a window open for air and the sound of the train.

Tomorrow, we drive into Glacier and hike a few nice easy trails, up near Lake McDonald, then at Trail of the Cedars, and finally north of Apgar Village.

Dear Jim/Wigpro...
You are making me feel really bad right now! We wanted to stop at the Natl Bison Range, and had intended to, but it was getting late as we were heading for Polson, and we both know we get tired and cranky after too long a day. So we skipped on by the Bison Range and went on to Polson. And now we're in Coram, going to Glacier. Darn!  It wish it were as easy a backtrack as you say.  Our only consolation is that we have seen lots of antelope on this trip so far, and we've spent much time up close and personal with bunches of bison, thank goodness! 

Next time we'll do it for sure. We love Montana so much, I just know we'll come back here.  Have you ever been to a place called Smash-Your-Face Buffalo Jump (or something like that)? We spotted it on the map today, and thought it would be quite interesting...maybe it explains why bison have such flat faces! Just joking...
Thanks for the suggestion that the Bison Range is a great place to visit, though...now I have another thing to add to my bucket list...which I thought would get shorter,s but instead is growing longer!

We stopped at the Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump in Alberta and really enjoyed it.  Very nice museum in an interestingly-constructed building that is on several levels on a hillside.  It's actually a UNESCO World Heritage Site so worth a visit.

ArdraF

SaltyAdventurer said:

Dear Jim/Wigpro...
You are making me feel really bad right now! We wanted to stop at the Natl Bison Range, and had intended to, but it was getting late as we were heading for Polson, and we both know we get tired and cranky after too long a day. So we skipped on by the Bison Range and went on to Polson. And now we're in Coram, going to Glacier. Darn!  It wish it were as easy a backtrack as you say.  Our only consolation is that we have seen lots of antelope on this trip so far, and we've spent much time up close and personal with bunches of bison, thank goodness! 

Next time we'll do it for sure. We love Montana so much, I just know we'll come back here.  Have you ever been to a place called Smash-Your-Face Buffalo Jump (or something like that)? We spotted it on the map today, and thought it would be quite interesting...maybe it explains why bison have such flat faces! Just joking...
Thanks for the suggestion that the Bison Range is a great place to visit, though...now I have another thing to add to my bucket list...which I thought would get shorter,s but instead is growing longer!

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Thanks sorry I got to you a little late on the Bison Range, hit it on your way South...it is a beautiful place and worth the visit. My summer plans have somewhat fallen apart due to weather the job I had in Alaska has ended....ice too late and then warm too soon caused flooding, so I am leaving Denali area and heading to Haines for some work there....I am excited about the change after a month in Haines I just may head back down to Montana and spend the remainder of my summer there....

Have a great trip and I will look up the smashed buffalo thingy...might be a good stop going South.

Will be following along, if you get to Haines look me up.

Jim

Wigpro said:

Thanks sorry I got to you a little late on the Bison Range, hit it on your way South...it is a beautiful place and worth the visit.

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I would second Jim's view on Bison Range.  We had lots of fun there.  Also, don't miss the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody, in the top 5 of the museums we've visited in the 6 years we've been traveling half-time.  It is amazing!

Saturday June 8, 2013

Such a wonderful Saturday morning! We're sitting around relaxing, enjoying spectacular weather, perfect breezes, and watching the prairie dogs doing their work ( and running around like busy little guys!) in the wooded areas alongside our Rollin Home. We're at North American RV Park in Coram, MT, just outside Glacier NP.

We went into Glacier yesterday toward the Fish Creek CG, since we had been directed to a trailhead near there by a natl park employee who gave us a trail map at the Fish Creek Visitor Center. Took the gravel road just before the CG uphill to a parking lot, backed into a nice space alongside some horse trailers, and went for our hike on the Lake McDonald trail, up and down and around til we got to the lakeshore. Gorgeous trail, very easy, flowers in bloom everywhere. Perfect! And not too many bugs, tho we had put our Repel on beforehand. When we got to the lakeshore, the winds had come up and there were small whitecaps on Lake McDonald. Weather was still warm and nice, though. Going back, we took the cutoff toward the campground in order to stay along the lake for a while more, then walked the CG roads back to our vehicle. Because the campgrounds aren't even open yet, it was quiet, deserted, and very nice. Along the way, we met only 2 other hikers, and a couple of ladies on horseback. Two perfect miles of hiking!

Then we drove higher in Glacier past Apgar Villg up toward Polebridge, though we knew we wouldn't go that far in our vehicle. There's still a lot of fire damage from the vast fires of 2003, although the new growth of conifers is lush and thick and velvety nearly everywhere. We were ready for a picnic, and stopped at the junction where the road to Polebridge turns to gravel for our lunch of apples, cheese, homemade pumpkin bread (gluten-free!), and buffalo jerky. As sleepiness began setting in, we drove back to our campground, stopping along the way at the KOA just to take a gander and see if it is nicer than North American...

Our decision: Probably six of one and a half-dozen of the other. KOA is farther back from the main hwy to Glacier (3.4 mil into the woods) and looks a lot newer and fancier. But the sites have no trees at all, and no shaded areas. There is a pool, however, which would be great for families. Makes no difference to us. And the bathrooms/ showers at North American are to die for...no fancy, but impeccably clean and the BIGGEST a shower stalls I've ever seen. Because there's almost nobody here, I had a private bathroom for my shower...very nice! The laundry room here is small but very nice, with brand new commercial washers, vending machine for soaps etc, and a change machine that takes $1s and $5s. I will do laundry later today so we have clean clothes & towels until we get into Alaska. We've been forewarned about the campgrounds and laundry facilities on the way through Canada.

Last night the winds were blasting and we had three tiny spurts of rain. Wish it had rained longer to wash all the dust off the Rollin Home...it's looking a bit frowzy right now. No such luck. Then the skies cleared and it was a beautiful evening...of course, we had done our grilling of lamb chops in the howling winds WITH the spurts of rain, before everything cleared. Oh well. We had a nice dinner anyway. We're working hard to finish off our store of wine before we hit Canada, since we're limited in what we can take in...hard work, but somebody has to do it.

Just a note for the future since I'll surely forget...I added a whole bunch of fresh basil along with sliced sugar-snap-peas to the coleslaw last night to finish off the peas and basil before they went bad. Best coleslaw we ever ate! Have to do this in the future! Our new propane grill, bought after much research on which grills work best for RVers, is just super...it cooks HOT, which means I can time things properly, heats up quickly, cools off quickly, and packs up in its own bag efficiently. It's an Iroda O-Grill 1000....costs a pretty penny, but well worth it and 100% better than the cheapie, flimsy camping propane grill we had before. Threw that darn thing away it was so terrible. Used tons of propane, cooked cold so it took ages to get food cooked nicely, and it was impossible to time anything right. This one's a gem!

We are planning to take 2 shorter hikes this afternoon in Glacier, along the Going-To-The-Sun Road at Avalanche Creek. Trail of the Cedars is nice, and it connects to the Avalanche Lake trail...we'll see how much our bodies will take, but I'd like to do about 4 miles round trip. Sun Road isn't open to our length vehicle...21 feet is max...and it's not open yet, anyway for summer traffic all the way through. Tomorrow, we'll take the southern road around the end of Glacier to Browning, fill up with fuel, then go to the KOA in St. Mary for one night before heading into Canada.

While there, we're planning to take the road to Many Glacier, by far the most scenic of all the roads in the park, and there are a couple of nice trails up near Many Glacier Hotel that we want to take.  Enough for now...we're off on another adventure! See ya!