Banff National Park

We are currently enjoying the beauty of Banff National Park and the other parks in this area--Yoho and Glacier. The scenery is spectacular with high, snow-capped, rocky peaks, raging rivers, and glacial lakes. We have done several hikes in the area to view the lakes of Lake Louise and Morraine Lake as well as some forested trails in Glacier (Canada) Nat'l Park. The snow levels are too low to allow much hiking above the tree line.

I also did a bike ride along the scenic Bow River Parkway. It ended up being an exciting ride as I encountered both a grizzly bear and a black bear along the side of the road. The grizzly was HUGE and less than 10 feet from me when I finally paid attention and noticed him! He was quite curious about me and raised up a bit (not quite to a full stand) to get a better view and sniff. The black bear, thank goodness, was a bit further off the road, but both encounters made me quite nervous and upon the next stop in Banff, I bought some bear spray (hopefully never to use it!).
Alan and I plan to do a river rafting trip on the Kicking Horse River on Thursday. With the incredible amounts of snowfall runoff and rains this year, the rivers are quite exciting and the lower portion is still closed. The normally Class 3 rapids are in the Class IV range. It should be an exciting trip!!

Visiting with friends in Calgary

We had a fantastic time visiting with our cruising friends, Ralph & Karen of "Five Islands", who have "swallowed the hook" and are now "dirt dwellers" and back to land life in Calgary, Alberta. They were extremely gracious hosts and took us on a tour of the countryside where we were able to experience a standardbred training farm (race horses), a "saskatoon" farm (which are like blueberries), and the beautiful Canadian Rockies.

 We also visited downtown Calgary and experienced a rodeo with the famous "chuckwagon" races!

It was great to see them again and get to hear about (and see photos of) their land trip to Peru. We hope to organize a similar trip next sailing season.
We left Calgary area on Sunday, 26 June and headed up on Highway 40 thru the middle of the mountains. As we crested the highest pass (around 7200'), it was snowing on us! The scenery on this drive was some of the most spectacular that we've ever seen.

No Glacier National Park for us

Well, it looks like we won't be going thru Glacier National Park on our way north to Canada at this point. The plowing still continues on the "Going to the Sun" road with tons of snow! Here's the status as of today at 2:20 pm--check out the snow depths!!

Going-to-the-Sun Road Plowing Information
About Plowing the Going-to-the-Sun Road
Plowing the Going-to-the-Sun Road is a monumental challenge each year. Unpredictable spring snow storms or other weather related events can slow down plowing progress. It is not uncommon for plowing crews to need to re-plow sections of park roads when weather events happen. Safety for our plowing crews, contractors, and the public is our utmost concern and priority. These unknown factors make predicting the opening of the Going-to-the-Sun Road impossible.
West Side Plowing Activity
Friday, crews cleared 1.25 lanes from the first chute below Triple Arches to just short of Triple Arches. Snow depth was 35-40 feet. Today, crews plan to remove more snow in Triple Arches.
East Side Plowing Activity
Friday, crews worked in the East Tunnel. Snow depth was 30-50 feet. Today, crews will continue that same work.

Visiting with Daryl in Osburn, Idaho

My good friend, Daryl, drove over from Seattle for a long weekend with us in Osburn, Idaho. Unfortunately, it rained and was cold (40s and low 50s) all weekend, but we had a marvelous time anyway. We spent time catching up on each others lives and enjoyed touring a small town called Wallace with an extensive historic district, silver mining history and some great food!

This area has fantastic bicycle trails!! The Trail of Coeur d'Alenes follows along a river for 72 miles across Idaho and is spectacular surrounded by towering mountains. Mountain bikers can enjoy some of the more rugged trails like riding the gondola up to the top of a ski area and following the single track down or following the Trail of the Hiawatha which goes thru old train tunnels and across high trestles. (We only had road bikes which were clearly unsuitable!)

Another highlight...we were able to ensure Alan truly knows that I am the 'center of the universe' by taking a documentary photograph!

Beautiful, frozen Northern Idaho

Today we are in Osburn, Idaho which is east of Coeur d'Alene. It is one of several tiny silver mining towns tucked in a narrow valley amidst towering mountains. The surrounding peaks are still snow-covered!! Temperatures hovered near 50 today and will be in the low 40s overnight with more snow for the mountains! The creeks and rivers are overflowing here with all of the rain and the snow melt.

We plan to stay here for a week in order to meet up this weekend with a friend from Seattle who will join us for a long weekend. There are two terrific bike trails--one along the valley floor (Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes) that runs along a river for about 73 miles and another 15 mile mountain bike route (Hiawatha Rail Trail) from the Montana border that runs along one of the most scenic stretches of old railroad with 10 tunnels and 7 high steel trestles. If it ever stops raining, I hope to have a chance to do some riding here.

We finally broke down and turned on the propane heater in the camper and while typing this, I just realized that our friends Nancy & Dick gave us a small electric heater as well. So...off I head to dig that out so we don't use all the propane :).

Big Sky Montana

On Tuesday we drove from Custer, SD through Wyoming to Bozeman, Montana--about 550 miles. We stopped for a tour of the Little Bighorn Battlefield (Nat'l Monument) which was surprisingly huge and not as one might imagine from depictions in history books.

The surrounding mountain peaks throughout this portion of the drive were snow covered and the headwind was so fierce we only got 8.98 mpg! Very frustrating with fuel prices (diesel) at $4 per gallon.

We found a tire store in Bozeman and got the trailer tire (slow leak due to a screw in the tire) fixed.

We also found a bike shop and got a set of new tires for my bike and some spare tubes. The bike shop tech said "Boy, you really got your miles worth on these tires!"--they were very worn out. Now hopefully I can stop getting flats and the new tires will be robust enough to crank out the miles on the Alaskan Highway.

We ate a marvelous meal of Thai food at a place recommended by the bike shop and then spent another glorious night in a Walmart parking lot. The place was PACKED with RVs this time!!

America the Beautiful--Natural and Man-made

Yesterday we arrived in the Black Hills and are camping beneath the whispering ponderosa pines. This area reminds us a lot of northern Arizona areas on the rim. The scenic byways of the Black Hills here in South Dakota meander thru grasslands as well as forested areas. We have seen bison, deer--both white tail and mule deer, wild burros, pronghorn antelope, lots of wild turkeys, and prarie dogs.

There are several winding roads that open up to spectacular vistas of Mt. Rushmore. These roads have narrow tunnels--one only 8'4" wide--thru the granite and 'pigtail bridges' that are almost like the "matchbox motorway" we played with as kids. We sure are glad we weren't towing the trailer through here!!!

We enjoyed Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse Monument--which still is unfinished!! I'm really surprised to find it still very unfinished since it was started when my mom and I traveled this way in 1994!

Alan and I met a biker on a Harley Davidson 'Fat Boy' from Alberta, Canada...now Alan thinks he wants to trade the truck and camper in and get a couple of bikes. HA!

Free Ice Water at Wall Drug

Well, yes indeed, the ice water is still free at Wall Drug! And...since Alan is a veteran, he got a free donut and coffee. (Since he doesn't drink coffee, I got to enjoy that!)

We wandered around Wall Drug with all of its gift shops, taxidermy displays, etc. for several hours.

We returned thru Badlands Nat'l Park and saw another large herd of Big Horn Sheep--this time with several lambs. We watched them for a long time as they scampered up and down the steep slopes without effort. 

We returned to our campsite and it poured as I was doing laundry (of course!). However, with every rain, there is often a rainbow--a beautiful end to a beautiful day!

The Badlands of South Dakota

Today we ventured into the Badlands National Park. We drove the main road thru the park and continued onto the section that turned to gravel. We discovered a few "back ways" into the park as well via unpaved roads leading to either Interior, SD or Wall, SD.

The geologic formations are amazing, though colors were not as spectacular as they were when I visited with my mom in 1994. For that trip, we were visiting just after a period of a lot of rain and the colors were popping.

It was still beautiful and interesting, however, and we saw lots of bison and big horn sheep in the gravel road areas, along with tons of prarie dogs, a ground owl and a lone pronghorn antelope with a baby.

We had to break out our polartec fleece jackets as the temps this morning were in the 40s and only in the low 60s during the day. With the constant, strong winds that prevail in this area, we were quite chilly!

Speaking of chilly--we heard from a fellow traveller that the "Going to the Sun" road in Glacier Nat'l Park was closed. I did a bit of research online and found out that there is still TONS of snow on the roads there--here's an excerpt from the "plowing status" there as of today:

Where are the Plows? Information Updated at 3:40PM on June 10, 2011

Going-to-the-Sun Road Plowing InformationWest Side Plowing Activity Yesterday, the crew continued plowing efforts in the Big Bend area. They encountered snow depths of 10-20 feet. Today, crews will continue clearing snow in Big Bend. East Side Plowing Activity Yesterday, crews continued to clear snow in the No Stump area (approx. 2 miles from vehicle closure). Snow depths are above average and in some areas, the snow is 30 feet deep. Today crews will continue removing snow from the No Stump area up to the East Tunnel.

Guess we'll have to slow down!!

Al's Oasis -- a "miniature" Wall Drug

Our day finished at "Al's Oasis" in South Dakota. It is "freezing" out here--at least it seems that way to us after months in Panama and the last few weeks of temperatures in the 90s in Tennessee! The temps were in the low 60s during the day and somewhere in the 50s now--brrr!!! Since I have to sit outside at the picnic table at our campsite in order to get WIFI to post this, it seems even colder!!

This place is like a miniature "Wall Drug", for those of you who have visited it. (For those that haven't yet, all I can say is "GO"...it's hard to describe.) It has a series of shops (grocery, bank, gift shop, bar, restaurant) with the storefronts like an old western town.

Inside the restaurant--which has a 5 cent cup of coffee advertised for miles--just like WALL DRUG--is a great display of taxidermy including deer, elk, bison, pheasant, geese, etc. along with old signs, antlers, etc.

The food and salad bar was surprisingly delicious!