Today we went to Aaron and Alysa’s place and visited the kids for the first time this year. The girls were a bit shy at first but being the grandparents that we are, we broke the ice the old fashion way with gifts.
When we visit the grandkids we try to take a lot of pictures and last year Penelope showed a lot of interest in our camera, so today Grandma came up with the brilliant idea of bringing along our old point and shoot camera for the girls to play with. They loved it, were good about sharing it, and we now have hundreds of pictures of their fingers (particularly Everleigh’s).
Beth and I miss the Cheddar’s Restaurant that closed in Brandon, FL so we used some of our American Express credit card points on Cheddar’s gift certificates to use here in Denver and took the family to lunch. Lunch was great and the girls were very well behaved.
Penelope the PhotographerEverleigh’s Unique Camera Holding TechniqueMe and My Crew
After exiting the park at the Grand Lake entrance we drove past Grand Lake to the US Forest Service Shadow Mountain Picnic Site on the South end of Shadow Mountain Lake and ate the delicious lunch that Beth had packed. Originally we had planned to turn around and take Trail Ridge Road back through the park in the opposite direction, but my lovely navigator (who once again provided plenty of feedback regarding my driving in the riskier portions of the drive) felt she’d met her yearly quota of high elevation, narrow roads with zero shoulder and no guard rails. So we elected to complete the loop by taking US-34 on West to US-40 East and eventually I-70 East back into Denver. Unfortunately for Beth, we got the bonus plan as it turns out that US-40 makes a very major (and very scenic) climb up and over Berthoud Pass which tops out at 11,317′. Fortunately for Beth, there were guard rails throughout the pass although I still received plenty of driving instruction.
Today we left Cody, WY and drove to St. Vrain State Park just East of Longmont, CO. We headed South out of Cody on WY-120 and then hopped on good old US-20 in Thermopolis, WY (famous for its hot springs). Just South of Thermopolis US-20 follows the Wind River through the Wind River Canyon. This was an incredibly scenic drive. Probably one of the best on the trip outside of a major attraction. US-20 through my hometown of LaGrange, IN is obviously very scenic with my childhood home on display, but I’d have to admit that Wind River Canyon tops it.
US-20 – Wind River Canyon
US-20 – Wind River Canyon
US-20 – Wind River Canyon
The St. Vrain State Park is another nice state park in Colorado with full hookups. The roads are dirt, but our site had a HUGE cement slab (perhaps because it’s handicap accessible). The picnic table was backed by a wind shelter. All the sites were pull through and very long. There were no trees to block satellite access and the Verizon LTE was very fast. The only negative was our proximity to I-25, but the road noise didn’t bother us.
On Monday (9/16/19) we continued on from Three Forks, MT to Cody, WY by taking I-90 East to US-310 South at Laurel, MT. We pulled off the road at a Historic landmark just South of Bridger, MT. The historic landmark (sign) documented that the Bridger Trail (a.k.a. Bridger Cutoff) passed nearby. We must have been in potato farming country because we watched a number of truckloads of potatoes pass by while we ate our lunch.
Just past our lunch stop we jumped on MT-72 which became WY-120 when we crossed into Wyoming. This was a very scenic two lane highway, but definitely beyond civilization. We only encountered a few other vehicles on this 60 mile leg.
We spent three nights at Absaroka Bay Campground in Cody. The sites were gravel with irrigated strips of grass between sites. They were a little close, but no more so than the previous campground, the difference being no trees or bushes (which I’m not sure grow in Wyoming). The bathrooms were nice and so was the laundry facility. In fact, the laundry was only $1.25 a load, so Beth made sure to catch up on laundry while we were there. The best part was that this was one of the few campgrounds we’ve encountered with usable WiFi.
Site C5
Site C5
Tuesday was a cool (high in the low 50’s) windy day. We went into town in the afternoon and shopped for trinkets for the grandchildren and then ate a late lunch at the Cody Steakhouse. The meal was excellent and very reasonably priced. We got caught in the rain leaving the restaurant so the cold, windy, rainy high speed walk many blocks back to the Tahoe were enough to convince us to go back and snuggle up in the camper.
On Wednesday we visited the Buffalo Bill Center of the West museum. It is comprised of a number of museums. The Buffalo Bill Museum, Plains Indian Museum, Natural History Museum, Western Art Museum, and most importantly the Cody Firearms Museum (I think they had every gun ever made). The museum also had a Raptor rescue facility where they provide housing and medical care for birds of pray that have been permanently injured to the extent that they could no longer survive in the wild. They held a Raptor Experience education session that we attended in the early afternoon. We got to meet and learn about Isham the red-tailed hawk and Monte the eastern screech-owl.
I started noticing advertising along the interstates for Taco John’s when we first hit I-35 in Iowa and have been seeing it regularly throughout the West. By the time we reached Montana, I told Beth I was trying out a Taco John’s before this trip was over. So we started watching for Taco John’s at our fuel stops, but the logistics never worked (usually the parking lots were too small to pull our rig into and get back out). Well guess what, there was a Taco John’s practically across the road from this campground and since Taco John’s originated in Wyoming (Cheyenne) this was obviously an omen. So we took our maiden voyage after visiting the museum. It’s very similar to Taco Bell but we both agreed that the standard taco at Taco John’s was much better. We also tried chicken quesadillas and that might be a tie. Taco John’s quesadilla has a LOT of quality cheese, but tastes fairly plain compared to whatever sauce Taco Bell uses in their quesadilla. The other thing we liked was that the condiments came in large quantities. Both the sour cream and nacho cheese came in containers two to three times the size Taco Bell provides. In fact, I ran out of their little potatoes before I ran out of nacho cheese (don’t worry, I found a way to consume the remainder of the cheese). Overall we were happy with our Taco John’s experience.
Today we began our migration out of Montana (which is a BIG state). We took US-2 West to MT-206 to MT-35 South. We picked up MT-83 South just North of Flathead lake. MT-83 passes to the East of Swan Lake and Seeley Lake with the Flathead National Forest to its East. The scenery is beautiful, especially along the lakes. We stopped and ate lunch at the rest area at the intersection of MT-83 and MT-200. We then took MT-200 to MT-141 to US-12.
On US-12 we had the unexpected pleasure of traversing MacDonald Pass at the Continental Divide. Not only was this our first 8% grade in the RV, but it lasted for 8 grueling miles (seemed like an eternity). By the time we finally reached the top we were down to 3rd gear and barely doing 30 MPH. The RV engine was snorting and ready for the well deserved rest on the descent (with the engine brake fully engaged).
We stopped for fuel in Helena, MT and then continued South on US-287 to Three Forks, MT where we stayed at Camp Three Forks. This was a good campground for an overnight stop (just off I-90). The sites aren’t very far apart, but it’s an older campground (former KOA) with plenty of foliage between sites. The owners were great and went out of their way to ensure we got a good site for our satellite so that we could watch NFL football (he was a 49ers fan complete with jersey and thrilled about their big win over Cincinnati).
Today was our final day in West Glacier. We started the day out by having a delicious breakfast at The Trap Line Cafe & Grill followed by grocery restocking at Super 1 Foods in Columbia Falls, MT.
When we got back to the campground we did some laundry and prepped for departure on Sunday. Later in the afternoon we built a campfire and grilled Bison Burgers over the fire (the first we’ve ever cooked). They were delicious.
Today we hiked the Avalanche Trail to Avalanche Lake. The hike was 5.6 miles round trip from our parking spot and mostly uphill on the way out to the lake. It was a gradual climb, but there were several spots where we had to stop and suck in some oxygen. This is a popular trail and there were plenty of other people along the way to act as decoys for any bear encounter although we had our bear spray with us just in case. The hike was definitely worth the effort. The lake is surrounded by steep mountains and the water is crystal clear. The pictures don’t do it justice. There are quite a few log benches all along the lake shore and we used one to sit down, enjoy the scenery, and eat the lunch Beth packed.
The trip back to the car was much less exhausting since it was mostly downhill, but eventually quite painful on our toes as it felt like they were constantly rammed against the front of our hiking boots. We were pretty tuckered when we got back to the campground so Beth heated up some leftover chili and we crashed in the camper for the evening.
Today’s weather was perfect so we so we drove the Going-to-the-Sun Road from the West side back East to the Logan Pass Visitor Center. The portion just prior to Logan’s pass, referred to as The Loop, really makes you pucker up. This is where the road is carved out of the mountain and very narrow. My navigator did not like the travel Eastbound which placed us in the outer lane of traffic and her on the outside looking straight down as we passed within inches of oncoming traffic. The view was absolutely incredible until we climbed into the clouds on the way up (they had cleared by the time we returned).
We continued on past the Logan Pass Visitor Center so that we could take in the scenery we couldn’t see, due to weather, when started from the East side earlier in the week. This was worth the trip. The scenery along St Mary Lake was worth the return.
Today was a great day. There was a big red ball of fire in the sky which we hadn’t seen since Saturday. The campground we were in had no issue with us washing our vehicles and both were filthy. The Tahoe was extra filthy due to traversing the US-89 dirt roads, due to construction, yesterday in the pouring rain. So, we took our time leaving and thoroughly washed both the Tahoe and the RV knowing that it might be our last chance for a good while.
Once we got the rigs all shiny, we headed Westbound on US-2 for West Glacier, MT (near the West entrance to Glacier National Park). This was yet another beautiful drive which took just over an hour. We checked into the West Glacier KOA which is considered by many to be the nicest KOA. We have seen nothing that would refute that claim. The sites are large with manicured grass between sites. The cats have already declared this to be the finest grass they’ve eaten (and regurgitated) on the trip so far.
Although we can’t complain because we’ve had exceptional weather throughout our trip, it rained constantly Sunday through Tuesday while we were in East Glacier. We tried to make a go of it on Sunday and drove down to Two Medicine Lake with the intent of hiking a trail. Unfortunately, you couldn’t see any scenery due to the clouds and fog, so we went back to the camper and enjoyed Week #1 of NFL Football guilt free. We hung out in the camper all day on Monday.
On Tuesday it looked like it was starting to clear up just before Noon, so we packed a lunch and headed out. First we stopped at the Glacier Park Lodge which was less than a mile from our campground. It was the first hotel built by the Great Northern Railway in 1913 and was the original entrance point to the park (prior to building the Going-to-the-Sun Road). After procuring some trinkets for the grandkids we headed to the St Mary, MT entrance on the East side of Glacier National Park and drove the Going-to-the-Sun Road to the Logan Pass Visitor Center (a good half way mark from a time perspective). It was definitely clearer than Sunday, but the clouds still covered the mountains, so there wasn’t much to see as far as scenery goes.
One interesting note, there was major construction on US-89 between MT-49 and St Mary. This was the first time I’ve ever been through construction where the road was completely gone and you traveled for several miles on temporary dirt road. I guess in most places there would be a detour, but here at the top of the world, there are no roads to detour traffic off to. So now the Tahoe needs a serious bath.
Glacier Park LodgeGoing-to-the-Sun Road – East Side
