Yellowstone to Glacier.

Tags

Blackfeet, Butte, Coeur D'Alene, Glacier National Park, Great Falls, Helena, Idaho, Montana, Moose, Mountain Lion, Road Trip, St Mary's Lake, Travel, USA, Wildlife, Wyoming, Yellowstone

Such a beautiful morning, heading out early from Yellowstone before anyone else was stirring. The roads out of Yellowstone and through Montana are so smooth and straight, one couldn’t help but go way too fast. We headed straight through Butte (well, after a breakfast stop) and a quick gas/photo stop in the state capital of Helena. Helena is such a small plain town and almost missable if you sneeze going through it. Still, the gas was cheap and the cool drink very welcome but without wanting to waste too much time, we jumped back on the road toward Great Falls and finally to our destination for the day of Glacier National Park.

The park itself is surrounded by the Blackfeet tribe and a pleasing change to see they have a thriving casino-less community, without the usual tourist magnets. I’d like to go back again to check out some of the actual stores but doubt I’ll get the chance before next year. Just before leaving the gas station for the park, we saw a recently killed mountain lion in the back of some guy’s truck (allegedly it got too close to him). Not a happy sight but still amazing to see an animal I’d never seen before, up close.

First stop in Glacier was St Mary’s lake, although this was purely by accident. After taking the wrong turn we ended up at this little visited vista, of peace and beauty. This is another place I’d like to hit up again and maybe next time, take a boat ride on the lake.

Back to the main entrance and man, what a view. This place doesn’t seem to suffer from the ‘living zoo’ tourist trap that Yellowstone did and you had more of a sense of being in the wilds as a result. Although I never got to see any more bears, I did get a better close-up with a moose on our way out for the evening. There’s so much to say about this place but it has to be experienced rather than written about. So beautiful, so old and so very, very inspiring.

Possibly one of the reasons not many people come to Glacier, is the access roads from the west. As the crow flies, it’s a 30min drive to the freeway but here we were, 2 hours later, only just getting to the main drag. We could have made it back to Seattle if the winding detour had not taken so long, so we ended up grabbing a motel in Coeur D’Alene instead, to finish up the last night on the road.

Yellowstone, Day two.

Tags

Bears, Bison, Black Bear, Elk, Geysers, Magpie, Mammoth, Mammoth Falls, Old Faithful, Road Trip, Travel, USA, Wildlife, Wyoming, Yellowstone

Up at 8am and the first stop was Old Faithful on way to the camping stop in Mammoth. The famous geyser was just about on time and brought the expected oooooo from the crowds. The event itself is not as inspiring for me as the events that trigger it, under the earth. There are also larger geysers to be seen but they’re not as predictable.

Arriving at the Mammoth campground, I found out that the tent had a break in one of the rods, which was worsened by the wind, suddenly picking up and blowing the tent like a tumbleweed across the campsite. After recovering the tent, I wedged it between our only shade of a tree and the wooden bench.

After opting to take a trip to see Mammoth Falls, we saw a small group of people along the way, who were taking shots of a bison. Making the most of this opportunity, we decided to stop for a picture shoot and had the fortune of the bison ambling a little closer to pose. This road was full of more surprises in the form of a black bear, that many people had pulled off the road to photograph. I walked past these and followed the ranger up the road to a better view and considering I have no decent zoom lens on the digital camera, had a much clearer and closer shot than most of the crowds back down the road.

After hitting the intended detour (that turned out to be inaccessible to the bottom), we headed back to Mammoth and payed $3 to take a much needed shower in the local hotel. The sunburn hurt like crazy with the water hitting it but felt so much better afterward. While waiting in the car after the shower, a magpie came and hopped around in front of me. I haven’t seen a magpie since I was last in England, so it was a real pleasant surprise. After my friend came out from her shower, we walked across the road to the nearest eatery and while tucking in to some fast food, saw an elk on the hill outside. Of course, by time I had shot back to the car to get the camera, the elk had wandered off up the hillside and out of view.

Settling down for the evening, with the tent now now longer being blown by the wind, I opted for a short hike up one of the nearby viewpoints. I had an incredible view of the surrounding landscape and it made for a grounding experience at the end of a hot, sticky and sore day.

Tomorrow is Glacier Park and the last stop of the tour before home.

Utah to Yellowstone, Wyoming.

Tags

Downey, Geysers, Great Salt Lake, Hot Springs, Idaho, Idaho Falls, Lewis Lake, Ogden, Paint Pots, Road Trip, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Temple, Thermal Vents, Thunderstorms, Travel, USA, Utah, Willard, Wyoming, Yellowstone, Yellowstone Lake

Waking up in a tent on a Sunday should always be relaxing, doubly so when you’re in a Mormon town. Considering the reputation Salt lake City has, I was actually suprised to see people on the streets and some amenities open on a Sunday (at 6:30am no less). The City itself is fairly small but that doesn’t take away what they’ve achieved here and it really is impressive in it’s own way. Imagine coming across the land, finding a desolate piece of dirt and by sheer will power alone, making it into something sustainable; I couldn’t help but tip my hat to that. The Salt Lake Temple is another impressive feat, that took forty years to complete and in its own way, is up there with the other religious temples around the world.

After leaving downtown Salt Lake City, I then attempted to locate the Great Salt Lake. First mistake was not researching a good entrance before we started the trip and the second was asking directions. By time we ended up in Ogden, the cashier in the gas station politely informed me that “there are many roads to get there about twenty minutes back down the freeway “, followed by: “they’re not signposted, they’re just road names” and finally “I don’t know which roads you should take”. At this point I decided to drive down minor roads in the direction of the lake but the owner of the car I was driving was not getting too amused by the gravel roads, so we stopped a mile or so short of the visible beach. After coming back out roughly the way we came in, we eventually caught the best glimpse we could get of the lake, from a ranger station in Willard. We could have got closer but it was $9 to enter the bay state park and not really worth the money for a pic of a lake.

Next stop was on the I15 near Downey, Idaho, after the secondary driver briefly fell asleep driving and was rudely awoken going over the rumble strips. Here I found the gas station, which had a multitude of supplies that were exactly what I needed. About $50 lighter, I came out with a white t-shirt to cover my sunburn with, a straw cowboy hat that was not only cheap but fit too (which is a first for me), a red bandanna, some soothing lotion with aloe, and the all important ice-cream. Newly soothed and shaded, we headed on toward Idaho Falls, for a drive-through and brief stop of a small and uneventful place.

Finally got to the West Entrance of Yellowstone at lunchtime, amid plenty of heat and the amusing sight of the town that resembled a mix of something from the old west and a tourist trap. Here’s something of note too, that the board with the open/full signs for the campsites is not accurate and the campgrounds can often fill up by time you drive from the board to the first one. Heading to the preferred campground we made some brief stops for the attractions along the way, including the paint pots (boiling mud), some small geysers, hot springs and thermal vents.

Despite the beautiful view of Yellowstone lake, my concerns about full campsites were realised and we were left without any idea where to go next. After diving into an information center, the ranger pointed me in the direction of a smaller site that tends to fill up last. A shortish drive later and we ended up at the south end of Yellowstone, with thankfully some vacant camping lots. Considering these places have water, bathrooms and fire pits, I still think $17 for the night was an absolute steal; the camping was so peaceful and relaxing (which was really needed at that point) and I even got to chill out to a tiny baby squirrel, that was flitting in and out the trees.

At this point, we had our last bit of bad luck for the day, when it turned out the camp bed wouldn’t inflate. Despite the hardness of the ground though, I slept right through the night with not too much discomfort.

Worth a big mention is the time we spent on the lake shore next to the campsite. We got lucky to catch a huge summer lightning storm, igniting the clouds on the horizon and it provided a beautiful distraction, while the night took over.