Alaska 2003 Week 2

Today was a wildlife day as we toured Custer State Park and Wind Cave National Park in the South Dakota Black Hills. Even before we got to the parks we saw Bison and Mule Deer and a Coyote along the road. We did a little hiking but mostly drove slowly around the park loop road looking at Bison, Pronghorn Antelope (photo) , Prairie Dogs, and beautiful rolling prairie. At Wind Cave we toured the cave and saw the beautiful boxwork formations (photo). After the cave we hiked the Wind Cave Canyon Trail for a couple of miles. We saw several collections of Cliff Swallow nests, lots of bison tracks and a small rabbit right along the trail. Back to the campground for dinner, journaling, photo reviewing, email check, some laundry and discussion of what we will be doing tomorrow. What a life. We are really lucky..

Since we didn’t get to go to Jewel Cave National Monument yesterday, we decided to swing by there on our way to Devil’s Tower. What a wonderful surprise. The 1.5 hour cave tour covered a wide variety of cave formations (see photo) including flowstone, soda straw, lots of Calcite crystals (portions of the cave walls are 6 inches thick with calcite, the outer surface being either little crystal pyramids (dogtooth) or rounded beads (nail head). There was also some boxwork but not nearly as much as in Wind Cave.

We then drove about 120 miles to Devils Tower National Monument. Most folks recognize it from “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”. We took in the view and hiked the 1.5 mile trail around the base of the monument. Lots of different views and we could see climbers working their way up the sheer rock face.

Back in the coach to the final 120 mile drive of the day to Buffalo, WY. We stayed at the KOA that has a site with gazebo with a hot tub. We chose to skip the hot tub since it was 47 degrees out.

Slept late and awoke to 43 degrees, rain and wind. Glad we didn’t plan to do too much outside today. Drove to Little Bighorn National Monument, site of Custer’s Last Stand. It was still raining hard so we drove to the various markers along the road and read the plaques from the comfort of the motorhome. We then spent some time in the visitor center. Even though the Indians won this battle, you can’t spend much time in the Sioux regions without appreciating the shameful treatment the Native Americans received at the hands of the US Government.

Back on the road, we drove to Billings where we went grocery shopping then headed along the Lewis & Clark Trail to Lewistown, MT for the night. Miles and miles of pretty rolling Montana rangeland with beautiful mountains in the distance. We really appreciated having our “bus type” Class A motorhome with windows that offer expansive views of the passing countryside. We stayed at Mountain Acres Campground, the only campground we ever stayed at where the person behind the desk wore a white shirt and tie!

We went for a jog early this morning. We have been doing a lot of hiking but it felt good to be running even if it wasn’t very far. Saw a deer and a kingfisher (bird that hadn’t yet made it on our list of birds we’ve seen.) Rolled out of the campground about 9 AM headed 260 miles north to Glacier National Park. It took us 26 years to get back here and we wondered if it would look and feel as wonderful as it did in 1977. We needn’t have worried. It is magnificent. After lunch we made a brief foray into the park, stopping at overlooks and roadside waterfalls. We saw mountain goat, big horn sheep and a hoary marmot. Dinner was grilled salmon and zucchini with a 1996 Cabernet. Life is Good!

We got up early to get into the park to beat the crowds and view wildlife before the bulk of the tourists scared them away. Watched the rising sun illuminate the peaks of the park with a rosy glow (see photo). Got into the park at 7 AM and by 9 AM we had hiked to three waterfalls! We saw ground squirrels, Marmot and a Golden Eagle. We then drove up the Going-to-the-Sun Road to Logan Pass at 6680 feet. We planned to hike the trail to Hidden Lake but almost the entire trail was a mushy snowfield. The snow banks on the walkways at the Visitor Center were over 5 feet high (see photo). We drove down the west side of the highway, stopping at overlooks and waterfalls. With so much melting snow high up, there were waterfalls everywhere. We stopped at Avalanche for a short hike through a Red Cedar forest and had a picnic lunch there. It as really crowded by then so we looked for someplace with fewer people. Sandy checked the park map and found a trailhead down a 2.5 mile dirt road. The trail led 2.6 miles along Lake McDonald to an isolated, walk-in campground, that was apparently not yet open. Aside from a couple ho had just finished the same hike, we didn’t see another person on the trail. Nice gravel beach at the campground with great views up and down Lake McDonald. We then drove the rest of the way to the west end of the park for a look around. We got sodas at the little village store then drove back across Logan Pass to the campground. It was a long day and we hiked about 10 miles all together but the scenery was fantastic.

Nothing unlucky about this Friday the 13^th day of our trip. We slept a little later, then stopped at the Post Office to get our mail (we are having it forwarded every week or two depending on where we are). We then drove to the Many Glaciers area of the park about 15 miles north of St. Mary. More beautiful waterfalls and a 2.5 mile hike around Swiftcurrent Lake. We had lunch at the Many Glacier Hotel, one of the classic early tourist hotels built in 1914. In the afternoon we took a boat ride across the lake then hiked a quarter mile to Lake Josephine where we boarded another boat for a trip along this 2 mile lake. After the second boat ride we went on a 1 mile hike to Grinnell Lake and a great view of the glaciers in the mountains above. We also saw an Osprey fishing from the top of a huge Spruce tree. We saw bear droppings on the trail but the guide said they were several days old.

This may be the last email for a while. Not sure how internet access will be in the Rocky Mountain sections of Canada. Next stops; Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper.

Drove to Banff, Alberta today. Crossing the border into Canada was simple. Showed passports, rabies certificate for Butter, no guns no pepper spray, not too much liquor and we were on our way. They didn’t ask about fruit, though we were worried we would have to trash all of our fruit.

It is a big holiday weekend in Canada, July 1^st is Canada Day. The campground was pretty full but we got a site with great views of the mountains all around (see photo). Unfortunately we shared that view with hundreds of other RVs in our campground parking lot (see other photo taken from exact same spot with wide angle lens).

We drove into Banff Townsite to the information center to get recommendations on hikes to take tomorrow. We then shopped for a couple of hours. Sandy was suffering serious shopping withdrawal. In the past two weeks, the only shopping available to her was T-Shirts at National Park Visitor Centers.