June 26, 2021 – Wyoming and Glacier National Park, Montana

Well, at least it will be cooler, right????!!!!

After a quick two weeks in Fort Collins, we headed out early Saturday morning toward Montana.  Just a reminder that to get to Montana from Colorado, you have to cross the entire state of Wyoming!  Our plan was to get to Billings, Montana to spend the night – probably in a parking lot somewhere.

We traveled to Billings two years ago when we went to Montana but this time decided to take a different route on the advice of my recent tattoo artist who grew up in Wyoming.  He said the drive from Shononi to Thermopolis was beautiful. This took us off Interstate 25 but didn’t really change the time or distance we were going to travel.

I’m so glad we went this way – it IS beautiful!  The first part of the trip was wide open prairie – the hubs and I were kinda surprised by that – it reminded us of Kansas 😊.  We drove through Shoshoni and headed up the Wind River Canyon, a 2,500-foot-deep canyon cut by the Wind River.  The canyon contains some of the oldest layers of rock dating back over 2.5 billion year ago.  It was a lovely drive along a river, my favorite type of scenery. We stopped a couple of times to take some pictures and went through three tunnels that ran through the side of the canyon.

  

  

Dem bones, dem bones gonna walk around!!!!

As we got closer to Thermopolis, we started seeing signs for a dinosaur museum.  Since we were making good time and planning on spending the night in a parking lot (meaning we don’t want to hurry to a parking lot just to sit and wait for bedtime) we decided to stop for lunch and then head over to the museum.  We had hot dogs and milk shakes at a Dairyland (it seems all small towns have some type of Dairyland, Dairy Delight or Dairy something 😂) which was pretty yummy.

That oil, gas and coal has gotta come from somewhere!!!!

I thought it was pretty strange to have a dinosaur museum in the middle of nowhere but after arriving at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center, I learned that there were many dinosaur dig sites in Wyoming!  Actually, there are dig sites within driving distance of the dinosaur center. They have one of the largest fossil collections in the world along with many casts or molds of other fossils. The center walks you through fossils of the earliest known organisms to a TRex and stegosaurus.  The pictures definitely don’t do the fossils justice.  We thoroughly enjoyed our visit – definitely a fun place to stop! (Ed. Note – I was reluctant to stop – gotta keep moving on, keep moving on – but it is well worth the time – well worth the price of admission!!!)

 

  

  

  

It was like traveling with a toddler but she did stay awake!!!!

After a night in the Cabela’s parking lot in Billings, we hit the road for our next stop at the North American RV Park & Yurt Village, just 5 miles from the west entrance to Glacier National Park.  Just a fun side note about this drive, I noticed that we were passing a lot of motorcycles when we got on Highway 191 and started counting them (I was driving and bored).  When I counted 200 I decided to stop.  They had slowed down the closer we got to Great Falls – I never did figure out where they were going or why there were so many….a mystery, I suppose, Ha! (Ed. Note – I think I saw a sign on a bar that was welcoming riders – maybe there was a rally or ride nearby?!?!?!?)

  

We usually plan to drive a shorter second day and this was no exception.  Just as we were both getting tired of driving and riding, we came to East Glacier Park Village and started driving through the Flathead National Forest.  It was a lovely drive through some of the tallest trees I’ve ever seen!

We finally pulled into the park which is surrounded by those big, beautiful trees and set up.

 

So, this is what an old logging road looks like!!!!!

We started looking for a couple of lake hikes that the staff at the RV park had told me about.  I didn’t really have directions other than to get on what turned out to be a very rough gravel road.  We couldn’t find the lakes as we headed north (Ed. Note – We were on the wrong side of the river, darlin’!!!!) but we knew we had gone too far if we made it to Canada.  And, we did!!!!  At the end of the gravel road was the Canadian border.  The border crossing building was, of course, still closed.  But we parked and walked over the border anyway 😉!  My second time into Canada – it was amazing to see the very distinct line cut between the borders.

We tried to get to the lakes from the other, correct side of the river (officially in the Park) but the “road” was basically an old one lane gravel logging road with a STEEP drop-off on one side.  We found a wide spot to turn around and regrouped!  Finally, we went to the visitor’s center at Apgar to get some good maps.  Those lakes will have to wait for another time!

  

Glacier!!!!

The Going to the Sun Road runs through the middle of the park from the West entrance to the East entrance and many of the trailheads are accessed from it.  You must have a reservation to drive along this road.  The reservation pass for the drive is good for 7 days. We drove in a bit on the Going to the Sun Road but couldn’t seem to find any parking spots for the hikes we were interested in.  There were, however, some great overlooks to get pictures and to walk down to Lake McDonald.

  

So, you’ve driven this road a lot?!?!?!?!!!!

I had been warned by my friend, Gail that the road ran along the mountain side and had a “guard rail” of stones about a foot high. I wasn’t thrilled about the hubs driving our big ass truck on this curvy, steep road, so we decided to get a reservation for the shuttle for our next drive into the park.

Our plan was to take the shuttle from the west entrance to Logan’s Pass.  Logan’s Pass is approximately half way through the park and marks the Continental Divide – a must see in my book!  Taking the shuttle was GREAT!  It gave the hubs a chance to see everything and me a chance to feel comfortable knowing people with experience driving this road were in charge (fingers-crossed). (Ed. Note – She grilled the drivers on their experience driving, insurance, recent accidents, and maybe even if they got enough sleep that night, I’m not sure, I walked away during the interrogation!!!)   BTW, Gail, I didn’t like the part of Going to the Sun Road along McDonald Lake – WAY too close to the water for me! 🤣  I did find out that many of the shuttle drivers are bus drivers or retired bus drivers – interesting, huh? (Ed. Note – see note above!!!!!)

The scenery was breathtaking – waterfalls, the river, the trees – everything is just magnificent and shows me the awesomeness of God.

  

  

  

Freakin’ bears!!!!!!

When we got to Logan’s Pass, we were disappointed that the two hikes we had planned were closed due to bear in the area!  We did wander around and saw a mountain goat right on the walking path at the visitor’s center and across the road was a family of big horned sheep.

  

  

  

  

  

This week’s weather combined the worst of the desert southwest with the summer miserableness of the southeast!!!!!!!

We got off the shuttle at McDonald Lodge and walked to the Trail of Cedars trailhead.  This is a wheel chair accessible, flat walk through a stand of ancient red cedars and western hemlocks.  It was shady and cool (thank goodness since the temperature has been hovering around 100 degrees!!) and the trees were amazing!  The red cedars can grow to heights of 100 feet and be up to 4 to 7 feet across.  They have a rough bark with horizontal strips and a reddish color – lovely!

  

  

Hahahahaha – you thought you were hikers?!?!?!?!?

We started up the Avalanche Lake trail which is halfway through the Trail of Cedars.  It is a moderate (ha!) trail that starts off uphill, flattens out a bit and goes uphill again, and again.  There is a section that runs along a beautiful streams that has cut a deep gorge out of the mountain.  As the wind blew over the water, it sent a cool breeze blowing over us – the hubs called it God’s own air conditioning! 😊  After hiking for what felt like hours, we decided it was time to turn around – we didn’t make it to the lake but hey, it’s all in the journey, right?!  We finished the Trail of Cedars, got back on the shuttle and headed home – very tired but very happy!