Glacier National Park

What sights we saw in Glacier National Park.  We arrived here on Monday afternoon and had scheduled a tour on the Red Bus for Tuesday morning.  This is a picture of the bus. We boarded this bus at 8:30 in the morning and the temperature was 38-40 degrees.  We were told to dress in layers because they put the top down if it isn't raining.  Our driver showed mercy on us and didn't put it down for the first hour. They do provide each bench seat with a wool blanket to put over your lap.  Guess where we were seated?  Yep the back seat.  Boy was it cold and windy..  Our driver was the lady on the right side of the bus folding back the canvas roof.  It held 17 people but we only had 14 so we had a nice opportunity to turn and take pictures.  At times when she pulled over for a longer look in places where the public couldn't be allow out of the bus she would let us do what she called a prairie dog.  Stand with our head out of the roof and take pictures.

This was an awesome tour that took us up "The road to the Sun" and to see as many Glaciers as can be seen from the road way.  It was a narrative tour so we were able to see things that would have gotten passed us if we had done it on our own.    

  This is a water fall and a whirlpool that was the most beautiful turquoise.  This was formed by a glacier and you can see the way the swirling water has formed perfect circular holes in the rock.             

 This shows the open top going down the road.

 There are two beautiful tunnels on this drive.

This shows two Glaciers in the distance.

 This fire place in the McDonald Lodge is big enough to walk into.

 This is remnants of an avalanche that happened during this past spring.

 Waterfall from a Glacier that is melting up on the Mountain and falling on the roadside.

 This was taken from the edge of the car as we were coming around the corner of the roadway. At times this was like a scary amusement ride!

A Kodak Moment...

Martin's Photo Op!

Allyson and Meagan are taking good care of Martin and after they shared the blog with him he asked for his own photo op.  

Martin said, "What is all the big excitement over wild animals?" 

"What they are in Montana?"  "Dad told me I was going there."  

 

Grand Tetons and Jackson Hole

Today we took a trip to the Grand Tetons and Jackson Hole.  It is different than Yellow stone but we didn't see any wild life.  We did see snow on the mountains and SNOW FLAKES on John's windshield.  Yuck….

Yellowstone

We have spent the last five days camping at the West Entrance of Yellowstone and have toured on our own as well as a 8 hr professional bus tour.  It was awesome.  The park is 3,648 square miles and I think we have travel most of them. West side Goats

 One of the valleys

 Hot Spring

 Old Faithful.

 Grand Canyon of YS.

 

This is in the area of Mammoth Hot Spring which is the North Entrance of Yellow Stone.

Yellow Stone on the North East Entrance

We camped for two day at this location, Jessica Davis (Granddaughter) flew in to Bozeman, Montana to join us for five days and fly home with our Happy Camper Kelsey.  This was a fascinating area.  We had Elk walking around our camp sight daily and we were just minutes drive from the beauty of the flowing Hot Springs with many colors of mineral deposits. The white is Silica, the grey is Travertine of which over two ton is deposited here daily from the raising water of the geysers below.  

8/17/14 Over the Mountain we go heading to Yellowstone

Yikes…!!!  Now we know what real mountains are.. The trip from Cody to Yellowstone was awesome and really scary.  

The signs and RV GPS told us that no vehicle over 40 foot long could travel this road.
The RV is 38 foot plus the length of John and Kay's car being towed.   Well the men talked it over and decided we should continue until we couldn't make it around the corners, then they could unhook to drive separately.  Needless to say we didn't separate the two vehicles.  The hills were awesome and the curves were unbelievable.  I hated it!!  The worse the roads were the farther to the back of the RV I would go.  Bert was not enjoying it that much, they tend not to use a lot of guard rails and the ones they do are so short it wouldn't do us much good.  It was beautiful but Bert's and I are good with only seeing it once in our life time.  John loved it and remarked many times about how far down it was!

                                                                                                   This is the Mammoth Hot Springs Area                    

If you look closely to this picture you will see the roads on this hillside, Yep we traveled over them!! 

Cody Wyoming

Cody Wyoming:  this was a fun evening…The shoot out.

The Rodeo:

Kelsey ran out for a children contest of catch the ribbon from a calves tail.  She won, the prize was an item of her choice at the Rodeo Store and a Blizzard at DQ.   She was a little disillustioned by the treatment of the animals because we sat over the mounting gates and we saw it all...

Cody Wyoming 8/16

Big Horn Mountains

WOW what beautiful scenery we have seen.  The pictures don't show the real beauty.  It was steep grade up and down with not many pull offs to cool the engine. We did pull off just before the top at a viewing area because the hot alarm was sounding.  

Oh and Bert got me on the edge of my seat about 10 miles into the hill when he ask, " How many miles before the next gas station?"  To which I informed him 56 miles.  Needless to say we made it to the bottom and pulled into the first station and took on 46 gallons.  That just added to the excitement.  We will sleep in Cody Wyoming tonight and take our Happy Camper to Rodeo and a shoot out.    

Deadwood, S.D. 8/14 @ Fish and Fry RV Camp and Sturgis

  

We are off for Deadwood to spend the night at a Fish and Fry RV Park after all it is Thursday Night and we can't make it back for the Elk's Friday Night Fish Fry.

We went down in the town of Deadwood on Friday morning to take in the town and its history via the Trolley Ride and a very informative driver.  It is a town filled with Casino's, Restaurants, and shopping.  They have a shooting each day and a trail of the shooters but we couldn't stay for that. 

We did spot the #508 Elk's Lodge but only got a picture because it was 10 am and too early for a beer.  At least I thought so sense we were traveling that day to Buffalo, Wyoming which is the last sizable town on the east side of the Big Horn Mountains.   Guess were we are headed on Saturday?

 I have no idea where they put all the people that come for the yearly Motor Cycle Rally.  We missed this event by one week.  Not that we would have gone there if we could have.

Just a pretty picture of the Black Hills and blue sky.  The tree of deep green are Ponderosa Pines. 

Hill City on our way to Deadwood, S D 8/14

On our way to Deadwood we stopped by Hill City and took a two hour, 20 mile steam train ride through the Black Hills.  During this ride we saw Harvney Peak the highest peak between the Swiss Alps and the Rocky Mountains, on a clear day at the top of this peak you would be able to see 5 states. Much to high for Bert to go, hee hee..

Custer Wood carving Museum Wed 8/13

 Before leaving the Custer we made a visit to the Woodcarving Museum.  There are over 30 miniature scenes with moving parts through out  the display.  The Artist that created these carvings was an original animator for Disneyland caricatures.  He used humor in all of his carvings.  

This man is the owner of the collection and he too does great carving.

Kelsey's Dream Day

Wednesday the 13th already.

Today we went to Hot Springs where we found a man gathering water at one of the 170 springs promising to give you: " ever lasting youth and good health."

Of coarse we filled our water bottles and I can't wait for the everlasting YOUTH to kick in.

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The Children just had to get in the warm water of Hot Springs. 

Kelsey and Bertie (as Kelsey calls him)were checking  the temp of the water falls.  

This is a Long Horn Prong Antelope that we saw along the Highway on the return trip from Hot Springs.

  This was Kelsey's dream activity for the trip.  Boy, it looks a lot more comfortable on the young.  

Sure glad we had help getting off!