Welcome to Canada !

Welcome to Canada !

July 7^th we drove from St. Mary, MT into Canada.  We were bordering Glacier Park so the scenery continued to be beautiful.   I took a picture as we crossed the border because I thought it was kind of funny that there is actually a line.  The customs agent was very nice and we crossed without problems.  Our first destination was Waterton, Alberta where we stayed at the Waterton Townsite Campground.  It is a national park, the Canadian side of Glacier National Park,  and a very nice facility.  It is located in town within walking distance of restaurants and shops.  We really like Waterton, the views in every direction are breathtaking.

Our views from the campground:

After getting The Land Yacht settled in our site, we walked to town and checked out the local offerings.  Wayne and I decided to ride our bikes on the bike path along the lake and up to the Prince of Wales Hotel and then across the street to the visitor center. The hotel is on the national register of historic places.  It stands on the hill above town and can be seen from almost everywhere.  It is old and dark on the inside.  The views from the hotel were amazing, which is why it is so famous! On our way back to the campground we rode by Cameron Falls.

July 8^th was a catch up day.  I did some cooking while Wayne gave the RV and car a much needed bath.  In the afternoon the 4 of us drove up the Red Rock Canyon Road.  It was a very scenic drive with a red rock slot canyon at the end with a walk around it.  We also hiked the trail to Blakiston Falls.  The wildflowers in the area are blooming and add color to the roadside/path side.

On July 9^th Wayne and I took the hike up to the top of Bear Hump which overlooks the town of Waterton. It was mostly uphill,  but WOW what a view !!!  After lunch, the 4 of us, drove down the Akamina Parkway to Cameron Lake.  We did the walk at the lake.  The excitement of the drive was having a bear cub walk across in front of the car as we pulled into an overlook…not sure where mama bear was.  We took our pictures from the car.

Next  stop Calgary and the Stampede.

Glacier National Park - Part 2

On July 4^th, we moved over to Johnson’s RV Park, just outside the East Glacier entrance.  After lunch we drove over and hiked to St Mary’s Falls and continued up to Virginia Falls.  Less than 4 miles for the hike and much easier than the two mile hike the day before.  The wildflowers have been very pretty throughout the park but were very noticeable along this hike. Virginia Falls is at the top of the creek which flows down to the St Mary’s falls with several intermediate falls/cascades in the middle.  The campground owner told us there would be fireworks over the lake which the campground overlooks.  We were not sure what to expect.  Just a note, it does not get dark here until after 10:00 PM.  Around 9:30 we noticed little fireworks at different places along the shoreline.  So it seems that everyone brings there fireworks to the lake edge and shoots them off.    So for over 30 minutes we had splashes of color all around the lake.  At 10:00 the KOA across the street did some bigger and higher fireworks.  Not knowing what to expect we were not prepared to take pictures.  We went to bed and the fireworks and celebrating continued long into the night.

 St Mary's Falls

 Rapids along the trail to Virginia Falls

 Virginia Falls

On July 5^th, we slept in after our late evening.  Wayne and I rode the shuttle on the Going to the Sun Road from the St Mary’s Visitor Center back to the Loop where we had ridden to when the road was closed.  So we completed the entire road!  We spent the most time at Logan Pass.  The snow in the area was over 6 feet tall!  They had cleared the roads, sidewalks and parking lots.  The trails that started from Logan Pass were all covered with snow.  Wayne was disappointed to not be able to hike the Highline Trail, so that will be our excuse to come back.  Others were excited for the snow and were carrying their skis and snowboards up the hill.

July 6^th was our last day in the US portion of Glacier National Park.  We drove up to the lodge at Many Glacier where we took a boat/hiking trip.  You ride a boat across the lake, hike for a ¼ mile to another lake, ride in a second boat and then hike 1.25 miles over to Glacier Lake.  It was a beautiful day for the trip and the scenery was spectacular.

From the hill overlooking Many Glacier Lodge

Next stop Waterton, Alberta, Canada !

Note while in Canada we will have cell phone and texting but no data on our phone,  so we will be on the lookout for WiFi hotspots and will post blogs when we can.  We will be in Canada for about a month.

Glacier National Park - Part 1

We had been following the status of the roads and weather at Glacier National Park.  The Going to the Sun Road was ready to open when a blizzard in June dropped a lot of snow and created an avalanche covering a road and destroying a guard rail they had just installed for the new season.  When we left Missoula headed to West Glacier they had no idea when the road would be open.

The drive from Missoula, MT to West Glacier took us by Flathead Lake.  It is huge and beautiful!  Anyone with a boat who does not mind cold weather should be on Flathead Lake.  They had marinas with sail and power boats surrounded by cabins and homes overlooking the lake and mountains.  I took a lot of pictures as we drove by. We went to Fish Creek Campground in Glacier National Park where we spent two nights.  We enjoyed exploring the Lake McDonald Lodge and walking around their property.  Our campsite was fun because we had a deer that was not afraid to come to the edge of the woods to eat.  We saw it eating there on three different occasions and once walking with another deer down the road.

Flathead Lake from the overlook

Around Lake McDonald Lodge

The Going to the Sun Road was still closed but they had a shuttle that would take you from the Visitor Center up to the Loop Road, where you could then walk.  We took the shuttle and walked as far as they would let us, 3 miles one way, on the Going to the Sun Road.  The road was clear with no car traffic, only a few trucks used for the cleanup came by and lots of bicycles.  We learned later that we had a rare opportunity because we were allowed to walk the road.  In the 3 mile section there are not many overlooks, so we got pictures not many tourists are able to take.  Between Wayne and I we took almost 900 pictures that day !!!  Every direction we looked there was another breathtaking view.

Walking on Going to the Sun Road

We then moved over to St. Mary’s Campground which is on the East Glacier side of the park.  It was another pretty trip from one part of the park to the next.  We have enjoyed watching all of the trains which often run parallel to the road.  After getting settled at St. Mary’s we checked out “town” and the St Mary’s Visitor Center.  We drove as far as we could up this end of the Going to the Sun Road.  They have a resurfacing project going on, so it is a dusty trip.  They let us go as far as Jackson Overlook before we had to turn around.  We found out that they had opened up the Going to the Sun Road not long after we had left it !  YEAH !!!  That means we could ride the whole road J

On July 3^rd, we awoke to a cloudy, overcast morning.  We continued with our plans and drove over to Many Glacier.  After exploring the visitor center, lodge and campground the weather cleared.  We hiked up to Apikuni Falls.  The hike was only a mile one direction but I think most of it was uphill.  The falls were very pretty and worth the hike.  We ate lunch at the picnic area and then took pictures of Swift Current Falls near the Many Glacier Lodge.

Apikuni Falls

Swift Current Falls

Check out Part 2 for more pictures from Glacier National Park !

Ennis and Missoula, MT and the Hiawatha Route Rail Trail

Rain was predicted for June 26^th so rather than hike in the rain we decided to drive part way to our next destination. We left Yellowstone and drove to Ennis, MT.  It was a rainy trip but a good day to be in the RV driving instead of hiking.

We arrived in Ennis in time to drive over to Virginia City and Nevada City.  They are famous for being gold rush ghost towns.  It was raining/sleeting/hailing/snowing when we got to Nevada City.  We decided there was not enough to see so we drove back to Virginia City…not much there either.  We picked up a few things at the local high priced grocery store and managed to get back in time to do a couple of loads of laundry.

Life still happens when you are traveling so you have to plan for time for laundry, buying groceries, cleaning and doing some prep cooking.  While waiting for our laundry to finish we were watching the animals in the valley below the campground.  We saw cows, Sand Hill Cranes, and two kinds of deer. After dinner while playing Farkle with Sue and Mark we saw the most beautiful rainbow any of us had ever seen.  The colors were so vivid!  We could not get far enough away to get the whole rainbow in the picture…maybe some Photoshop magic can make it happen.  As we watched the colors got more vivid and it turned into a double rainbow before fading. 

Friday, June 27^th we drove from Ennis, MT to Missoula, MT.  Missoula was our designated shopping and laundry place.  Saturday we enjoyed the Farmer’s Market downtown and shopping at some nice grocery stores along with the book store and Best Buy.  Sunday Wayne and I drove over to the Idaho border to ride the Hiawatha Route Rail Trail.  We rode 19 miles, mostly downhill, enjoying the wonderful mountain scenery and the many placards along the way telling about how the railroad was built in this area.  We went through 10 tunnels, the longest was 1.6 miles, and we went over 8 trestles.  It was cloudy with a little rain along the way but it was a fun ride.  We can mark that one off the bucket list.

Next stop Glacier National Park.