Glacier National Park East - St Mary, Montana

Don't try to find St Mary, MT on Mapquest or your TomTom because it's not there.  Looks like Browning is the closest thing to where we're at.  We're perched across the street from the park with an awesome view from Johnson's RV Campground (that's our tin can in the pic):

As you can see from the picture, there's still plenty of snow on the mountain in the park!  Only 12 miles of road are open at 2 different park entrances on the East side of the park.  When you see the aftermath of an avalanche that swept across the road and how the trucks must have torn the trees as they removed the snow you can understand why it takes months to clear the road ahead:

Even with only 12 miles open there was more than enough to get in some good sight seeing.  We were also expecting rain but blue skies and the sun have been out since we got here!  Makes for beautiful scenery in the park:

We were fortunate that the winds were calm too so the reflections from the lakes added to the beautiful views:

The views along the scenic drive were spectacular:

Our first afternoon in the park we saw this black bear cross the street in front of the truck and climb up in the brush beside us:

we saw moose:

and mountain goats:

a grizzly mom in the thick woods just off the road:

with her two cubs following close behind:

This wild mare and colt ran down the hill and across the street in front of us - they were being chased by stallions:

Herds of elk in the field off in the distance:

in addition to many prairie dogs and Columbian (that's how they spell it) ground squirrels that are easily confused for one another from a distance:

Along the way we stopped at several waterfalls:

We were able to hike down next to this one:

The next morning we headed out early to see what we could find.  We weren't disappointed at all.  One really nice thing about being here at this time of year is that we saw no other cars for the 1st hour or so in the park.  We did spot this black bear mom and her cubs - we were able to get about 30yds from them - so cool!!!

One of the cubs seemed very curious about us - kept checking us out:

We saw this deer scouting us out for a herd with fawns behind it:

and this eagle's black and white colors stood out from about 1200yds across the lake perched up high:

In some parts of the park it still looked like winter as the lakes were frozen over:

We hiked down this multi level fall until we hit too much snow to continue - each individual fall along the way was beautiful.  With 65 degree weather the snow is melting fast causing the falls and rivers to overflow:

But the best part was when we got to the top, Suze whispers to me "bear".  I look up and see this black bear about 30 yards away from us up the mountain side:

I take his picture and when I look back, Suze was gone (:   We've seen so many bears in the last 2 days that I was feeling a little more comfortable so I stuck around and took a few more shots - this one was camera shy and walked away.

We also caught a couple more moose.  This one was on the move:

and this one either thought he was hiding from us in the branches or he was posing for the camera:

* Just squeezed in this pic in (after initial post) from an afternoon drive where we saw a black bear, several deer, elk and this muledeer with fawn:

We scoped out some of the hikes here but weren't able to get too far because of the deep snow, yet the scenery was incredible:

We found some rough trails down by the water with a good place to rest and take in the view:

What a great place to visit even though the whole park is not open!  In some ways perhaps better as we've been told thousands of visitors will travel the park road in one day in the summer.  We plan to stop here again in August on our way back through.  The entire park should be open by then. We're off to Canada - Banff being our 1st stop.  More to come . . .

North Dakota - Theodore Roosevelt National Park

We left South Dakota and headed for Theodore Roosevelt National Park in Medora, North Dakota.  The park was only $5/night to camp with our annual pass but it had no hookups at all.  We had a nice pull through:

Behind camp was a  river where several buffalo and wild horses were roaming:

or lounging in this case

The park landscape looked similar to SD Badlands and had areas named as such:

There were hundreds of wild horses throughout the park.  This one let us get close without getting spooked:

But this guy appeared rattled and very protective of it's colt:

The buffalo were also being very protective of their young as the moved away from us:

The park had several prairie dog cities with hundreds of the guys:

Since we had no hookups (no electricity) at all, we decided to go into town to grab a bite and hang out for a while at the Knotty Pine Peanut Bar.  6 hours later we had some new friends Ashley (chief cook & bartender), Shep & Eric.  Good times - thanks for the laughs!

We're off to Glacier National Park in Montana for a couple days, then north through Canada to Alaska.  More to come . . .

South Dakota & North East Wyoming

We started our stay in Custer SD at Broken Arrow Campground. Very nice campground with a lot of upgrades going on.  Sites are all pull through with full hookups & a nice view:

The owner Jerry was very friendly and helpful!  We caught more of these bluebirds around camp here:

While here in Custer we checked out the Crazy Horse museum & monument in process:

When finished it will look something like this:

The museum had a lot of Native American history & artifacts that were worth checking out too.  From here we continued on to Mt Rushmore.  From a distance it didn't seem as large as we thought it would be:

But when you hiked up the trail to the base of the monument it looked much more impressive:

The scenic drive nearby through Custer State Park had tunnels strategically carved in the mountain side so you would see the monument through the tunnels:

Custer State Park is one of the largest SPs parks in the US.  We spent several days driving around and through it.  Several times we had to stop for the buffalo crossing the street:

There we many buffalo calves in the herds:

We saw hundreds of deer in and out of the park too.  Some tried to hide:

But many weren't bothered by us at all:

We also saw several prong horn deer:

And some hanging out with the hundreds of local prairie dogs:

We saw a handful of hawks and this one stayed still long enough to capture:

There are many beautiful lakes within Custer SP including Sylvan Lake:

There's a section of the scenic drive called the Needles for its needle like rock structures:

Along the needles scenic drive was a needle eye tunnel (8'4" wide):

After folding the mirrors in and creeping along, we made it through:

While in Custer I made a trip back home where I was able to make it up to Maine to see my 93 year young grandmother who is recovering from a tough fall - You look Great Gram!

When I got back we made our way from Custer up to Wall SD where we camped at Sleepy Hollow campground.  Once setup we checked out Wall Drug very close by - way too much hype on this place!  Don't go out of your way but if in the hood, check it out:

A few miles away is an entrance to the Badlands National Park.  Our first day in we took the Sage Creek Rim Rd where we found some beautiful scenery:

Note the herd of buffalo in the valley:

Several calves here too:

and a few elk among the buffalo too:

We caught this coyote on the prowl:

and this deer hiding just around the corner:

They have an area called Prairie Dog town but it's more like a city there are so many of these guys.

Some had done more with their landscaping:

Another day was rainy and overcast but still a nice drive through the park toward Interior (pop 67):

Sections of the drive wound through these amazing erosions & rolling green hills:

On the morning we were leaving the sun was breaking through the clouds so we took a quick ride through the park:

We tracked down a few families of mountain goats.  This Nannie was carefully watching the kids jumping around the steep cliff with a 150ft straight drop below her:

This small herd was enjoying the view on a very narrow strip of land with very steep walls:

We left Wall for Rapid City to have some work done on the truck and trailer.  The folks at MidStates RV were very helpful.  We ended up staying on site at MidStates for a couple of nights (Elec & water for free).  While here we visited Sturgis 20 miles west while here but it looks like this town is closed down until bike weather arrives.  Also stopped by the impressive National Cemetery where many WWII vets were buried:

We headed an hour west to Spearfish SD where we stayed at Chris' RV Campground.  Owners very friendly and great off-season rates for full hookups including cable and wifi.  Sites 55 & 56 have great views!  While here in Spearfish, we drove up the Spearfish Canyon.  We saw several waterfalls including bridal veil:

Along the way we caught this woodchuck trying to hide in the brush:

And worth the 2.5 mile dirt road drive up to Roughlock Falls:

Even though it's supposed to rain for the next week in this area, we decided to check out Devils Tower in Wyoming about 55 miles away.  When we arrived, the weather wasn't looking so pretty:

At the base we decided to go for the hike around the tower anyway and within 5 mins the clouds cleared away and the sun came out just long enough to make it around the tower!

While hiking around the tower we ran into this guy who wasn't bothered much by us:

And grazing around the base of the tower we found this longhorn:

So it was a great visit to South Dakota.  We're now off to T. Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota for a couple days before we start heading further west into Montana.  More to come . . .