Glacier Nat'l Park West - Hungry Horse, MT

We landed at Mountain Meadows Campground in Hungry Horse, MT.  Very nice, clean and well maintained!  Full hookups, wifi and some very spacious pull-thru sites:

The West side of Glacier is more built up and commercialized than the East side.  There are way too many tourist here now!  Everyone seems to be in a huge hurry to get through the park - I don't get it!  Our 1st day we didn't spot any wildlife but the scenery was beautiful:

Lake MacDonald

Avalanche creek runs along side much of the road:

Unfortunately the "Road to the Sun" is not open due to 25' of snow still to be cleared near the top.  We were allowed to park at Avalanche and then ride bikes for a few miles further:

The west side road is narrow with few spots to pull over so if you are lucky enough to spot wildlife, take your pictures and move on.  We only saw this yearling cub on the roadside with no momma bear in sight:

We decided to drive over to the east side 1 day (about 95 miles).  The wild flowers are in bloom and they are beautiful:

It was very windy the day we drove to the east side:

On our way into the park we spotted this black bear and cub:

We drove to the road block at Jackson Glacier overlook and then biked/walked (steep climb) to Siyeh Bend:

Going back down was much easier:

We stopped and hiked St Mary Falls trail on our way out:

This is a great hike with cool waterfalls around every corner:

We spotted these ferocious beast on this hike:

Just for you Greg!

We were lucky enough to spot the same black bear and cub on our way out too:

The cub seemed more interested in playing rather than eating.  Peek a boo, we see you:

We also drove the Many Glacier entrance to the park while on the east side.  This grizzly welcomed us just past the ranger station:

Suze spotted an ad for a horseshoe tourney at Southfork Saloon in Martin City next door to our camp-we had to go!  Fun bar, newly built pits, great people, good times had by all:

Yes that's a PBR I'm drinking - good stuff cheap!

and crawling their way back from a 1st round elimination to take the championship:

John may not have been the best at shoes but he makes some really cool log/antler mugs (he is holding one)!!!  Check him out at:  www.silveroakfurniture.com  We wish you all the best John!

Feeling good now, I was giving advice on how to throw shoes to Betty who sometimes held on a little too long which meant the horseshoe could end up anywhere:

Don't forget to let it go Betty!

She returned the favor by giving dance lessons later that night:

We had a great time hanging with the whole gang from Southfork Saloon!  In general there's more going on over here on the west side but we liked the east side better for animal viewing.  We're headed to Yellowstone & Grand Teton next.  More to come .  .  .

Jasper BC to Glacier Nat'l Park MT - a farewell to Canada, eh?

We made our way from Dawson Creek back to Jasper National Park where we stayed at Whistler's Campground again.  Along the way, we saw a coyote just south of Grand Prairie, several deer along the way and these elk once we reached Jasper:

Nice Rack!

We wanted to wrestle this one elk's antlers for Sam Taylor . . . but he gave that "go for it and I won't be the only one with antlers growing on me" look:

We stayed in Jasper for a couple nights.  The next morning we drove out to Maligne Lake to take a cruise out to Spirit Island.   Unfortunately soon after getting on the boat the clouds rolled in and the rain came down when we hit spirit island.  We still managed to see some beautiful sights anyway:

Beautiful blue/green water!

On our way back to the dock the the sun broke out again which just enhances the colors:

Despite the weather, the trip was worth it!  The scenery back on shore is beautiful too:

This would be a great place to rent a kayak and cruise the lake..  On the road back to Jasper we ran into this little black bear:

In case you can't tell, he's hanging about 25' up in a tree (check out the paw):

Check him out- eating the balsam poplar's fruits:

We also drove up route 16 east a few miles and found our coyote friend up there:

He was in a zone watching another coyote trot by . . . which he ended up following.  We also drove up 93a toward Athabasca Falls and saw this big ole brown black bear on the way:

and this little black black bear:

We eventually made our way up to Athabasca Falls:

Jasper is a great place to visit!  The drive from jasper to Banff through the Columbia Icefields is incredible too!  The whole drive is breathtaking!  Aside from the Icefields and glaciers, you have to stop by Peyto Lake and make the short steep hike - worth it!

No color enhancing going on here- it's glacial sediment, reflection and refraction doing it's thing.  Must see if driving by!  There's also a rest stop along the way with a very cool waterfall across the street:

Aside from the beauty of Banff Nat'l Park, they have several bridges constructed just for animals to cross the highway (it's all dirt with trees and shrubs on the top):

We made the mistake of trying to hit Lake Louise with our trailer in tow.  The crowds are officially here!  Needed people to move their cars just to get our rig through the parking lot and back out.  We decided to take 93 south from here to Glacier Nat'l Park West.  The drive was beautiful (here's a pic with the camera through the sunroof while driving):

Going down one massive hill passing through Kootenay Nat'l Park we ran into a short delay from this tanker that rolled over:

Hopefully the driver was OK!  With the river running on the other side of the street, looks like another ground water testing job for Jeff & Kyle!  Make sure to stop at Peyto Lake guys!  More beautiful scenery along the way to Cranbrook BC where we stopped for the night (another thru the sunroof pic):

We stayed the night at Mt Baker RV Park.  This placed looked questionable at first being located pretty much on the edge of downtown Cranbrook but once we got settled it worked out great!  Full hookups, wifi, cable and these guys were OK with us washing our vehicles - 1st place in 9 months!  People that ran the place and the seasonals staying there were all very nice.  Short trip from here to Glacier Nat'l Park the next day.  Here's a sneak peak.

More to come . . .

Road to Dawson Creek

On our way from Haines to Dawson Creek we stopped at Johnson RV in Johnson's Crossing.  We'd heard about the fresh cinnamon rolls there.  We took 2 bites and threw them out.   The owners attitude in general was terrible!  Full hookups but small sites - keep driving to Teslin next time!  The next day, once we got past Whitehorse the scenery started picking up.  We made a pit stop in the town of Watson Lake to check out Sign Post Forest:

This started back in 1942 when a serviceman building signs in the area added a sign which stated "Danville, Illinois, 2835 miles".  The tradition continued over the years with current estimates at 75K+ signs from all over the world.  We made our own sign and posted it:

Our next stop was Laird River HotSprings Provincial campground.  No hookups but a beautiful campground with an awesome hotspring!  We watched the Bruins win the cup across the street in the lobby of a hotel.  Special thanks to Kyle and Jeff for providing beer for everyone during and after the game:

We made some friends but the Canuck fans needed some time to get over the loss:

We all ended up across the street in the hotsprings after the game (I found the Bruins fans section under the hotspring falls):

How better to dry off after a dip in the hotsprings than with beverages while sitting around a nice fire with new friends Kyle & Jeff - Bruins Fans (for today) from Edmonton and the honeymoon couple Rosemary and Titus (Canuck Fans):

Good conversation, Great Laughs!

Time flies when you're having fun (especially when it stays light till midnight here) so we called it quits around 2am.  While we packed up in the morning, this little guy watched from behind our rig:

We headed south east toward Ft Nelson.  Along the way, we saw herds of buffalo and several black bear including this big ole black bear:

We ran into several sheep along the road side near Muncho Lake:

Here's a view of Muncho Lake from the north end:

There was little traffic passing by but the trucks spooked the sheep up the mountain side:

We also saw caribou along the way:

This one looked curious as it came closer to our truck:

Glacier melt sediment, reflection and refraction create the beautiful blue/emerald green color of Muncho Lake:

We're not sure if this is what they refer to as a spirit bear up here but it sure looked a lot like a "white" black bear:

What are the chances we'd also run into these two wild ones along the roadside too:

Kyle trying to look busy

Mr Touchy-Feely Jeff last night is camera shy & all work today

These guys were doing ground water testing where a gas tanker truck had a spill years ago.  We had fun guys - keep in touch!

Back to the 4 legged animals.  Check out the wool coat on this ole sheep.  Many little lambs this time of year too:

We say goodbye to Muncho Lake where the gas is $1.899/liter ($7.30+/gal) but the wildlife and the scenery is incredible:

Further on down the road to Ft Nelson we saw these 2 black bears eating roadside:

In Ft Nelson we stayed at the Triple G Hideaway RV Campground.  This was the first place on our trip where the campground was nearly full - most places so far only had a handful of RVs.  Most everyone else is just now heading north.  Nice campground with full hookups, wifi & cable!
From Fort Nelson we made our way to Dawson Creek.  We saw a couple of moose and a herd of deer along the way but that was pretty much it.  Scenery was OK but nothing like what we came through the day before.  Fewer mountains here with many farms.  We got the last available site at Mile 0 RV Campground.  Place is packed but seems nice, full hookups with wifi - no cable.  Dawson Creek is a good size town with most everything you'd need.  We hung here for a couple nights working on our revised travel plan.

More to come . . .