Day 61- Yellowstone

 August 11

I was not in a rush getting everyone up and moving this morning.  I figured if Yellowstone was like Glacier then everyone goes early and it's opened up a little more in the afternoon.

We just kinda got ready for the day and everyone's own pace.  Made and ate lunch and packed snacks and waters.  Heidi started not feeling well so she was going to stay back and rest.

They have several webcams throughout the park so I checked out the cam at the West entrance.  It was cars lined up as far as the camera could capture.  By the time we got there about 1:30 we were able to drive right in.  My theory was correct.  

They didn't give me a map at the entrance so I wasn't sure what or where to go.  I do love the app, but there is no map.  We had planned on Old Faithful so we followed the signs for that.  

It didn't take long to see some wildlife.  Maybe a mile on the road down to Old Faithful was a bison just hanging out in the shade under a tree.  

We saw a large area of steam and maybe some bursts of water so we pulled in to the parking area.  It had a boardwalk to explore the area.  I gave the kids the option of exploring it and Old Faithful now or wait until Heidi was with us.  They were unanimous that we needed to wait for Heidi.  

Almost all the geysers and thermals have pull outs.  The bigger ones have parking lots.  We just stopped if we saw one that looked cool.  We figured we would do some hiking.  And you can if you want, there are trails everywhere.  But we were perfectly fine driving and stopping to see things as we wanted.  

The girls were pretty amazed at the water boiling up from underground.  They seemed generally interested when I explained how as the water cooled at the edges of the pools the minerals in the water would reharden to create the sides of the pools.

We finally arrived at Old Faithful.  I only wanted to stop to go to the visitors center as there was not one at the entrance.  However, it was erupting so we had to check it out.  It was at the end so we didn't see the full height.  We will come back tomorrow.  

At the visitors center I got my map.  The park is divided into two connected loops.  I think the plan is to get there earlier the remaining two days and do a loop each day.  We also watched a short film that centered around the Nutcracker bird and its role in helping to spread the forest of white pine.  It was very interesting and held the girls attention for the entire film.  

One of my most important question for the Rangers was where the big horn sheep are.  They are the only large animal we have not seen on this trip.  We have amazingly seen everything else.  Even the more elusive animals.  They are in the more mountainous part of the park which was roughly an hour and a half drive to the northern loop.  We got there and drove up a dirt road to a freshly paved lot.  Weird that they would haul material and equipment all the way up there, but not do the road as well.  There was a 4 mile round trip hike to a peak.  Libby and I decided to hike up to a plateau roughly 1000 feet up the trail.  I'm defiantly out of shape but being 9000 ft plus a steep climb had me glad I was not doing the full trail.  

Unfortunately we did not see any sheep.  I didn't have much hope being so close to the parking lot.  We might go up there again with Heidi.

It was getting late and everyone was hungry so we headed towards the camper.  It was at least an hour and a half to get home.  We turned on to the road to leave and traffic was at a stand still.  I was a little worried it was going to be 14 miles of stop and go.  About 5 minutes late I found out why.  Everyone was rubber necking for the bison that was standing on the side of the road having a midnight snack.  I would not be surprised if it was the one we saw earlier in the day.  

We finally got out of the park about 9:30.  I had planned on burgers for dinner but by the time we got back and food maid it would be about 11.  Luckily there is a McDonalds just as you leave so we picked up something there.

Day 60- Yellowstone

 August 10

Hipcamp

Today was a travel day.  over 6 and a half hours without stops.  The long days were fine on the front side but they really suck now that we are close to home.

Nothing exciting about the drive.  There was a lot of nothing coming from Glacier to Yellowstone.  We are actually in Idaho.  Since the west side of Yellowstone is so close we get to cheat and stay on the boarder so we can get another sticker on our state map.  It is also significantly cheaper staying here.  Average price of any campground that was not sold out when I made reservations was $150 a night.  I'm again paying $40.  Since we don't spend a lot of time at the camper I don't need to overspend for amenity's I'm not going to use.  

We got in and set-up about 7:30.  Considering we left at 10:30 we were on the road longer than we should have.  But I stopped for gas twice.  It's super expensive around here so when I see a station not gouging I top off.  We also stopped to grab some food.  We are all tired of sandwiches.  I also had to stop to fill the water tank.

Heidi also drove out to spend the last wee with us!  She got here a little after 8.  We were all excited to see her.  We decided to go out to eat.  Since we are on the edge of Yellowstone there are a lot of places to eat as there are equal places to stay.  For a Saturday most close early though.  We decided on one of two places that were open past 9.  Connie's Restaurant and Saloon.  It was really good food and we had the best time laughing and reliving our trip so far.  

No real plans for Yellowstone.  I just found out that the National Parks Service has an app and you can download all the info for the park you're visiting since there is no cell service.  This will be great since Yellowstone is so large.   They have the same busses as Glacier, except they are Yellow.  Depending on what we have seen and availability we might do that the last day.   They also have a photo safari that is a half day in the morning that sounds like a ton of fun.  Also have a chuckwagon dinner.  We will play it by ear though.  

Day 59- Glacier

 August 9

Today was our ride on the famous Glacier Red Bus.  We had to be there by 9 so we actually got up early today.

It was a beautiful day.  Shinning sun and no wind.  A bit chilly though.  The  busses were built in the 1930's by White Motor Company for the National Parks Service.  Ford now has the contract for when it's time to refurbish them.

Since we had traveled to Logan's Pass yesterday we saw all of the same scenery.  Although this morning it was not cloudy or have haze.  I was able to redo many of my photo's and get better detail.  Of course we had the narration to go along with what we were seeing.

Everything after Logan's Pass was new to us. Because it was lower in elevation the forest was totally different.  It changed from the pines and aspen's to birch and cottonwood trees.  The lower elevations were also denser.  

Midday we arrived at the lodge at Lake McDonald.  Here we got lunch.  Of course all the other busses were either just arrived or just behind us.  I had planned to get lunch here so we got in line for the restaurant.  We would have had a 30 minute wait, which would probably have been fine.  I grabbed a menu so we could figure out what we wanted so we could order right away.  The girls didn't see anything they liked so we headed over to the other place that was a pizza buffet.  Of course there was a line over there as well.  The pizza ended up being really good.  Although the menu at the more formal place also looked great.

By the time we got done we only had about 10 minutes to check out the waterfront.  It would be a cool place to hang out for a bit.

After lunch we headed back.  We didn't make as many stops as we did the first time.  We were back by 5.

We needed milk so we headed to the grocery.  It was more of a really big convince store as everything was double anywhere else.  The milk was $6 for a half gallon.  The girls will be eating cereal dry tomorrow. 

After we got back I laid down for a bit.  The wind and sun knocked me out.  The girls also rested and hung out.  Libby wanted spaghetti and at some point Davan made it.  

Later I made a fire and they had s'mores.

 

Day 58- Glacier

 August 8

Since I was not sure what I wanted to do today, plus the thought of thousands of people and cars to deal with I was not in a rush to get moving this morning so we slept in.  

I finally decided I was going to skip going to the west side and just go in the east.  Mainly because there was a boat ride that I thought would be cool and that was on the east side.  

After lunch we set out.  I wanted to find a place with a printer.  The National Park Service has a program for 4th graders that get them and their family free entry into any National Park.  I had printed one off for Denali in Alaska but didn't even think I would need it for Glacier and Yellowstone so I had to print off a new one.  The office at the campground was closed, luckily the gas station did it for me.

Once in the park we stopped at the visitors center.  We bought an ornament, magnet and sticker.  Also, tomorrow night they have a special astronomy event in the evening.  Tickets were $5.  I bought one.  Hopefully everyone is agreeable to go.  They like playing with my star app when we camp.  

Our next stop was at St. Mary Lake.  I wanted to go on a boat ride from Glacier Park Boat Company.  I was unable to reserve a spot so close but when I called around noon they said they had 20 open spots for the 3 pm which is what I wanted anyways.  We got there about 2:40 and they were sold out.  They told us to hang out and if there were no shows we could go.  Ended up there were exactly 4 no shows so we got on.  The trip was about an hour and a half and included a 20 minute stop to get off to look at a waterfall.  It was pretty fun.  The lady that was our boat driver had recently graduated college in geology so she told us a lot of interesting things of how the park was formed.  We have had some of the best guides on this trip.  

After the boat ride we headed up to Logan's Pass.  I worried about nothing about the length of the truck.  No one checked. Although in the visitors center the Ranger did say the shuttle would be the way to go because the lot would be full when we get there.  The problem is that the shuttle does it's final stop at 7:30 and if we did the boat and the hike, we most likely would not be back in time for the shuttle to get back.  

I decided to risk it.  I read reports of people circling for 20 minutes to get a spot.  However, since it was around 5pm, a lot of people were leaving.  I just followed some people that were walking back to their car and we got a spot right away.  

We were told the best chance to see a mountain goat would be on the Hidden Lake trail.  It's about 1.5 miles to the observation deck or 5 miles to the lake itself.  The entire hike to the observation deck was uphill.  The Parks Service has done a great job making a wooden boardwalk nearly the entire distance.  

Once at the deck I was taking some photo's when Davan comes to me and says she thinks she found a goat but was not sure.  I asked if it was white. She said yes, so I told her that was a goat.  It was beyond the deck a few hundred feet.  It was off the path and up the hill about 50 feet.  I got a few photo's but then it  walked up and sat down in the grass so all we could see is its head and back.  I waited it out a few minutes and it got up and walked behind some bushes and down the other side of the hill.  I walked along the path and as I got past the bushes there it was right in front of.  It stopped right on the edge of the trail and started munching on the grass.  It didn't take long for a crowd to form.  Several people either didn't want to stop to look or got tired of looking and walked past it.  Maybe a foot away.  The only time it flinched and jumped was when one clumsy person nearly tripped on a rock.  The grass it was eating must have been really good because it went back to it immediately.  After 10 minutes or so it decided to it was done and walked directly on the trail.  The girls had had enough and wondered off and I had plenty of photo's anyways so I went to find them.

The return trip downhill was a lot quicker.  We got to the truck about 7:30.  We were all hiked out for the day.  Since we are traveling the same road on the bus ride we didn't feel it was necessary to drive into the park any further so we headed back to the camper.  

Day 57- Glacier

 August 8

Chewing Black Bones Campground 

Today we enter back into the lower 48.  I didn't think we would have laundry at our overnight and we are dry camping at Yellowstone so we stopped in Calgary to wash clothes.  I'm thinking we might have to do laundry once more.  Only because Summer does not have enough clothes to make it.  Once we got to the campground I realized they had laundry, but going to a laundromat I was able to do it all at once instead of having to share two machines with the rest of the campground.  

The border was a quick stop as always.  We got to the campground about 5:30.  It's on a Reservation.  Most campgrounds are far away except a KOA but they are $150 a night.  I'm paying $35 here.  Easy choice despite being a bit rough around the edges.  

It is a bit more remote here, while filling the fresh water I saw two elk on the hillside across from us.  It was a bit away though so I couldn't make out many details but the had the correct coloring so was easy to identify.  We are also on a lake and saw two beavers fishing in the lake.  That was pretty cool to watch.

I tried to get a vehicle pass into Glacier.  I was an hour late so figured I would miss out.  They were all sold out except the west entrance for the Going To The Sun Road.  It's a two hour trip to get there as we are one the East side.   I found out that you can enter the East side without a pass though So we might just do that.  Also there is a vehicle length restriction at some point.  I can't really tell where it is on the map.  21 ft.  The truck is 22ft if I my iPhone measure app is correct.  Hopefully they don't enforce that very well.  

Like Banff I didn't plan anything other than a Red Bus tour for Friday.  There are some boat rides at the various lakes so we might do that if we can get a spot.  I've read that they are pretty good.  There's also a hike at Logan's Pass that pretty much guarantees seeing mountain goats.  Summer said she wanted to see one at the beginning of the trip so hopefully we do.  

 

Day 56- Banff

 August 6

Before I went to bed the night before the forecast was saying it was going to be raining all day.  I had my alarm set for 8:30 but planned on sleeping in.  Summer had other plans and was in and bugging me to get up.  Of course once I did she laid there all morning.  Figures.

It was overcast and foggy.  The forecast still called for rain all afternoon.  Radar was also indicating rain.  I pout a post out on Facebook on indoor things to do with the kids.  No museums.  Guess what kind of responses I got?  Hike this or that, go to this or that museum.  I swear people don't read.  

I caught up on a few things, while trying to get the girls to decide on what to do.  Radar was looking clear so I thought we could take a chance on doing something outside.  Summer wanted to do the adventure place on the west side and Davan wanted to go to the lakes.   Unfortunately my computer has not updated the time after crossing the time zone so I thought it was 11, but was really noon.  So we scrambled to get ready and eat lunch.

We finally left the camper about 1:15.  It was a 2.5 hour drive to the Golden Skybridge.  With a gas stop we got there just before 4.  Davan was refusing to go.  She was willing to sit in the truck so I let her.  Paying was a bit comical.  The biplane has a 250lb weight limit.  I think her scale was wrong but she had be at 254.  She told me to dump my pockets.  That got me to 252.  She asked if there was anything else I could get rid of.  I said I had to pee, maybe that would do it.  I took my stuff out to the truck, and realized I had my leather belt with a somewhat heavy buckle.  Ditched that as well.  I went back and still with my phone and GoPro I was at 252.  Without the phone and GoPro I was right at 250.  Figured I'd have the girls hold my stuff on the zipline as she did say they reweigh.  I had a can of pop on the way.  If I wouldn't have had that I probably wouldn't have had to keep a grip on my shorts all day long.  

Once inside the girls wanted to play on the playground and mini biplane for a minute.  Then it was to the bridge.  It's about 500 ft above the canyon.  I think this is why Davan didn't want to go.  I don't think she likes heights.  It was pretty cool, but a bit unnerving as it does sway and bounce a bit with each step.  It didn't help that one couple was letting their kid run full speed back and forth.  Idiots.

On the other side was the ropes course,  We got fitted into harnesses and had to do a quick learners course and we were off.  We got on the first platform and after watching Libby, summer decided she didn't want to do it.  Probably cause the family in front of us had a parent pushing their kid to go that was a bit scared, plus the first obstacle was walking a wire like a tightrope.  It was a bit tricky as the guide wire was not taught so it was easy to slip off.  

Libby and I did the easy and the intermediate course, then did the zipline course.  When she was getting down I asked Summer if she wanted to do the zipline and she said no.  Of course once we were done she said she had wanted to do the zipline but they made her take off the harness and said she couldn't do it without doing the beginner ropes first.

We made our way over to the alpine coaster.  Libby and Summer were going to ride together but Summer was having a change of heart and was thinking about going by herself.  After a bit of talking she decided to go alone.  The coaster was a lot of fun.

Next was the zipline.  This brought us back to the other side.  The mosquitos were horrible and the line was going super slow.  After a wait it picked back up.  We did not get reweighed.  So I ended up with Libby's phone and mine and I wore my GoPro.  Summer was excited to do it which surprised me.  I asked if she wanted to do a zipline activity in Denali and I couldn't convince her to go for anything.  

Finally it was our turn.  It was pretty cool.  We all went at the same time.  We got off the platform right at 8 which is when they close.  So we did not get to do any ax throwing or the rock wall.  Summer was a bit bummed about the rock wall.  We also did not get to do the canyon swing.  Libby claimed she wanted to do it. It was an extra cost but I would have been willing to do it.  We met Davan back at the truck.  The battery was totally dead.  Like dead dead.  She claims she did nothing but I'm sure she kept turning it to run so it would charge her phone.  Luckily someone stopped since I had the hood up and had jumper cables.  I can't believe I didn't pack them.  I normally have them in a box in the back of the truck but I took the box out.  I had intentions of putting them under the rear seat but must have forgot.  

We still had some daylight so I was going to stop at Lake Louise.  Instead I saw a sign for the Natural bridge and Emerald Lake.  The natural bridge is just a grouping of rock that had a limestone center so over time it wore away letting the river pass through it.  It was pretty impressive.  

After it was a quick 5 miles up the road to Emerald lake.  It of course had the signature emerald color all the lakes are known for up here. Because we were so late it was pretty much just us.  There is an island just off the parking lot.  They built a bridge and it is filled with rentable cottages.  Along the trail was a beach like area.  We could see someone swimming in the water.  

Davan and Summer went back to the car while Libby and I went to the beach area.  As we turned the corner the woman was getting out of the water.  She was completely naked.  There was a guy there holding up a tool but it only covered her top half.  I don't know what the deal was because when we first got there, there was a family right where she was swimming.  We had spent about 15 minutes crossing over to the island and then walking back so she must have been in the water for a while.  All the lakes around here are glacier fed so I would think the water was pretty cold.  

Davan was less than enthused about the lake.  It kind of made me mad since she is the one that made a big deal about going.  I'm sure it was so we wouldn't go to the park, but she could have at least faked it.  Especially since I've been telling them for months about how I was here when I was 15 and wanted them to experience it so bad.  

We still had a long ways home.  It of course started raining pretty hard.  Hopefully Jasper has been getting some off this rain to help with the fires.  They girls were hungry but I just wanted to get back to the camper as I had put a roast in the crock pot.  Summer has been asking for one since she knew I brought it.   Because I thought the weather would be bad and not be out late I set it out to thaw so I had to use it.  I turned it on in the morning and tossed in the potatoes and carrots as we walked out the door.  It was 11:30 before we got back so the potatoes had turned mostly to mush despite cutting them extra big.  Everything was still really good.  We ate and headed to bed.