Glacier Nat'l Park

We finish August at Glacier Nat’l Park. After spending considerable time yesterday talking to folks who have been to the park or live nearby we decided to leave earlier this morning for our best shot at seeing a bear. Bingo, about 18 miles in to a 96 mile trip and after taking a few pictures of mule deer 8 ft from the truck there the elusive bugger was walking down the street like we weren’t there. We were able to get two pictures before it disappeared in to the brush, unfortunately neither were very good.

A bit further up the road we could check the mountain goat off the list of animals that allowed us to stand three feet from them and take a picture. A couple huge eagles and that completes our list of animal sightings at Glacier.

If you close your eyes and picture the park on a beautiful late summer day with a light breeze, brilliant sunshine and moderate temperatures then, that would be, the exact opposite of what we had today. We had the opportunity to experience this park in some extreme conditions and it was a very interesting contrast to Yellowstone. When we entered the park it was 54 two hours later at the summit it was 35 with a mild 40 mph breeze and the occasional trip through the clouds. It was amazing.

The drive as you can see is a path called “going to the sun”, many thought this road couldn’t be built and it is easy to see why. Our mirrors were in most of the trip and several times one wheel was on the edge of the pavement or a couple inches from the rocks. It was a gorgeous 6 hour drive.

Yellowstone Grand Tetons

Yellowstone and the grand Tetons are so amazing that it is hard to explain, thanks John R for the tip on the Tetons. The fires in 88 are still obvious but the 2.2 million acres of cliffs, waterfalls, wildlife and wilderness are crazy beautiful. Still no bears, but Missy got the greatest picture of a female Elk one could expect, keep in mind when looking at it that there is zero zoom from the camera.

We were able to see more Buffalo, Eagles, Anolope and new were Coyotes, Grey wolf, a strangely aggressive Raven tiring to get my glove and tons of Elk. All in all we planned, after talking with the ranger, to spend 6 hours the first day, 7 hours the second day and 2. 5 hours the last day viewing the parks. We ended up spending 29 hours in total but left feeling like we saw the whole park, which we didn’t.

There was a tale of two buffalo carcasses six mile from the northeast entrance being guarded by a 700 lb grizzly; we shot out there and nothing. The bear is, by our estimation, fake but the drive was amazing. In addition to the wildlife is a landscape that is alive with boiling hot springs, geysers, pools and extemreophiles (organisms that live in extreme conditions)

Wow ….just, wow hope you like the pics.

Deadwood SD to Yellowstone

On August 24th sitting at our picnic table we are looking at snow capped mountains 6 miles west of Yellowstone. The drive today was from Bozeman MT to west Yellowstone via 191, a two lane road just carved out of the mountains. The hills here are so much more dramatic than any we have come across up until now and leaves us both very thankful we invested in a bigger truck. Today marks the first Moose sighting, they are huge and we were told that it was far less likely we would encounter a Moose than a grizzly, we can’t wait.

Since our last post we have visited Deadwood, the town Wild Bill was shot and was made famous during the gold rush. It felt like what you might imagine early Vegas must have been like. Saloons and casinos were about every other door and the references to old west prostitution and gun fights made you feel like you stepped back 100 years. We had lunch at what is referred to as the best restaurant in SD, remember that the entire population of the state is only 10% of metro Atlanta so we weren’t sure what to expect, Jakes was very nice and we had the entire place to ourselves.

We left SD in route to Yellowstone and three days later here we are. WY was unimpressive on the northeast corner on I-90 until just shy of Sheridan. We will, however, never forget the wind. Sheridan to Bozeman the next day was our first glimpse of what might be in store in the Rockies. We just love the west so far.

More Badlands SD and Wall drug store

There is so much to see in the Black hills area. We ticked two more off the list with a visit to the famous Wall drug store. It was made famous when in the 30's the owners started putting up road signs for free water. Today there are signs all around the world saying how many miles to wall drug. Neat story of success it was fun to look at all the pictures and letters from Presidents to actors and to see all the examples of where the signs are, there is one on the Great Wall of China. It is one of those places that once you have been there it's enough.

We also went through the Badlands in SD (31 mile loop drive) which are as stunning as the ones in ND but very different. For example we saw very few animals, the hill sides were completely barren and this is the first time we saw a man standing naked on a cliff getting his picture taken, apparently he missed the sign that said beware of rattle snakes. Hope you like the pictures.

Crazy Horse, Custers and Needles hwy

What a day, from the downright spiritual three hours at the Crazy Horse memorial to the drive down, and up, Needles hwy to the up close and personal view of wild pronghorns, mules, more buffalo, prairie dogs ect, not sure we could have packed more in to one day.

We talked a little to try and describe what our experience was like at Crazy Horse. We both were completely inspired by the dedication of the memorials creator, Korczak Ziolkowski and his family to telling the story of the American Indians. If you are interested I have attached a link http://www.crazyhorse.org/ . Our experience at Crazy Horse sure didn’t leave us proud to be white.

The memorial is not complete and they estimate it will take 7 years before the horses head is complete, they won’t estimate total completion but one guide said it could be another 100 years. Korczak has been offered help by the government to fund the project and has refused several times, he insisted before his death that the people should fund this memorial in recognition of the American Indian as the government has betrayed them enough. Crazy Horse was chosen to be the one carved in the mountain as he was the only Indian chief to never sign a treaty, refused to live on a reservation and was murdered while under a flag of truce by three American soldiers.

It’s size it absolutely incredible and isn’t captured in the pictures. The head alone on Crazy Horse is slightly bigger than all of Mount Rushmore, each nostril on the horse, once complete will be 30 ft in diameter and Crazy Horses nose is 28 ft long. We leave this place with a better understanding of the American Indian and of the settlers, we are again in awe of what we saw.

The trip through Custer’s state parks 14 mile Animal loop trail was nice but we were kind of surprised that it was less mountains and more huge rolling fields. We then decided to take a famous scenic hwy, Needles, on the way back. Just stunning, ok a bit scary too, At least half of this 18 miles required us to keep the mirrors in and do between 15 and 20 mph there are three single lane tunnels (holes blasted out of the mountain) that require 100% driver attention and in our case some passenger interaction. The views were amazing and worth the occasional white knuckle driving. Love you guys