Today we like to do a shout out for Sean’s parents. Happy 57th anniversary.
Today was only a couple hours of driving. I managed to get the same campsite reserved for two nights at glacier national Park, in the St. Mary’s campground, on the east side. It turns out we were in the handicap spot because if you don’t reserve the handicap spot ahead of time, they open them up each day and if nothing else is available, you’re allowed to reserve them. We got to the campground around 12:30, dismounted Howie, and just kind of lounged around for the afternoon. It kind of surprises me the campgrounds are full because they were probably 10% of the spots that still were open by the time I took the dogs for a walk about 8 PM.
The next morning we got up and since we were on the east side, we were able to drive the going to the sun Road and down the other side into Epcot campground in glacier national Park. Such a beautiful drive, although a bit scary from time to time. There was a warning about campers and RVs on the road because of the low overhangs.
We had another lazy afternoon, which actually got a little bit warm, in the low 80s. A storm blew in with a bit of lightning, and sprinkled a little on us, but most importantly, cooled everything off. So far, Howie is doing great, and the electrical is working fabulously.
Tomorrow we get Howie back on the truck and head to Canada.
We got moving from camp and headed towards a town called Anaconda where Ram had indicated a dealer could change that pesky fuel filter. Dee’s Ram service was awesome. They said they could change it in 30 minutes, and we proceeded to remove Howie in their parking lot from the Ram. They said it might be after lunch since it was now 11:30, so Kathy and I took the dogs to the park a block away. The dogs were enjoying the park, Maggie rolling in the grass, Oscar snoozing in the shade, and Zuzu smelling the smells and testing how far she could go before Kathy called her back. Dee’s called at 12:38 and said it was done. Holy cow.
We loaded Howie back on, a procedure we have gotten down to 15-25 minutes by now, and we grabbed McDonalds for lunch before heading north. The day would head us toward Glacier National Park, although I couldn’t get camping reservations for the night.
We stopped in Helena for groceries and supplies and dropped some stuff we don’t need at goodwill. A couple of hours later we found a nice camp for $10 with water and dump in a city called Choteau (Show-tow).
The past several days have put us over budget with the tuck maintenance, groceries, supplies, and fuel. We ended the month $467 over budget. But looking at it, $400 was due to vehicle maintenance and service, which we shouldn’t have for another 10k miles. So we have done well.
Tomorrow we have to get propane, dump the black water, and then head to Glacier. We have a reservation for one night but I’m going to try the first come first serve campground when we get there to see if we can get a site tow two-three nights. Then it will be crossing into Canada and sending a couple of days at Waterton National Park.
No pictures today except of the campsite. And I’m now caught back up with the travel blog.
We sadly had to leave Jake and Monique’s place and head east to visit another spot in Kathy’s National Park book. It was a two hour drive through Missoula and towards Butte to a town called Deer Lodge. We made it at about 2:30 pm and were lucky enough to catch the 3 pm tour.
We were blown away at this national historical site. It is so well preserved and is still an actual working cattle ranch, one of two in the National Park System. If you are in the area, stop by this place. It is incredible. Instead of going into details, here’s a link to the history. https://www.nps.gov/grko/index.htm
The tour of the home is amazing and the guide was so informative of the history and characters. After the guided tour we walked the grounds, buildings, and exhibits until closing time. We could have spent the day here.
We headed a few miles south to a wild camp area and set up for the night near a rushing stream.
Today we’d like to wish Kathy’s parents a happy 60th anniversary
The trail camp was a bit noisy by the road, but given the name, there were some good trails. I walked a loop that was nearly 4 miles across streams and through lush forests. Immediately after breaking camp, we crossed into Idaho. Shortly into our days drive, we stopped at a grocery store and I found some issues with Howie and the lights. It took a bit to find the problem with the extension line which had wires that had become disconnected and shorted. Fortunately there was a Napa and Ace Hardware and I was able to fix the cable and replace the blown fuses in the parking lot. People were incredibly nice as two or three checked in on us as I made the repairs.
Along the way was Big Hole National Historic Park, another battlefield in the Indian Wars that led to Sitting Bull eventually laying down his weapons. A quick storm blew three and dropped some rain at the park just after the dogs got to stretch their legs.
We drove up this beautiful canyon and over a pass with a Ski Resort and then down a long canyon/valley towards Hamilton, MT, where an old friend has settled. We rolled in around 5 to their beautiful homestead and spent three nights there, taking in the local town, doing some fishing, and catching up.
Jake and Monique were married in Hamilton during Covid, after their original venue cancelled their wedding. They found an Air BnB in Hamilton that was available, sight unseen, and fell in love with the area and eventually bought a house and moved there with his daughter. The town is beautiful, and there is hunting and fishing 10 minutes from their home.
Jake and Monique took us down to their favorite restaurant, Naps, that had great hamburgers, salads, and nachos, and then Jake showed us around the area, including the river they frequently fish.
I was able to get some maintenance completed on Howie on Saturday, including my first diesel oil change, and one of the two fuel filters (I couldn’t get the cap off of the engine block one, uggh). Jake had the 1 1/8” socket I didn’t have and a step ladder to get into the engine compartment. He also took us for a ride in his Tesla, which kept a smile on Kathy’s face. I think she might want one when we return. Monique has a horse who became a quick friend of Kathy. She spent the several days feeding, petting, and conversing with him.
Saturday there was a town fest that had the streets in downtown closed so we had lunch at the food trucks and checked out Jake’s favorite store, Fords. The town oh Hamilton could pass for Bedford Falls, in “It’s a Wonderful Life”, and apparently in winter is is beautifully adorned with lights amidst the snow. Later on Saturday Jake loaded up his Side By Side and the four of us headed to to twin lakes, way up in the Bitterroot Mountains where they tried to catch some fish. Monique was successful back down near the dinner camp at the river. Jake lit a fire, cooked hamburgers and beans, and then we packed up and headed back. It’s nice up north where daylight extends to 10pm.
Sunday we parted ways, and headed east a bit to catch another national historic site. It was a great 4 days with two incredible people. We look forward to seeing them again soon.
We left Yellowstone from one of the northern campgrounds around 11am. We missed the checkout at 10 while we were walking the pups. Honestly I was not tracking such an early checkout time from a campground.
We drove the Grand loop again except this time we stayed east to get the western shores of Yellowstone lake. We stopped at the Fishing Bridge campground to drop the waste water as we progressed around to the lake. We saw tons of bison, a herd of elk, and some deer along the way. We stopped at the headwaters campground between the parks so I could take a call and Kathy found an old telephone and some cute ground squirrels.
We continued on, crossed into Grand Tetons National Park, and stopped at the marina visitors center up north to get stamps, learn some things, and buy a sticker. Just north of Jenny Lake Kathy had some coordinates of the site some relatives of here were spread so we took the pups and hiked out so she could lay some flowers for them. Definitely a nice eternal view.
We stopped at Jenny lake for a while, reminiscing about her relatives while taking in the breathtaking scenery. It was getting late and since we could not get a campground we headed towards Jackson. Traffic into and out of that city was crawling and bumper to bumper until we reached the western edge. I had been looking on iOverlander for a free camp site, yet we found a nice spot, not free, but ready for us called Trail Camp.
I started the day off with a long walk with the dogs. I had planned to get up early and hike a trail but I managed to sleep until 7. We had a long days drive today into and across Montana and we needed to get going. Yesterday’s post noted bison and turkeys, and that was the first two hours of the morning. I’ll pick up from there.
Leaving Theodore Roosevelt NP we headed east and then north. There are tons of oil fields up here and the place is booming. The road (85) actually is a 4-lane divided highway, which made the travel quick. And then I saw a sign …. Lewis and Clark Museum.
This museum in Alexander, ND is named Lewis and Clark Museum, but is really a pioneer museum of the area and celebrates all the families that settled and built in this land. The first piece was a log cabin that one family with 8 boys lived in. It was decorated with some early 1900’s frontier artifacts. The main museum is the old 3-story schoolhouse. They have a little bit of everything in there, from frontiersmen and trappers coats made from buffalo, beaver, horse, or any other animal hide, to a history of electricity and radios coming to the area. The museum was built and funded by families in the area who paid for shadowboxes where they could display family photos, heirlooms, Knick Knacks, etc.
The next building housed a history of farm equipment from the area in this massive barn. There were even a couple of Ford model T’s and an International Truck. We spent two hours there, the last portion being in the gift and coffee shop where we met Cathy.
Cathy grew up here and told us stories of her grandfather and grandmother who settled here in 1902, where he first built a small shack on their property. Her grandmother told him to wait on building the house and get the barn completed because that would make them money. Cathy said the barn still is used and maintained on the property. We’ve seen quite a few exhibits and museums, and this one is the best so far. And Cathy also said the town has a hamburger fry in the park every summer Saturday, if we wanted to attend. It’s been going on for the past 70 years. Small town America is such a special thing.
We walked the pups and then got back on the road. Another hour up was the famous Fort Union Trading Post. The actual post was destroyed by the army after it was purchased by the Government and then abandoned for Fort Buford down the river, but this reconstruction is beautiful and gives a good sense of the fort at the time. During its 50 years it was a major trading post for the American fur Company where Indians and trappers and settlers could trade goods from around the world.
The rest of the day was driving down I-95 and then to our campsite, which we found on iOverlander, and turned out to be perfect spot at a fishing access point on the Bighorn River. It started sprinkling and then the thunder and lightning and downpour came. One of my happy places…rain on the roof while camping. Tomorrow we have another big day to get to Yellowstone. I managed to get two nights there in a campground; it’s a tent site, but with parking, so the TC will be great.
