The Rest of the Way Home (10-04-20)

It’s hard to believe the summer is over, and we spent the last few weeks making our way home. We had to take our planned stop in the Black Hills off the agenda, since we got delayed by almost a week with the truck issues.

The change allowed us to take 5 days and drove south to Abilene TX, where our friends Wil and Gayle recently relocated. After a fun filled two days with them we were on the move again.

Our next stop was a two day drive- El Paso TX to see Paul’s mom.  She is doing great, although like all of us, she is struggling a bit with the isolation these last few months. She is still working on her 90th birthday gift…a puzzle of her kids and grandkids.

It’s still quite hot in Havasu, so we didn’t want to rush home quite yet.  I had doctor appointments in Phoenix, so we worked our way there and found a place to stay that has a decent pool.

We sat down with a map and calendar to see if our thought about going to the north rim of the Grand Canyon was actually a good idea. We decided it wasn’t. Frustrating that we weren’t able to make it there this year, but I guess it gives us something to plan for next year.

We chose, instead, to drive to Williams AZ and spend a couple of days hanging out there.  Its only 2.5 hours from the house, but its at higher elevation, so its cooler. 

 

In theory we were going to do some hiking- in reality we went for a “Scenic Drive” – or, more accurately, a “bone jarring, teeth rattling drive down a dirt ‘road’”. 

 The views where we stopped to have lunch were pretty good but not worth the trip there and back. 

We took advantage of the great weather to eat out at a restaurant with outdoor seating and live music.

Now that we are home, we will spend a few days moving back into the house, and getting ready for a visit from our daughter and her friends in a week or so.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

 We had debated for quite a while whether the trip over to North Dakota was worth a 3 day drive. In the end, we decided it was, because we’d never spent any time there, and although there doesn’t seem to be all that much of interest, there IS a national Park.

Unfortunately the drive there was not uneventful. Driving down the highway we heard a loud popping noise. We both froze, listening and watching, to figure out what happened.  The truck was still running and the trailer was still where it should be.  About 5 seconds later, Paul- I am always thankful that he is so technically inclined- said “ we blew a hose”.  There was no shoulder and nowhere to pull off.  I looked on google map and found a pull off 4 miles ahead.  Luckily it wasn’t so serious that we couldn’t make it that far.

Sure enough, the cold side Turbo something or other hose was not only  disconnected, it was broken. A bunch of duct tape later, we were able to continue on our way to the nearest town with a decent RV park. Finding a new hose was not a piece of cake. There are 15,000 of them on back order with Ford. NO one had one. Realizing it wasn’t going to be a quick fix, I canceled our reservations for the next few days.  

We (he) finally found one, but when we called to see if they would overnight it, it turns out they didn’t actually have one- but he actually emailed us later in the day to tell us that his competitor does have one in stock. We didn’t care for the price and it wasn’t the exact hose we needed but it took 3 days just to find that one, so we had them overnight it. We still ended up spending 5 days in the little town of Glasgow Montana dealing with all this.

The upside for me was that the RV park was part of a motel, and there was an indoor pool, suitable for swimming laps, hooray!

Because the truck was still usable, we were able to do some food shopping and even went out to eat one night. Once we knew the part was on its way, we went off exploring for a day. The only thing of interest that we could find was the Fort Peck Dam. 

As seems to be the case everywhere we go this summer, Lewis and Clark came thru this area on their famous expedition. At that time, this was just the Missouri River, but the dam was built in the 1930s, creating Fort Peck Lake, the 5th largest man made lake in the U.S.

Once the new hose was installed, we were on our way to North Dakota. 

Theodore Roosevelt National Park has 3 sections- we explored two of them. This park was created in the 1940s to commemorate all that Teddy Roosevelt did for conservationism. In fact, while president, he was responsible for creating The U.S. Forest Service, 18 national monuments, 5 national parks, and 150 national forests- 230 million acres of land.

These badlands were where Roosevelt had his ranch- and the peacefulness he felt here is partly what inspired him to conserve so many wild areas for future generations.

The south section of the park was full of wildlife- from adorable prairie dogs to feral horses. 

If you’ve never seen what a prairie dog town looks like- this is it.  

A field of holes. Usually prairie dogs are standing watch just outside their homes, but there are not many predators here, so they seem more comfortable without the lookouts.

Bison are prevalent here too, as we discovered when we got stuck in a bison jam. 

It doesn’t bother me when people stop briefly in the middle of the road to take a picture, but it annoys me when they essentially park there for 10 minutes, blocking traffic.

At least I got a couple of decent pictures myself.

The north section is an hour away and deserved an entire day of exploring. Although there is wildlife here as well, we were focused on the hiking.

We chose a 4 mile trail – Caprock Coulee- which turned out to be an excellent choice.  

The first half mile was an interpretive nature trail. There are two types of erosion at work in the badlands- rivulet erosion, which you can see-the channels in the stone are created by rain. The other is differential erosion. The under layer erodes away but the rock that creates the cap is harder and doesn’t erode as fast.

The rest of the trail was just fun- with great views and some interesting rock formations to hike on. 

Hungry Horse, MT (09-08-20)

 

Yeah, we actually stayed in a town called Hungry Horse. Why would someone name a town such an unusual name? Well, in 1900 two prodigal horses broke loose from a pack, just before the first snow. They were found, over a month later, skinny but alive, chest deep in a snow bank, and so this area became known as Hungry Horse.  

Nowadays its more known for the dam that holds water in the Hungry Horse Reservoir.

There is a scenic (and I use that term loosely) drive that goes all the way around the reservoir. When we talked to a ranger, she suggested that if we want to do the drive, that we plan ahead- its 105 miles of dirt/gravel road- but she assured us that (even though she had never driven it) it would be worth it- there is a beach for swimming at the other end, and scenic views along the way. With temps in the high 80s, we were sold. 

So we packed a lunch, our swimsuits and our hiking boots, in case we got adventurous, and fueled up the truck.

Most of the drive is what we could call a green toboggan run. Trees on both sides, with the occasional glimpse of the water. We were also on the lookout for wildlife, but only saw two bald eagles, very far away.

 At least we managed to find a decent overlook to stop and have lunch, before continuing along our way. We never did see a real beach, just some campsites that had access to the water.  There were tons of campsites along the way- when we were eating lunch a family stopped and was going to camp there, disappointed that they hadn’t found anything with water access (although the water looks close, it is a 30 ft drop). Being nice, I told them that we had come from the opposite direction and had seen at least 3-4 sites still available.  

They thanked me as they threw themselves back in the car to try and snag a spot before they were gone.

So, why are we really here? Because this is one of the gateways to Glacier National Park. 

I often tell the story of the last time we were in Glacier, when the title to my blogpost was “not every day can be a 10” http://soos-ontheroad.blogspot.com/2012/07/not-every-day-can-be-10-glacier-np-07.html 

Luckily for us, our one day in Glacier this time around was an 11! With the holiday weekend approaching we knew we needed to get into the park before that. As it is, the parking lots were filling up at 7 am most mornings.  We took a different approach.  We waited until noon. 

Our plan was to hike to Avalanche Lake but we had two back up plans in case we couldn’t find parking. Amazingly enough we found a spot within 10 minutes- not easy when you are parking a dually.

The hike was awesome- what we call a Twofer.  The hike itself was great, and so was the destination. 

The trail was pretty busy, but there was plenty of room for everyone. 

When we got to the lake, it was gorgeous, but we kept walking, and were rewarded with a quiet place with an awesome view, to sit and eat our lunch. 

Naturally, I had to put my feet in the water- and took them out a few minutes later, quite numb. 

It was so hot out, there were people swimming…..brrr.

The route back was still fun and interesting and it was still early enough in the day to keep going, and so we did.

Driving Going to The Sun Road (GTTSR) is not for the faint of heart. It is the most terrified I have been on a drive, and I am no stranger to being scared on roads. I have a well defined fear of falling (dying). 

 Lucky for me I have a very capable and confident driver. 

This narrow, curvy road has sheer drop offs that are just on the other side of the granite curbs.  

It also has some pull offs with some kick ass views. I did survive ( don’t ask how many times I told Paul to slow down) and we made it to Logan Pass- the main parking lot for Glacier National Park.  

We weren’t sure we would find a spot but it was worth the risk. Part of the reason parking has been so crazy here is that half the park is closed. Nothing on the east side is open, including the roads in, so everyone is on this side of the park. 

Our luck held and we found a spot in just a few minutes.  One of the trails here, Hidden Lake, was our back up plan to Avalanche Lake. It took a back seat because we weren’t sure we could get parking, and there is a grizzly bear that has been frequenting the trail ( we have brand new bear spray with us) so sometimes the trail is closed. This day it was open, so we started up the path.

Unfortunately, it was a little late in the day and we had hiked a few too many miles, to make it to the lake.  But the views that we did see along the trail, made it worth it.

The trip down GTTSR  was much less stressful, since there were very few people on their way up.

The campground we are staying in is one that has its great points, and also has its bad points.  There is essentially no wifi, which makes things difficult, since we have very little signal here. We had our first campfire of the summer, which was a plus, and also there was free live music in the meadow one night, and we really enjoyed that.

With Labor Day weekend upon us, we were on the move, headed across Montana. 

Lolo, MT (09-01-20)

This was a short,  uneventful stop so it will be a short post. I forget why we decided to stop here for a few days.  I think it was just because it was on our path, and there is some hiking to do here.  We are really just outside the town of Missoula.

Our hike took us to Blue Mountain, which has a maze of trails, most of which just take different routes to the top of the hill.  We plotted one out and it turned out to be about 5 miles. 

 I am wondering if the mountain was named for the blue skies of Montana. They really are incredibly blue. 

On our way home we passed by the local brewery, which had nice outdoor seating, so we took advantage and had a drink and an early dinner.

The following day we took the “scenic” drive into the national forest and up the mountain. At the apex is the continental divide, the “entering Idaho” sign, a 1.5 mile hiking trail, and the pasture where Lewis and Clark stopped in 1805 and 1806.

There was also a “Moose Crossing” so I had my camera out and ready, but nope, no moose.

One of the museums I really wanted to visit was the museum of Smoke Jumpers. This is their main training ground, but the visitor center and everything else was closed.

With time to kill, we realized it was Tuesday so we stopped at the local T-Mobile store. Every Tuesday they give away something to their customers. Sometimes its just a free Redbox rental, but I also have aprons, hats, gloves, scarves, mugs, grill spatulas, sunglasses, a backpack, and who knows what else. Today we scored two masks. 

So, not an exciting two days, but sometimes thats juuuuussst fine. 

Butte, MT (08-30-20)

What’s with all the B towns we have been visiting? Buffalo, Billings, Bozeman and now Butte... although we are actually in the small town of Anaconda just outside Butte, so I guess that breaks the trend.






Anaconda is a small copper smelter town that was established in 1883 by Marcus Daly. He bought the land to build a town that would support his mining and smeltering operations. In an unusual move, he didn’t maintain control of the real estate, so it wasn’t a “company town”. He sold land to realtors and small businesses.



Back in its heyday this was a very bustling place but the smeltering stopped in the 1980s so it’s a little quieter now.

Our first outing was to a walking trail that took us around the ruins of a smelter. There were interpretive signs, and a nice view of the town. The smelter was built on the hillside to take advantage of gravity, and these are the remains of one of the flues that took the gasses from the smelter up to a smoke stack.













The next morning our plans to hike were thwarted by the pitter patter of rain drops on the roof.

The aftermath was pretty though.

Instead we drove to the small town of Deer Lodge to check out the museums. This small town has at least 5 museums! Luckily, the admission price gets you into all of them.  Note the bottom sign on this post.  Cute.













The main attraction is an old prison. As old as it was, built in the late 1800s, it was used up until the 1950s, and its the most modern prison we have been in. It was a bit creepy for me. So creepy that I didn't take many pictures.

It was hard to fathom that quite a few of the inmates were incarcerated for sedition. This guy was sentenced to 2 years in 1918 for saying that the citizens of the United States would have hard times unless the Kaiser gets over here to rule this country.

Anyone who was an escape risk had to wear these shoes- they weigh 20 lbs each. I don’t know what would stop them from taking them off if they wanted to escape though.












In a nearby building is the auto museum, with over 150 cars. Many of them had plaques detailing the history of the car.

When the current owner of this 1929 station wagon bought it in 1958, he asked the seller if he had ever seen the side curtains (which were missing). The owner said he hadn’t, and didn’t think it had come with windows when it was new. So, the new owner puts the car on display at his auto dealership, and soon, an elderly man sees it and approaches him, and says “ I bet you don’t know where they stored the side curtains.” And with that, they got a screw driver and opened the hidden compartment. viola .....brand new side curtains !

Also part of the collection was one of the first “jet skis” ever made- it was called a water scooter. I think I like mine better.

The following day we did manage to get in a hike.  It wasn’t the most spectacular hike, but it wasn’t the worst, and it was 6 miles and about 1000 ft of gain, which was a good workout. We hiked Lost Creek Trail- its an out and back trail so we hiked as far as we wanted, then turned around.









Our last day in the area we decided we should check out the town of Butte. Being in Montana, I wanted to have a steak, which I rarely do. There is a restaurant in Butte that has steak au poivre on the menu- my favorite.  I didn’t realize the restaurant doesn’t  open till 5 pm, but we called and did reserve a table for 5 pm.

 Now we just had to find something to do for 4 hours.  We started at the World Museum of Mining.

The mine tours were sold out, so we just bought tickets to tour the “recreated” mining town.  Apparently you used to be able to go into the buildings, but with Covid, all you can do is look in the windows.

Luckily, holding my phone up gave me a good idea of what was inside.

This armored car used to carry the cash for payroll from the bank in town, to the payroll office at the mine.  Along for every ride were 3 armed guards.  in 1933, the payroll system switched to checks, and the car was no longer needed.

 We managed to kill a couple of hours doing that, then headed to the mineral museum, which is located on the college campus.  This museum is free (nice). I actually do enjoy looking at gemstones and minerals.

I particularly like it when the exhibit shows what would be found in the local area, and what it would look like if you came across it on the hiking trail.  Paul and I have often said we would walk right past expensive minerals, silver, etc. without giving it a thought.

Azurite is one of my favorite minerals, especially when it is found with malachite (the green).  So gorgeous.  There weren’t many people (2) in the museum, and we managed to kill a lot of time.

 Soon, it was time to go to dinner.  I wish I could say the steak was awesome, but in reality we made a better au poivre at the house with Liz and Julie.  Oh well, I didn’t have to cook.