Day 14 - The Vortex

At The Vortex ;-)

Day 14
West Glacier, MT - Cheney, WA
296 miles + detours

After sleeping in a tshirt, fleece, long pants and thick socks...under a sheet, down blanket and sleeping bag...I awoke to rain.  Nix the hiking idea.  Warmed up the breakfast I prepared the night before.  Stopped at a few more overlooks.  Saw a warbler of some sort.  Took Route 2, the road less traveled.  Saw lots of interesting little towns.  Visited the vortex, an area with some sort of special energy that makes people shrink and tree branches grow funny.  I think it may have been optical illusions...but I'm not so sure.  Stopped at lots of pull-offs that threatened to have wildlife viewing.  Ha!  Found the Kootenai Wildlife Refuge and did see some white tail deer, a kingfisher, three new kinds of hummingbirds, red tailed hawks and 2 bald eagles.  I also met a guy who recommended I go to Turnbull Wildlife Refuge, so I'm camped 3 miles away and checking it out in the morning.  He guaranteed a moose sighting.  ;-)  Tomorrow my toes should touch the Pacific.

Day 13 - The Day I Decided I Don’t Really Care If I See Wildlife (Reverse Psychology)

Me standing beside a huge wall of frozen snow.  Brrr!

Day 13

Caldwell, MT - Glacier National Park, MT Avalanche Campground

Travel Time:  5 hrs to park and 2 hrs driving half way through

What I can see as I type this:  my campfire and my breath...it is freezing!!

Yesterdays Temperature Span:  33 degrees in the morning to 88 degrees at noonish...tonight I think it’s colder.  I actually ran the heater in the car this morning.  So, in the past 13 days I’ve been at 33 degrees, 116 degrees, at sea level & at 6640 feet above sea level.  

Total Miles:  3763

With each new park comes a realization I might have made earlier had I researched any of the parks I’m visiting before departing home.  :-)  Here’s what I’ve learned about Glacier.  It’s all trails with one road cutting through the middle.  Although the road is called Going-To-The-Sun Road, it rained during 90% of the time I was driving on it today.  I think the mountain lions, moose, bighorn sheep and grizzly bears forgot their raincoats because there wasn’t a one in sight.  However, I’m sure they all have their designated spots along the hiking trails for people who take to the woods to have exciting wildlife sightings.  In the morning I am going to hike a trail near my campsite.  Before I leave I’m going to rub myself down with some good smelling food and not make a sound as I round blind corner and bushes, in hopes to see something terrifying.  I’ve already burned some paper towel with butter on it in my campfire in hopes of luring one in tonight.  Actually, I am just out of fire starters and had to come up with the next best thing.  

Tips for Travelers  

• Remember the marshmellows. 
• Altitude is nothing to shake a stick at.  It’s harder to breathe, things cook funny and it feels like winter after the sun goes down.  
• It’s good to find a campsite by 7:00pm, even if you could drive a couple more hours.
• When passing through a National Park in 24 hours it is best to choose 2 things to focus on instead of driving through trying to stop indiscriminately and making yourself nuts
• Gas up before you have less than half a tank...there are a lot of corn fields and cow pastures between you and the next gas station. 
• Most of the northern half of the US is less developed than MA.  Forget finding a Whole Foods or a Chipotle.  You’ll feel like you’ve struck the lottery when a gas station has mini vegetarian pizzas ready in 8 minutes.  Today I ran across a market that sold organic and locally grown products...it’s the first one I’ve seen since leaving MA.  
• Have plenty of Wet Ones
• A clean & organized car is a happy car
• Figure out some way to be ready to take a photo of a pheasant as it flies out of the grass in front of your car...because that would be a really cool looking picture to post on facebook.  
• And last but not least...sometimes the quickest way to get somewhere is to slow down.

Day 12 - The Day I Met Lee and Tiva

Day 12
Yellowstone NP - Lewis & Clark State Park, Montana
Total Miles:  A lot
Total Bison:  Probably more than miles
Total Bug Bites:  About 15
Hours to Glacier NP: 4.5

Today's highlight was meeting Lee and Tiva...man and dog.  They are traveling from Oregon to Arkansas together...on a bicycle with an attached cart for Tiva to sit on as Lee pedals!  I caught up with them during a water break.  Apparently lots of people have been enjoying the photo op, even Tiva was looking great for the camera.  Yesterday they were being tracked by a wolf until someone in a truck came by and gave them a ride out of harms way.  Very interesting fellow.  I think I should have invited him to have some lunch with me and stolen a bit more time to talk.  The side of the road with bugs circling like vultures is not the best spot to chat.

Tomorrow it's off to Glacier where I am determined to see a moose, mountain goats a bear or two and bighorn sheep (I think they have those.)

Animals, new to me, I'm pretty sure I've seen so far: bison, elk, mule deer, marmot, pica, black wolf, pronghorn & lots of new birds I haven't IDed yet.

Day 11 - Here Moosey moosey...

Day 11 Yellowstone

Grand Teton NP - Yellowstone NP

Drove around all day stopping at various thermal features and animals sightings.

  

Realization of the day:  Yellowstone is huge and full of turnoffs of all sorts

Realization #2:  It is overwhelming to try to figure out what to do if you only want to spend 1.5 days in Yellowstone.

Realization #3:  This feeling of being overwhelmed is multiplied by lack of internet to research the sights you’d most like to see.

Solution:  Visit gift shop and purchase a cool mug and a bumper sticker and just keep on driving

Problem of the day:  Everyone else decided to camp in Yellowstone tonight, too.  Had to drive out of park and stay at a spot that only allows hard sided vehicles...no tents, no pop-ups...due to grizzly bear activity.  I’ll believe it when I see it.  

If had a photo of an animal in the roadway for every sign that said, “Caution:  Animal in Roadway” I’d have a lot of photos.  So far I’ve seen one deer cross the roadway.  I think they paid him just to make the signs not a total lie.  

Deep thought of the day:  “There are not enough warning signs in the world to account for stupid.”  After reading a huge sign about the importance of staying on the walkway at the thermal features, including statistics of people who have been burned to death in their acidic grips, I still saw people hopping off the boardwalk for photo ops, touching the ground to see if it was really hot and sticking their hand in the streams of boiling water.  Most of these actions sent the ranger on duty into a complete state of panic as she ran toward the people screaming.  I say there’s a lot to be said for survival of the fittest.  Let’s take down the signs and just let common sense be our guide.  

Day 10 - The day the mighty moose continued to elude me

Day 10

Lusk, WY - Grand Teton National Park (last possible campground before hitting Yellowstone)

Driving Time:  10 hours...including 2 hour drive through park

Found a great coffee shop in Lusk for a bagel and tea.  Successfully dodged a deer wandering into town and a pick-up adorned with Sarah Palin bumper stickers.  Considered myself off to a good start.  You might be small town if...funeral home notices are hung in the window of your only grocery store so people know when calling hours are.  Although earlier in the day I passed through Lost Springs pop. 4, so I guess Lusk is    kind of a big city with 844.  Continued on with a long drive.  Stopped at a Wyoming Audubon spot and found some new birds and got a lesson on poisonous snakes from a local couple walking two cute dogs that apparently eat salad.  It’s funny where conversations go.  Then a drive through the Tetons as the sun went down.  Beautiful.  Bison, deer, elk...no moose.  

Best name seen for lodging:  C’mon Inn

Range in gas price during this drive:  $3.32 to $4.09  Supply and demand...who knew there were oil wells in Wyoming?

Biggest benefit in small town America:  gas stations sell everything

Day 9 - More Prairie Dogs and Bison

Day 9
Badlands National Park, SD - Lusk, Wyoming
Travel Time:  3 hours
Visited:  Badlands NP - Wall, SD, Mt. Rushmore NP, Custer State Park
Highlight:  Herd of buffalo walking past car about 3 feet away

Tomorrow is a travel day.  Seven hours to Grand Teton and Yellowstone.  Looking forward to a shower...although I won't be touching anything in the bathroom.  Tonight I'm camping in a place with two RV's that people live in, rabbits and a raccoon.  

Day 8 - The day I didn't get arrested and fell in love with prairie dogs.

Day 8
Valentine, NE - Badlands National Park, SD
2 hrs + time driving around 2 parks
Total miles driven:  2,383.4
Highlights of day:  Feeding peanuts to prairie dogs, watching the sunset over the formations at Badlands...oh, and not getting arrested.

So, to kick off my police involvement I was pulled over in the booming town of Valentine, NE last night after driving for 9.5 hours...because I didn't have my headlights on.  Ugh.  Find license, find registration, wait with bright light shining in eyes...police returns and asks what's in the baggie in my front seat.  Oh, you mean my drug stash?!?  Just my teabags.  He did, in the end, recommend a hotel to stay at.  That was just my warming up.  So, on Monday I saw this hand in a canal:

I thought, what a great gag...someone put a fake hand in this canal.  On Tuesday a friend of mine said she thought the hand was real and I maybe should call the cops.  Well, I had already started having my doubts, but really...who finds a dead body on a random canal stop on vacation?  It kept nagging at the back of my mind though, so today I figured out where I took the photo and called the sheriff.  Kind of Dukes of Hazzard like.  I thought what a fabulous concerned citizen I was...until I got called back 4 times with questions about why I hadn't called sooner, if anyone had seen the hand with me, if I noticed anyone else in the area, how close had I gotten to the hand, what was the exact time of the photo, had I seen a body and why did I have a close up photo?  Suddenly, past CSI episodes started flashing through my head.  Was I a suspect now?  What are the laws on reporting a random hand you think is fake to the police.  My last call ended with the sheriff and crew at the canal checking into things.  Panic attack ensued.  I wondered what jail in small town Indiana might be like.  How would I get my Element back to MA?  Could I hide out in a cave in the Badlands?  After an hour of playing worst case scenario I called back to check.  The nice lady Joyce was gone.  What is your name and what is your business in calling was the response when I asked for her.  Gulp...I'm the person that called about the hand?  It was fake.  We had a shift change and got busy so we couldn't call you back.  Phew?!?  So, I guess I'll be traveling a few more days after all.  Tonight I am camping inside Badlands National Park.  It is amazingly beautiful and so far there haven't been any suspicious hands.