Holy Sheep!

So we are almost to the Logan Pass on the Going to the Sun Road when
we pulled off to look at some bighorn sheep. There was a female to my
left, so everyone, including Joe went off about 60' away to look/take
pictures of her when all of a sudden this male came down the mountain.
He was coming pretty quickly and making a bee-line right to the Jeep,
staring at me and Anne the whole time! Anne is sitting in the car
while she is taking this picture. He must have been about ten feet
away! How neat is that?!? Joe came over to take a picture and then a
bunch of sheep started showing up all around us. The ranger came
flying over in his truck, jumped out and yelled at everyone to stay 25
yards away. He was very rude about it - it wasn't like we rolled up on
them...they rolled us on us!

Going to the Sun

Here we are on the Going to the Sun road, traveling to our campsite on
the east side of the park at Saint Mary campground. It is beautiful
any way you look! I don't think that Anne's mom would like this road!

East Glacier Park Amtrak train stop

Here we are near the entrance of Glacier Park where we noticed the
East Glacier Park Amtrak train stop. This is where we (me, Anne, Gus,
and Anne's mom & dad) will be passing on our trip next month! How neat
will it be to pass through here again!

Glacier national park

Here we are just starting to enter Glacier National Park. We are on
the east side now, driving through on US highway 2, then driving back
through on the northerly route (Going to the Sun Road) to stay in the
campground on the east side tonight. So pretty here!

Missouri Headwaters State Park

Hi! Here I am in the AutoHome. We ended up not driving to Glacier
after our detour and thunderstorms yesterday. Instead, we stayed at
the Missouri Headwaters State Park, about 30 miles east of Butte off
of I-90. Here is where the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin Rivers all
combine to form the start of the Missouri River. Lewis and Clark names
the three rivers after the President, Secretary of State, and
Secretary of the Treasury at the time. Because the main river
(Jefferson) was not named the Missouri, it makes the Mississippi River
technically the longest in the US. A note to all - if you don't want
to be eaten alive by mosquitos, don't camp where three big rivers
confluence! I still like rivers and camping, tho...

Yellowstone River

Here is a shot of the Yellowstone river from the Old Yellowstone
Trail. It is a straight drop off down to the flooded river below.
Back in Gardiner, the river was crystal clear, and here you can see
where the debris flow and sediment laden flood waters have turned the
river chocolate brown. Our detour on the gravel road was about 15
miles. When we got to the end, there was another cop turning people
around and not letting them on the gravel road. I think we reached the
mudflow on the highway right after it happened...and made it through
the old highway just before they shut that down, too. We could see a
loader roading down 89 on the other side of the river as we were on
our detour. Probably going to help remove the debris. I wonder how bad
the road was and if they ever got it open?!? What an adventure!

Mudflow!

So here I am on "Old Yellowstone Trail" on the west side of the
Yellowstone River about 10 miles outside of Gardiner, Montana.
Gardiner is the first town outside of Yellowstone's north entrance. We
were traveling north in US-89 when all of a sudden it started raining
big drops. Then we saw a cop with flashing lights up ahead and he road
disappeared...you could tell there was debris in the road. We didn't
drive all the way up to the cop, but it looked like a flash flood
caused a mudslide/debris flow from drainage off the mountain to the
east. Cars stated turning around, so we looked up on our iPad map to
see if there were bridges to cross the river and and alternate way
through. Fortunately, there was a bridge just a few miles back, and
the old Yellowstone Trail on the other side of the river. It was a
gravel road that had crazy deep washouts on it, too, but we made it
just fine following a local in our Jeep! I wish we would've gotten a
shot of the mud bogging we did, but we were too busy watching the road
and deciding if it was safe to continue! And watching crazy people in
cars - we are sure some didn't make it! Our biggest fear was that cars
would get stuck in the road on either side of us, trapping us in the
middle. How exciting that we got to really use the Jeep!

Buffalo!

So we are driving along on the road inside Yellowstone and all of a
sudden there is a buffalo walking right down the centerline of the
road! Anne hurried to take a photo and didn't quite get all of me, but
she got the buffalo just a few feet from our Jeep! About time we ran
into some wildlife! We also saw a momma bear and three babies in the
north part of the Teton NP. How awesome!

Silex Spring

Took a break at the Fountain Paint Pots pull-out in Yellowstone and
walked the whole boardwalk with Joe and Gus. Here I am at the Silex
Spring. What a neat place! I never get bored here...it is always just
as cool as the first time I came here.

Jackson Lake

Hi! Today we are driving from Jackson to Glacier National Park. Here
we are this morning on a picture break at Jackson Lake on our way
through Grans Teton National Park heading to Yellowstone. What a
beautiful day!

Tetons

Here I am outside of the visitor's center in Moose (the name of the
town:-) in Grand Teton National Park yesterday. It was mostly hot and
sunny and the mountains were beautiful!

Twin Falls - Snake River

Hi everyone! Driving to one of our favorite places right now, Jackson,
WY! Stopped at Twin Falls, ID at Target to grab a few things. We
missed the exit due to construction ad had to backtrack on some local
roads to get there, and we went past this! The land all around is flat
- you wouldn't know that a 400' canyon was there until you came right
up to it! There was an historical marker telling about the suspension
bridge that was built in 1919 to help settlers get across the snake
river canyon. We have been near the Oregon Trail for a lot of our
drive.

More interesting is the geological history about Lake Bonneville that
flooded out around 14,500 years ago that helped cut out the snake
river and went on to the Columbia River (essentially our whole drive).
This wasn't a glacial lake like Lake Missoula, but it flooded around
the same time. It just overflowed the banks and cut away at the
alluvial material holding up the lake. It was huge and the Great Salt
Lake is the remnant of the larger old Lake Bonneville. Pretty neat!

Another roadside photo op

Here we are near exit 224 off I-84 in eastern Oregon. We just started
climbing up a grade as the sun was setting, so Joe found a nice place
to pull off to take a picture while Anne fed Gus. I'm pretty sure
Joe's picture will be much better than mine!

Starbucks - Pendleton, OR

Hi! Here we are on our first gas stop of our trip in Pendleton, OR. We
couldn't make it to Idaho to pump our own gas! Oh well...we stopped at
a Starbucks and stretched our legs. This is the first Starbucks we've
noticed that must have been converted from a fast food restaurant! On
our way to Jackson, WY to visit the Tetons/Yellowstone and then up to
Glacier for a few more days. Yeah! I can't wait to see it all!

Happy 4th!!!

Hi all! Here I am at Camas Heritage Park on a nice 4th of July. Anne
and Joe took Gus for a run and now it is time for Gus to play at the
park. If you look closely, you can see Joe and Gus heading towards the
slide. What a nice day! Go Anerica!