Busy, but having fun.

Wow, this is harder than I thought (blogging on the road).

The basics: we are fine, having a great time, the RV is very nice, but between having busy and long days and limited WiFi, blogging hasn't happened. When we do get to post, I have no idea of the order they will appear. I'm using a blogger app on the tablet computer, and it has a mind of its own.

The weather has been terrific until this afternoon when we had some hard rain and strong side winds that blew us around a bit on the interstate in Montana. It is now calm, and we are in a state campground in Three Forks, MT at the confluence of the Missouri river.
This will get expanded when we get home.

Highlights so far - the Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, Devil's Tower, Yellowstone, saw old faithful erupt. Lots of great scenery, many critters: dozens of bison, a few moose, elk, mule deer, prairie dogs.

Ft. McCleod, AB to Banff, AB

We had hard rain overnight, the first real wet weather we encountered . Maybe the sound of rain on the roof helped us sleep, or not. We had a later start this morning as the first stop didn't open until 10:00, and as it turned out, was within sight of our campsite although we didn't know until we got there. We had to attend to some RVing details, filling the fresh water tank, dumping the used water tank, etc., that I'd rather not do in the rain. Gotta do what you gotta do, so we did it.

Today's start was at The Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump site used by the natives over the past 6000 years to harvest buffalo for the larder to get them through the winter - way before they had horses or weapons of a scale that could do the job. The concept is a bit gruesome, but it kept them alive. They stressed that every part of the animals was used. The interpretive center had exhibits and a movie reenactment of a drive to explain.

One fascinating aspect is that while the site had been used over thousands of years, there was a period of ~1000 years when it wasn't used (based on digs through the ~40 feet of bone deposits). Was the site location passed down over all those years by oral history? Or was it such an obvious location for drives that it was rediscovered?

Our next stop was Costco, how ironic, though we only bought gasoline, not bison. In the states, our AMEX card shuts down at the $75 or $100 level when buying gas. However in Canada, it goes to $150. How efficient.

Or next destination was at North America'a largest erratic (rock carried and left behind by glaciers).

Then on to Banff to Tunnel Mountain I, a very nice, very large national park campground on Friday night of  Victoria Day holiday weekend. We were concerned about availability, so we reserved tonight's and tomorrow night's (Whistlers N.P.) campsites. Here at Tunnel Mountain I, there are many openings, so our concerns were unwarranted as they were the next day at Whistlers CG. Both were busy, but not full.

We've seen many beautiful pictures of Banff, but the real thing is quite something to behold. The scale and closeness of the mountains can't be captured in a few photos.

First sighting.

We can see some beautiful Rocky Mountains out the window as Ginnie prepares dinner. I had offered a dinner in town for a belated Mothers' Day, but the bus that I thought would take us into town doesn't stop here.

We'll dine in and save Mothers' Day dinner for another locale. (to be continued)

The scenery from the campground was incredible, however it was a challenge getting the exposure right with the bright sky, dark peaks, and darker forest.

Today's miles: 209, total ~1900.

Three Forks, MT to Ft. McLeod, AB

We went to the literal start of the Missouri River a quarter mile from where we stayed last night. Lewis and Clark had camped here on their expedition. Two rivers, the Madison and the Jefferson, join to form the Missouri. A short distance downstream, the Gallatin River also joins, thus the name Three Forks, Montana.

The day was mostly a driving one with few stops to sight-see. We had a few chuckles early on when we repeatedly kept crossing the Missouri River, all marked with a sign to that effect.  Total crossings: 9 (8 today), and we weren't lost.

We drove through miles of wheat fields, stopped for coffee and cocoa at a Montana Wheat Bakery. We bought a loaf of Montana wheat bread and a couple of goodies to sustain us later in the day.

Lots of wheat

and more wheat.

Then the terrain got more interesting.

We saw more isolated oil drilling pumps.

And large lakes/ponds/areas of white salts. Were they natural? .. or the result of years of fertilizing? We didn't get a firm answer.


Oh, Canada
We had an easy border crossing at Sweetgrass, MT on I-15. The Canadian border agent asked a few questions  including "Are you going to Alaska?" We weren't the first of our fleet he'd seen, we suspect, and the logo on the front of the RV might have been a tip off.

Further queries regarding what we had on board were: "firearms?, tobacco?, alcohol?". "No, none, personal use". Response: "Have a nice stay". On our journey, we spent more time in Canada than in Alaska or the lower 48. We were on a journey, not just getting to a destination.

Since we were cautious about bringing food across the border as some of the Canadian restrictions were vague, we hit a supermarket in Lethbridge, AB, the first city we came to, for restocking.

We've seen lots of farming of various types starting with what we presume is corn just starting (either just furrows or green fuzz) in Iowa and Minnesota, beef, and miles of wheat fields in Montana and Alberta.

Parked for the night at Buffalo Plains RV Park. It was their first night open after winter - a close call since we hadn't called for reservations. We were their first guests for the season in spite of this being the front end of a holiday weekend.


The family/park cat came by to check us out after a bit and stayed around for a while.

Today's miles: 390, total 1691.

Yellowstone to the headwaters of The Missouri River in Montana

Neighbors at the campground, fellow GAH Spring Adventurers, had warned us against hooking up 'city water' (an RV term) at Fishing Bridge since the park folks said pressure was very high. Not wanting to blow out the plumbing, we used stored water over night, then filled the tank in the morning. I suspect the rig does have a pressure regulator, but we erred on the side of caution not wanting to read through all the manuals at this time of night.

We awoke to cool temperatures. The furnace works well, and we're grateful it responds quickly to a boost in the thermostat setting when we crawl out from the covers in the morning.

We don't have a handy thermometer to check outside temperatures. Just log it as sweatshirt for Ginnie, long sleeve tee for me (sweatshirt would have been a better choice). We are at altitude ~7700 feet, and there is snow all around us, so cool temps shouldn't be a surprise.

Today is planned to be low mileage, only ~200 miles, with time to enjoy some of Yellowstone, although not doing it justice. Many of the roads in the park are closed because of the early season, and we were told it would take days to see it all from the highways.

Warning - lots of pictures. Click on any to see larger mages. Great touring.

Our campsite. Neighbors are close, but at least there are trees between sites which are arranged in loops in the midst of forest.





We saw lots of burned forest from recent fires.

It all regenerates. The lodgepole pine seeds are only released from the cones after being in high heat, so we learned.

Yellowstone Lake.

Next stop - West Thumb Geyser Basin.


Elk - perhaps pregnant moms. A sign we saw later in the day said they would likely calve in June.

We were warned about cranky calving Elks in Whistler Campground at Jasper, AB two days later. While that is farther north, it is lower in elevation so the birthing season may be earlier. We gave them lots of room in all locations.


 Elk graze where humans dare not tred, at least not if they read the signs.

We lost count of how many times we crossed continental divides. This was the first one.

Inside the Old Faithful visitors' center. There were so many buildings and parking lots around the geyser that I had to ask an employee which way to head. Old Faithful is percolating outside the big window.

The signboard in the foreground gave the predicted time for next eruption, +/- 10 minutes. I think they nailed this one.


Many of us lined up on benches to wait.

We had seen geysers in Iceland, including the original Geysir (geyser being derived from the Icelandic word), now dormant.

We were expecting a short, quick, blast based on that experience (having forgotten that Strokkur, the main geyser we watched in Iceland, was erupting every 4-5 minutes vs the more laid back Old Faithful), but O.F. erupted for many minutes. You won't miss it if you blink.

Down the road a bit. We stopped here for lunch.

Our route took us northward from Old Faithful heading towards Mammoth Hot Springs.

We had just passed a sign warning of bison on road when we encountered this wildlife traffic jam. Dozens of bison were meandering across and down the road. We just shut off the engine, and watched the herd meander, shooting pictures and videos.

The road to Mammoth Hot Springs was interesting. Some parts narrow with rocks on the edges, other parts narrow with a steep drop-off rather than shoulder. It led to a lot of clenched hands on the wheel and certainly kept me awake. To drop a wheel off the road would have been disaster.


  
Notice the lack of shoulder to the right of the white fog line below.

We found our way to a Montana State Campground at the Headwaters of the Missouri. There were no other campers when we arrived. The host said we could have any site except one that was reserved. As the evening progressed, we ended up with ~10 sites occupied out of 20. It was quiet, to say the least.

The weather had been questionable, but we managed to grill meat and veggies outside while Ginnie works magic with the oven.

The stove had 3 burners and an oven. The refrigerator and freezer were excellent, having more room than we needed for a party of two.

Today's miles 207, total 1300.