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.

Devil's Tower National Monument to Yellowstone National Park

This was another high mileage day (392). There were many things we wanted to see along the way. As easterners, we'd only seen the middle of the country, including the Rockies, from airplane windows, and we didn't know when we'd get this chance again, so ... drive. We'll slow down the pace a bit after this.

I did a lot of plotting and planning using various mapping aids. One thing lacking, though is an appreciation or display of how high the routes might go. This day was another pleasant driving day for us although the truck might have broken a sweat (the temperature gauge never varied from normal; we took it easy).  We did encounter some high points along the way - up and down a mile or so in elevation peaking out over 9000'. 

Flat for a while, but in the distance is the first glimpse of The Big Horn Mountains, a spur of The Rockies.

Climbing in The Big Horn Mountains. In the background is the road we came in on.

Lots of smoke, but we never got close to the fire. There were signs along the road warning of reduced visibility due to smoke.

Not much farther along, we ran into plenty of snow (none on the roads, though).

What goes up, must come down - the start of a ~5000' descent.

We stopped in Cody, WY for a few groceries before heading into Yellowstone Park.  A woman in the market mentioned to watch for mom and cubs grizzlies along the way. We didn't see them, but there was a group pulled off the road to watch a moose in the river - our first moose sighting of the trip.

As we drove through the gates of Yellowstone (unmanned at that time of day) we immediately saw our first bison. We are so used to seeing a fake moose profile on a hillside in Vermont that we thought this was a carved bison. Then it moved. Oh.

We spent the night at Fishing Bridge campground in Yellowstone Park, arriving at 7:30 pm. The facilities were nice, but the price was the highest we encountered.

This was the view out our rear window. There were holes showing that various bottles had been stuck in the snowbank for cooling.

We were in the Yellowstone Caldera (volcano) having climbed over the ridge, then settling down at ~7700 feet. This is the highest we've been for any length of time outside of an airplane. I did something simple the next morning, like take a walk, and realized I felt different. There's not as much air in the air here (~25% less than we're used to at home as it turns out) - nothing bad, but noticeable.

The campground warned against leaving food outside because of a bear migration. We planned to cook outside, but the lack of picnic table, and the thought of bears around the grill led to cooking in the kitchen.

Recap, today's miles 392, total so far, 1093.

3) Devil's Tower, WY

This day had a lot of driving and touring crammed in. Guilty. Day's mileage - 380.

The last stop was a National Monument Campground at Devil's Tower, Wyoming. It was reached on a hilly back-roads highway as the sun faded.

The plan was to camp for the night, then tour in the morning. We used our National Parks Senior Pass for reduced camp fees - $6, dry camping.

May 15
I got up first, took a brief walk to see the sights in early morning light. I came across a prairie dog village/town/city adjacent to the campground. The critters are on the endangered list, so the nearest part of the campground was closed to vehicles. The 'dogs seemed to be doing well, they may end up owning the whole park.

After breakfast, we drove to the base of the tower. It was very quiet, with few people around when we arrived. Later, business was picking up. We enjoyed the solitude.

There is a mile+ paved path around the tower which we took at a leisurely pace. It is spectacular. There were a few parties in the process of climbing the tower. The night before we saw a solitary light half-way up it, apparently from someone who was night-climbing.

Ginnie at the edge of the rubble field. We weren't supposed to go higher than that without a permit; fine with us.

The climbers shown below are in this picture. How good are your eyes?

Use your imagination. This rock chunk has flat sides, ~6 sides in cross section and fell off the tower.This shot is looking end-0n.