Just the Stats, Ma'am

Days on the road = 55
Number of Provinces visited = 7
Number of States visited = 24 (if you count Washington, DC)
Kilometres travelled = 18, 549
Highest Price of Gas in Canada =  $ 1.389/litre
Lowest Price of Gas in Canada = $1.179/litre
Highest Price of Gas in US = $3.999/gallon (Yellowstone, of course)
Lowest Price of Gas in US = $3.333/gallon
Average cost per km or mile = Don't ask

Number of Federal campsites = 5
Number of Provincial/State campsites = 23
Number of Municipal/Regional campsites = 3
Number of Commercial campsites = 3
Number of Walmart or other Boondock parking lots = 0 (hey we always meant to do this, it just never happened)
Highest Price of a Campsite = $48.03 (Albion Hills, Toronto including reservation fee)
Lowest Price of a Campsite = $12.00 (Springhill, National Forest Service)

Total cost of the trip = Priceless

Back Home

We decided to take a different route back to BC via Hwy 2 through Idaho to the Kingsgate border crossing. (Got to add another state to the tally - neither of us had been to Idaho before). However, that did not seem to be a valid reason to the somewhat grumpy CBSA agent when we were crossing back into Canada. We passed up spending the night at Yahk hoping that we would get cell service (and internet via Huwaei) and be able to make up for over a week of no blog posts. But even when we got to Moyie Lake Provincial Park, where we did spend a rainy night,  there was no service.

It wasn't until we stopped at Creston for gas the next morning that we re-entered the connected world; and the sun returned. We climbed and descended the Salmo-Creston and stopped for lunch at Christina Lake but continued on to Osoyoos (no sites at Haynes Point and even the overflow was too crowded for comfort) and eventually settled into a less than perfect site at the north side of Okanagan Lake Provincial Park. Here at least blogging could resume and that evening we were able to upgrade to a better site for the night and in the morning made yet another move to a site much closer to the water which meant much less road noise. We spent a final sunny Okanagan day getting some maintenance (oil and filter change, transmission flushing, etc) on the van, making the requisite winery visit,  having the final swim (me)/wade (Mazy), prior to the last dinner al fresco,

before hitting the Coquihalla for the last drive home on a warm, sunny Saturday afternoon. Turns out we left just in time as the mountain behind the campsite was ablaze with a forest fire the next afternoon causing road closures that would have forced us on to the Hope Princeton.

More Montana Moments

Leaving Yellowstone on Labour Day morning there was frost on the ground after a clear, cold night. Four days before we had been sweltering in near 100F temperatures; now we were wishing we had brought toques and gloves. But as we descended the mountains along the Madison River out of the park to Montana we were back in temperatures in the 70s and 80s F. However, we were also in the smoke of the many fires still raging in this neck of the woods. We are remarked earlier how we had been lucky to avoid forest fires considering how dry it had been for so much of the trip. We seemed to go in and out of smoke depending on how high we were. When we were in the valleys the smoke could get pretty thick but we had no idea of how close or far away from the actual fires we were.

I had promised Pete shorter driving days so this route took us up Hwy 287 for a short stretch on Interstate 90 before exiting after Butte at Anaconda (yes copper mine country) to Montana Hwy 1, the Pintler's Veterans Memorial Scenic Highway.  This road travels through Deerlodge National Forest and we opted to find a campsite at the first National Forest campground we encountered, Springill. Here for $12.00 we had one of the three occupied sites of the 15 total in the quiet campground with a picnic table, fire ring (with firewood left by the previous occupant) access to water, and the clean and spacious vault toilets that we have found in other National Forest sites. A perfectly pleasant place to spend the night.

The next morning after we passed Georgetown Lake, we took a short diversion off Hwy 1 to the restored mining town of Phillipsburg, In addition to an incredible candy store still using the antique candy making equipment, the town is adjacent to the largest sapphire deposit so has many gem and jewellery stores. 


















Back on the highways we travelled through even more areas of thick smoke and passed by a fire camp just outside Missoula,Mt. But the smoke cleared as we headed north towards the Flathead Valley and Flathead Lake. Here we found a great large pull through lakefront campsite at Big Arm State Park.

This, our last stop in the US,  proved to be one of our favourite sites, a beautiful, relaxing spot on a crystal clear lake with gorgeous mountain views, certainly worth a future return visit.

Yellowstone National Park

Our route northwest from Boysen to Yellowstone took us through some beautiful scenery, red cliffs, tunnels, and mountain vistas.

We passed through, but did not stop at, the town of Cody with it's Buffalo Bill tourist traps. As we approached the eastern entrance to Yellowstone the clouds descended and we had sprinkles on the windshield as we made our way down the shores of Yellowstone Lake to our campsite a Grant Village near the southern entrance. Our first glimpse of wildlife in the Park occurred just before we arrived at Grant Village, the rear end of an elk in the trees off the side of the road.

Yellowstone, the oldest US National Park created in 1872, is like Banff on steroids. Thousands of tourists (there are well over a thousand campsites as well as the lodges and inns to accommodate them) visit every day during the busy summer season. Our campground alone had over 400 sites but the park is also huge, almost 3500 sq miles. Our site was OK but awkard and noisy as it was directly opposite restrooms. The average elevation is the park is 8,000 ft. and we noticed the effect of the evelaton on the temperatures immediately as we quickly changed from shorts and t-shirts to jeans and fleece and then to gortex as the rain started to fall on our first evening in the park.

It was still overcast and cool the next morning when we started our exploration of the park by attending a 1.5 hour ranger program at West Thumb Geyser Basin. The ranger, Ali Paul, was extremely knowledgeable and the program has a great overview of the history, geography and geology of the park. Initially only ourselves and a family of four started on the tour but others joined us as Ali led us on a tour of the basin and explained each feature from hot springs and geysers, to mud and paint pots, fumaroles, and the fishing cone.

The program was punctuated by intermittent showers that just seemed to accentuate the steam and odors bubbling out of the geysers.

We travelled north from West Thumb to the very busy Old Faithful area. Although the distance was not long traffic moved slowly as cars pulled over for wildlife (mostly bison) viewings so we missed the noonish erruption of the Old Faithful geyser so we strolled through the shops and Visitor's Centre and had a bite to eat before taking a seat to await the 1:45 erruption on the ampitheatre like seating surrounging the geyser. After a few teasers the geyser started to emit great bursts of steaming water into the sky and did so a number of times 

Our last stop of the day after driving past the Lower and Upper Geyers basins and Madison Village was at the Rainbow Paint Pots.

(Oh we did have another ho hum walk by of a bison on the drive back to Grant Village.)

Back at the campsite we discovered that Mazy had not appreciated a long day alone in the trailer and did a little redecorating - good thing we bought lots of window screening in Cape Breton. Just as we sat down to dinner (this is getting to be a bit of a trend!) the rain returned in earnest and the temperature started to dip into the 40's F. We retreated to the trailer glad at least that this would further diminish the forest fires that had been burning here and in the Grand Tetons.

Sunday of the long weekend dawned much brighter (although not warmer yet) and we set off, with Mazy along for the ride this time. (The US National Parks all seem to have these rules that forbid dogs on the trails and boardwalks meaning we had a choice of leaving her in the trailer to do more redecorating or leaving her in the van to whine and yip if we were still within sight.) We drove up the west side of Yellowstone Lake

with more wildlife viewings,

to Lake Village

and past the Hayden Valley and into the area known as the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Here we were able to enjoy the great scenery of the upper and lower falls

 and the dramatic views of the canyon.

Our final stop was at the Norris Geyers Basin

and then we cruised back, crossing the continental divide yet again to our campsite and enjoyed a dry, relatively warm evening and a campfire.

The Mid West Drought of 2012

Nowhere was the drought of 2012 more evident than on our drive through Nebraska and into Wyoming. For much of these 4 days we were off the interstates and travelling on lesser highways and byways through farm and ranching country. Where irrigation was in use there were patches of green, otherwise the fields were dried and brown. The impact of the drought was also reflected at our nightly camping spots. They were all centred on dammed man-made lakes that served as irrigation sources as well as recreation opportunities for the local area. Water levels were drastically down at all our campsites from Kansas through Wyoming. We found the park ranger at Johnson Lake SRA in Eastern Nebraska hauling a large drum of water behind his John Deere so he could water some of the young trees in park and hopefully save some of them. After Labour Day they were taking the lake down even further but at least when we were there it allowed a bit of a swim even if the water never got higher than my waist.

 At Lake Minatare SRA in Eastern Nebraska where the temperatures soared to 104F they had not had rain since before July and the camp host showed us the marks on the trees where the water had been at that time. Here the water levels were too low (and the mosquitoes too vicious) to even think about a swim. 

We had a short drive from Lake Minatare to our campsite at Glendo State Park in Wyoming so it allowed a detour to visit Fort Laramie National Historic Site just over the Nebraska/Wyoming border.

The Fort was originally built to support the fur trade but was soon bought by the Army to serve as a way station and supply depot for those on the Oregon Trail, the Mormon Trail to Salt Lake City, and in the 1860s as a place to negotiate with the Indian tribes. However, the gold rush to California and later the discovery of gold in the Black Hills (which had been ceded to the tribes as part of the treaty negotiations) resulted in some major battles between the settlers and tribes led by Red Cloud with the Infantry and Cavalry stationed at the Fort in an awkward position of defending the treaties. The Fort was decommissioned in the 1890’s as it no longer had a strategic purpose and many of the buildings removed but it was designated a national historic site in 1938 and work begun to restore it.
After our visit to Louisbourg it seemed a poor comparison, and given that it was stifling hot our visit was short and we were at our campsite at Glendo State Park shortly after noon. The park has over 300 campsites in 8 or 9 campgrounds but there were only about two other sites occupied in our campground, Two Moons, which has 81 sites and sits high above the reservoir providing a view of the dam and the low water levels here too.

This proved to be a very pleasant, quiet, respite despite a short shower in the evening just as we were starting dinner.
Leaving Glendo we had a drive through some very desolate looking territory, characterized by tumbling tumbleweed and long vistas of cattle country. We arrived at the slightly more populated (the long weekend was approaching) Boysen State Park further west in Wyoming. After some time trying to sort out which sites were available we settled into one right on the lakeshore with private access to the beach.

We enjoyed a beautiful sunset and listened to a neighbouring camper from the local area complain about how they had spent so much money fixing the place up and making all these rules like no camping on the beach just so the government could charge more money (our camping fee here was $17, state residents paid less). I don’t think he’ll be voting for Obama. This campsite won the distinction for the most bugs of the trip. As soon as the sun went down and the lights went on in the trailer these tiny noseeums that were too small to be blocked by the screens invaded and we had to resort to turning off the lights at 9:30. We woke in the morning to the walls and blinds coated in the little black devils. We discovered three more (less populated) campgrounds in this park as we made our way north-west. Don't know if they would have had the same bug issue.

Where the heck have you been?

Thanks to the big black hole of T-Mobile's coverage over the northern mid-west we have been out of wifi range for the better part of ten days. Not that we are back in the land of Telus and Huawei we hope to catch up on the last few thousand Kms.

So this is Kansas, Dorothy

Our route out of Pere Marquette State Park was via two small barge ferries across the Mississippi.

Our license plates encouraged conversations on both of the short rides; both wondering how we were surviving the unusually warm weather and one also inquiring our views on our healthcare system. Our positive review resulted in a thumbs up - obviously a democrat.

The drive along this rural penninsula in the middle of the Mississippi was a pleasant reprieve from the interstates they we were to experience for the rest of the day. However, wherever we drove today we witnessed examples at every turn of the drought that is devasting the mid west this summer. Corn crops that were stunted but green on our earlier northern crossing, here are completely dried and brown.

Today's temperatures started in the 90's but as we approached Kansas City the clouds rolled in and intermittent rain showers contributed to cooling temperatures. We decided to stop for groceries in Junction City, the closest town to our campsite at Milford Lake State Park, just as the clouds blackened and as we found our way to the grocery store the rain started to team down. We grabbed for coats but by the time we made it from the parking lot to the store we were soaked. After completing our shopping we returned to the van to find that Mazy had tried to escape the thunder and lightening and had managed to climb into the second seat from the third while still attached to her harness and was trying to bury herself in my bin of spinning fibre. After we waited out the worst of the storm we made it to the campsite and set up on a lakeside site and tried to dry out.

Sunday, our day of rest from the road, dawned a little brighter and the clouds gave way to sun by noon. The obliging camp host brought around a map, postcard, and brochure for the area and encouraged us to explore the park surrounding this dammed man-made lake.

The campground we are in is just one of about 6, including one complete with horse corrals for equestrian campers. Others seem to be dominated by seasonal sites for the boaters who frequent this "fishing capital of Kansas", but there is even a Marina and a "Yacht Club" with a number of sailboats. Our campground is practically deserted on Sunday afternoon, the weekend campers having departed so it is quiet and a perfect day for a break from the road.

And then we enjoyed a lovely evening with a beautiful sunset.