Alaska Trip 2011: May 10-15 - On the Road Again

This is page 4 of our Alaska 2011 trip. The first page is here. After lollygagging in North Dakota for a couple days, it was time to get back on the road and continue our journey northwest.

Montana



We spent two days getting across Montana, spending Tuesday night at Glasgow, and Wednesday night at Shelby, about 15 miles south of the Canadian border. It was still raining on Tuesday, but Wednesday cleared up, and might have been one of our nicest travel days so far.

We spotted these pronghorn in the field behind the campground, not too far from the highway. Thursday, we took a day to refuel, restock, and regroup before heading into Canada.

Canada

We headed for Alberta on Friday the 13th. We must have picked the right day to cross - we heard of delays of 3 hours or more a couple weeks before that. Apparently they were inspecting all of the RVs that crossed the border that day. But today, we had less than 10 minutes in line, and just a few questions when we got to the gate, so it was a pretty quick crossing. So far we have been lucky, but I suppose one of these days it will be our turn. The luck of the draw, so to speak.

Heading north, we ended up at Calgary right at rush hour (bad idea), and the highway pretty much turned into a parking lot at times. Live and learn. When we got to the north side of town, we were ready to stop for the night. The wind was starting to pick up too, but it was a tail wind, so it was not too bad (yet).

No problems with rain here - the humidity was about 13%. That's dry.

We had the same tailwind on Saturday, though it was getting a lot stronger. We managed to find a bypass around Edmonton to avoid most of the city traffic, but at that point the highway was going to go west for a while, which would have made it a cross wind instead of tail wind. Once again, time to stop for the night. We planned an early start for Sunday, as the winds seemed to be getting heavier as the day progressed. They said it was unusual for the wind to be out of the south like that.

We found this interesting sundial along the highway somewhere north of Edmonton. It was a scale model of a grain elevator at the center, with big rocks to mark the hours. (Oh, and a geocache nearby.)

Continuing northward, we saw what looked like clouds at first. As we got closer, we could see that it was actually smoke, quite a bit of it. We were guessing forest fire, and a large one at that. At one point, we coud even see the orange glow from the flames. Thankfully, we were upwind, so the smoke was not bad on the road (yet). Later that day, we learned that there were indeed massive forest fires in the area, fueled and spread by the strong south and southeast winds we were experiencing. We also learned that the fire we saw was not the worst. The worst one was at Slave Lake, farther north from where we were. That one managed to engulf a small town.

As we got father west, the smoke from the fire started to catch up with us. When it got to be time to stop for the night, it was pretty thick. So this time, instead of cutting our day short, we extended it, in hopes we could get past it. We decided to go ahead and try to make it to Dawson Creek. Even though we would be late getting there, we would still have at least a couple hours of daylight.

We did drive out of the smoke as we got farther west, as you can see in these shots at a town called Beaverlodge. But the flags still give you a pretty idea how much wind there was. At this location, we were not in the path of the smoke cloud.

We crossed into British Columbia for the first time, and continued up the road toward Dawson Creek. Unfortunately, the cloud caught up with us again when we got close to Dawson Creek. It was much more dissipated though, so we crossed our fingers and hoped for the best.

Next: The Alaska highway

Tomorrow we explore Dawson City, and Tuesday we start up the Alaska Highway, which goes for about 1500 miles across British Columbia, Yukon Territory, and finally Alaska.

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Vacation 2009 - Heading to North Dakota

This is page ten of our vacation 2009 blog. The first page is here.

Big Sky Country

If you live in the Midwest, there is one unalterable fact about traveling to the West. It doesn't matter how far North or South you go, you still must cross the Great Plains before you get to the mountains, and you must cross again on your way back.

We drove over 500 miles in Montana after leaving the mountains and Glacier National Park.

As we drive across northern Montana, I can see why they call it "Big Sky Country". Sometimes, the sky is about all you can see. I sit back and imagine that the wheat fields are native grasses, and the grazing cattle are some of the great herds of buffalo that once roamed the area. The occasional towns might be Indian villages. Though the area has changed dramatically in the last hundred years or so, in some ways it has not changed at all.

Believe it or not, I did not take any pictures at all during the trek across the Montana plains

Some day I may retrace the steps of Lewis and Clark across this vast land, or follow the Oregon Trail or the Pony Express. I am sure there are many interesting places in the Great Plains, islands in this great sea, such as we found at North Platte. But for now, these destinations are not as high on my list of places I want to see. When crossing the plains takes a couple days out of a limited itinerary, it seems more of a barrier than a destination.

Fort Union Trading Post

The restored Fort Union Trading Post is on the Missouri River, and is quite literally on the border between Montana and North Dakota. The parking lot is in Montana, and the fort itself is in North Dakota. If you take the right road the first time, it is only about 20 miles off the highway, and is definitely worth a stop if you are traveling on U.S. 2 in the area. We drove a little farther than that, because we were debating whether we had enough time for this stop, and ended up cutting across and coming up from the south.

Fort Union was not actually a military fort, but it was fortified like one to protect the goods and inhabitants. Just inside the front gate, we found the Trading Room, where we chatted with a man in period costume about the fort and how the trading was done.

The first thing you see inside the walls is the bourgeois house, a grand two-story structure that almost seemed out of place amid the more meager surroundings. The fort's manager was known as the Bourgeois, reflecting the French Canadian part of the American Fur Company's background. The Bourgeois and his chief clerk and families lived in the Bourgeois house. Other employees lived in the dwellings and shops outside the house. Some of the employees who took Indian wives lived in teepees outside the fort.

The difference between the Bourgeois house and the outer dwellings was startling. Although there were no restored dwellings on the site, you could see from the foundations that a dwelling was smaller than a typical room in the house.

The restored Bourgeois House, thankfully, was air-conditioned. It was a fairly hot day on the prairie when we were there, and I just don't deal with heat the way I used to. The house now serves as the visitor center, and houses a small museum with artifacts and more information about the trading post and the surrounding area.

North Dakota Badlands

Heading South from Fort Union, we catch our first glimpse of the North Dakota badlands just before getting to the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

Next Page: Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Vacation 2009 - Last Day at Glacier NP

This is page nine of our vacation 2009 blog. The first page is here.

Going to the Sun Road Revisited

For our last day at Glacier National Park, we took another drive along the Going to the Sun Road to pick up some of the sights we missed on previous days. In particular, we made sure to get an early start, so we would not miss Logan Pass again. Once again, the weather was perfect, though there was a little early morning haze. We only made a couple stops along the way to Logan Pass, as we saw most of the west end of the road again on Day Two.

On the Way to Logan Pass

Here are some views of damage most likely caused by an avalanche. p.s. Look how shiny the car is! Quick, before we pick up more dust!

The valley has different look in the early morning haze.

This is a view of Bird Woman Falls. If you look closely, you can actually see the falls coming down at the lowest point between the two closest mountains. I would imagine it is a lot more visible in the spring.

There was a bear on the hillside near the construction site, but we were not able to get a good picture of it.

Logan Pass

We caught a lucky break on the construction, and didn't have to wait very long at all this time. But a couple more minutes, and it would have been a different story! We actually arrived before the visitor center opened.

Logan Pass was definitely worth coming back to see after we missed it the first time across. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Late Morning Haze

These U-shaped valleys are pretty typical of landscape that has been carved by glaciers. I almost didn't take these pictures, as we were looking into the sun, but in retrospect, it made a pretty interesting effect.

Will the Real Weeping Wall Please Stand Up?

On the west side of Logan Pass, there is a landmark known as the Weeping Wall, so called because of the way the water oozes and runs out of the rocks. It is said that at certain times of the year, you have to roll your windows up and run your wipers as you drive by. The water comes from melting snow fields and glaciers, filtering down through the loose rock. The real weeping wall was barely damp both times we drove by it, but we found this wall on the east side of the pass that was actually weeping.

Siyeh Bend

Siyeh Bend is another scenic spot, with a waterfall on the uphill side, and valley overlooks the other direction.

Sun Point

Dale waited in the car while I took a short hike to Sun Point. The walk was definitely worth it - there were beautiful views of St. Mary Lake, and the surrounding mountains.

St. Mary Lake

More views of St. Mary Lake and Goose Island

St. Mary

We reach the end of the road at St. Mary, where we had dinner at the lodge instead of having our usual picnic. Then we headed back towards West Glacier. We do have a couple more stops flagged for the way back if there is time.

Tunnel With Windows

This was an interesting tunnel. Along the outside wall, there were two openings that you could walk through and look at the view. And of course a sidewalk to get there.

Goodbye to Glacier

As we leave the park for the last time on this trip, we finally remember to get the requisite "Welcome to Glacier" picture at the entry sign. As we bid farewell to this park, I have run out of words to describe the beauty.

Next Page: Headed for North Dakota

Vacation 2009 - Polebridge

This is page eight of our vacation 2009 blog. The first page is here.

Polebridge

Polebridge is on the west side of Glacier, north of the main West entrance. It is another of those places that have their own separate entrance to the park, but in this case there is also a road that goes there from inside the park. The inner road is a gravel road, and pretty rough and rugged in places, but that's why we have a 4x4. We decided to take the inner road up to Polebridge, and return along the outer road.

Forest Regrowth

The first part of the drive was through an area that had been hit by fires previously. I forgot the exact years, but I'm thinking 2001 and 2006, or maybe one a little earlier than that. I should take better notes. This area is a good example of how nature regenerates itself. The old, burnt trees may not be pretty, but it is good to see how quickly the area recovers. We took several pictures from various locations along the road.

This picture shows numerous holes from a woodpecker. There is a particular variety of woodpecker who thrives in burned areas, causing birdwatchers to have very mixed feelings about fires.

I thought it was interesting the way the mushrooms were growing out the side of this tree. I'm guessing this tree was dead before the fire that took its neighbors.

We took several pictures at various places along this route - I tried to pick the ones that best illustrated the regrowth of the forest, or that were just interesting shots.

Foresters are learning that not all fires are evil, but I wonder how they distinguish between the ones where it is better to let nature take its course, and the ones that they must fight at all costs.

Quartz Creek

We stopped for lunch at the Quartz Creek campground and picnic area. It was not closed for the season yet, but there were signs up that they had shut down all the water for the winter. We did have temperatures into the 30s once or twice, so it is not too early.

There is a car somewhere underneath this pile of dust. I'm sure of it - look very closely...

There was yet another pretty stream right behind our picnic area

And here are some pretty wildflowers in the area. The last two are significantly cropped from the originals. The butterfly was intentional, but the two bees were accidental. I did not realize they were there until I looked more closely at the pictures. Don't forget that you can click on any of these pictures to see a larger view.

Along the ridge

These pictures were taken from along the ridge as we approached Polebridge

Here is a view looking up at the ridge where the previous pictures were taken. You can see it wasn't really very high at that point, but enough to give some interesting views.

Polebridge Mercantile

There was an old-fashioned general store at Polebridge, as well as some cabins. They supposedly have baked goods that are to die for, but the selection was a little slim by the time we got there. I'm not sure why I didn't take a picture of the store. This view was taken from near the store, looking out across the meadow.

Back to Civilization

After Polebridge, we headed back towards camp along the Outer Road. Parts of this road were gravel as well, but it was not nearly as rugged as the inner road.

We saw a deer at a wayside on the way back. She stayed hidden, and it was hard to get a shot of her head. I think she thought that if she couldn't see us, that we couldn't see her. She seemed really skinny considering how much vegetation there was in the area. I don't know if she was sick, or old, or not eating well for some other reason.

It seems we are alternating long days with short days, but I just know we are seeing as much as we are physically able to see in the limited time available. Before our last day at Glacier, we need to take a break to do some laundry, pick up some groceries, and ummmm... WASH THE CAR!

Next Page: Last Day at Glacier