2 June – Smiths Lake, Bonners Ferry: Sometime flying by the seat of your pants, backfires!
After a fantastic 4 days (one more than “allowed” per the sign for free camping) a spur of the moment decision to duck off the interstate onto the Coure d Arlene scenic byway (which we thought would meander the shores of the lake to the town of the same name) resulted in a 100km (& 2 hours) circular windy loop which took us all the way back to where we had slept the last few days. When we finally rejoined the interstate, town was only 15km away – what chops.
Quick lunch from Arby’s and then filled all our water tanks before putting our heads down for another 2 hours northwards – we are basically on the Canadian border.
3 June – Libby-Dunn Creek campground: We could go no further north from last nights spot as apart from crossing the Canadian border there were no roads left or right so we backtracked and headed across to Montana.
Made a brief stop at Kootenai Falls which are pretty spectacular and then onwards to this stunning campsite on the banks of the river. Would be great here in full summer with the river as a playground below. Campsite is maintained by US Army Engineer corps and currently free.
5 June – Upper Stillwater campground: It was a wonderful couple of warm days camped next to the river outside Libby but also felt like the time to move on so we packed up this morning and headed into town hoping to get breakfast at a “good ole small town diner” which we had seen on our way through the other day. Sadly, they only do lunches and dinners so breakfast consisted for us of some biscuits on the road.
Stopped in Kalispell to grocery shop and refill our water tanks, then headed north again towards Canada. From here we will cut East to the upper part of Glacier National park.
Camp tonight is a cute little formal” National Forest site overlooking a small lake. As usual for free.
6 June – Red Meadows Ice Blockage: We did it again, thinking we could take the back-country roads across to Glacier NP but after 30km run into ice again. At least this time we knew it was absolutely not passable and not just us being chicken as some locals had got themselves stuck and only just extracted themselves when we arrived.
And Stuart clearly wasn’t dressed for digging in ice
6 June – Polebridge, Just outside Glacier Nat Park: After our abortive “shortcut”, a long drive (with a quick stop in Whitefish for a walk around town- it is a very cute touristy spot) has us up near the remote northwest side of Glacier National Park. The route took us briefly into the park and both of looked at each at and said “we think our morning route was prettier and more spectacular”, hopefully the rest of the park lives up to expectations when we start to explore it properly over the next few days.
Late in the evening a young couple from India (in a Tesla sci-fi truck) cruised through the parking area we are camped in – ended up spending a fantastic couple of hours chatting with them. They are IT boffins from India and now living in Minneapolis.
7 June – Sanderson Flats, Polebridge: Our first foray into Glacier NP (Bowman Lake & Kintla lake) and unfortunately, we were left feeling a bit underwhelmed. Everyone has raved about the magnificence of it but we thought yesterdays abortive trip up little-known roads and past high lakes was more impressive – oftentimes thanks to Mr J and our desire to explore we get to see and enjoy lesser known spots.
Admittedly todays visit was in a far corner of the park so perhaps other sections will wow us.
On the positive side we have discovered a nice little wild camp right across the river from the park with spectacular views onto its mountains – perhaps better views from here than inside the park.
9 June – Skyland Road, south of Glacier NP: This morning we got on the full touristy trail of Glacier NP by following the western side of the Road to the Sun (the famous road that only opens sometime in late June after they have spent a month snowplowing through banks of up to 30m deep!). Even though the road is closed long before the snow it is super popular with hikers and cyclists who walk/bike from the closure point and thus as with most NP’s we encountered traffic jams at the closure point.
Leaving the park we stopped for lunch next to a river when a local (in a huge bakkie) pulled up to chat and to our surprise he had also driven the PanAm a few years ago. Based on his recommendation we turned up Skylab’s road and have camped about 5km into the valley. Spotted a big moose in the creek just next to our camp – very cool.
As we are now well and truly into bear country, we bought at the NP gift shop a canister of bear spray. Given that the bear needs to be as close as 10m before you use it, it is a $50 insurance policy we hope not to use.
10 June – Montana Grasslands, Dupuyer Community Park: Up early this morning to tackle the East side of Glacier NP but first we had to stop for some Huckleberry “Bear Claws” as an addition to Breakfast.
The “Many Glacier” leg turned out to be a disappointment relative to our expectations although the final lake and views were spectacular.
Backtracked which took us to the St Mary section and the other side of “the Road to the Sun”, which we drove until it’s closed off point. This east side is definitely more spectacular in respect to views but we have now seen enough pretty lakes and snowfields to last us a while. We have come to learn that the park has many small ice fields (aka glaciers) whereas in our mind we expected big glaciers like we saw in Patagonia.
Leaving the park we entered the ranch land area of Montana with miles and miles of rolling grasslands.
Camped tonight (for free as usual) in a community park/camp area just next to the tiny village of Dupuyer (per Google, population of 131). And we getting our first thunderstorm since last year in South Africa
11 June – Upper Toston recreation dam: This morning we debated staying a day in yesterdays cute little campsite but in the end decided to push south towards Bozeman which was a good decision as for the first hour or so we drove in a total haze – a result of the Canadian wildfire smoke being blown south! Saw on the weather app this afternoon that there is a severe warning for that area due to the bad air quality, it’s at 153 when 30 is considered healthy!!
The route took us through a number of cute small towns – stereotypical “small town” America. In one, Augusta, we stopped to do some research as they had big signs up welcoming Rodeo fans and Tania fancies watching a cowboy or two. The rodeo is only arriving at the end of the month but it did give us an idea and we may head to one when we get to Wyoming.
13 June – Emigrant, Old Saloon: Boom or bust – We have lacked for socializing this trip and then the last two nights, have made up for that.
Last night was with some South African farm boys who are seasonal workers on the potato farms outside Toston. This was thanks to a chance encounter when the one, Andrew, come to fish at the dam we were camped next to and was so surprised to see a ZA number plate and flag. He picked us up later so that we could join some of the other guys at the little bar in town. Good conversation, laughs and a game of pool saw us only back at Mr J just before midnight.
Then tonight it is time for some live country music at the Old Saloon in Emigrant. As a bonus we are camped across the road at the fuel station so don’t have to worry about driving.
In between we spent the day in and around Bozeman (very pretty and funky town) shopping and hunting down a place that was prepared to do an oil change on Mr J (he is too old to be in most of their computers and without a computer…..), eventually got it done at a Subaru dealership (go figure!) where he stole the show and was the centre of attention for staff and customers alike.
14 June – Gardiner, Yellowstone NP views: A really short hop today, to a spot just outside Yellowstone NP and above (literally) the town of Gardiner. Two nights of partying has left us feeling a little tired 🤣
From our campsite we look down into town and are hoping to watch their rodeo this evening from our “viewing deck”.
15 June – Cooke City, up a rough track: A long day in Yellowstone NP doing the road to Canyon Village and the Lamar River Valley. These are the supposed wildlife rich areas of the park and we did get pretty lucky with lots of Bison and then in the afternoon a “couple” of a black and brown bear and then a bit further on a roughly 2 year old black bear, which was all on its own (apparently Mama bear kicks them out around 2years).
Based on the dried spoor where we are camped, a bear definitely passed through our chosen parking for the night sometime since the snowmelt
The National parks are usually spectacular but we often find them a little disappointing as you can quickly feel like you are on Disneyland trail: lots and lots of people all racing from one viewpoint to another for a quick snap of a photo and/or selfie before heading off to the other. Most also don’t have much wildlife so it becomes a crowded scenery show and you feel quite out of touch from nature. This afternoon at one of the big waterfalls was a case in point, we sat in a traffic jam for 20minutes just to get into the parking area, to then get out of Mr. J, walk 200m, snap pic and then back to car to start the process again.
We also really miss South African warmth and practicality: in above said car park, right to the end there were a number of spaces free but nobody signals to the cars waiting at the entrance to come down that far, and when we tried to signal to others we didn’t even get a thank you or a smile of thanks. Very much, each man for himself!
So becuase the parks are “spectacular but not special” and because we are here and are quite sure we would have regrets of not visiting other spots we will continue to play on the merry go round…
16 June – Buffalo Bill reservoir, Cody: Last night we think we had a visit from a bear or more accurately he foraged around Mr J. It was hard to make him out in the dark but we could hear him and are fgot brief glimpses of a bear like shape. Needless to say one member of HippySquared didn’t sleep so well.
Today we drove the spectacular Beartooth pass which is only clear of snow between June and October and then looped around to Cody. The plan is to attend the town rodeo but think we will take a rest day first.
17 June – Walmart & Rodeo, Cody: After a fun night at the rodeo, we are just down the road at Walmart. We always understood that Walmart was the “go to” for free camping in the USA but until now we have not been tempted. Fantastic option to have for here though
18 June – West Yellowstone NP: Back into Yellowstone NP with the intention of checking out all the Geysers and steam sprays. The park is so big that it takes a whille and also, we really only got out of Cody after 10 between shopping and hunting for water to top up our tanks etc.
As we were preparing to leave the picnic site we had stoped at for lunch we noticed lots of cars and people near the entrance to the circular loop, turns out there was a mama bear and her cub cruising in the forest just above the picnic spot. Add this to our previous sightings in the park and the one of the bear, foraging around Mr J the other night (Cooke city) and we have done pretty well so far.
While we had intended to “complete” the park today, after queuing for parking at Norris and steamboat geysers we decided to call it quits and head for the west entrance and a free spot in the forest next to the park.
19 June – Teton County: Back on the Merri-go-round, and boy was it busy!
Our last day in Yellowstone took us through the most popular geysers, so we were expecting crowds but the 3km traffic jam only 10km inside the gates (for a road crew who were painting a 50m bridge with new yellow lines) really brought it home what to expect!
The Prismatic geyser probably deserves the crowds but the constant jostling on a 1m wide boardwalk does detract from the spectacle. We took time-out over lunch at a little trailhead before heading to Old Faithful. Surprisingly and despite being the most famous geyser, old faithful felt calmer. Perhaps just becuase there was plenty parking and plenty space for the crowd to spread out in.
On the way out of the of the park we encountered another traffic jam, this time for a baby black bear. And once again we were left dumbfounded about how many people climb out of their cars and stand within 15m of the bear to get pictures. This despite all the signage and information shoved down their throats about not getting to close to wildlife, not blocking the roads etc.
Ended the day at a lovely spot on a lake with gentle lapping water and peace and quiet.
20 June – Jackson Hole, Wyoming: Woke up to cold, rain and lots of mosquitoes so it was an easy decision to move, if only for charging the house battery. On our way out, stopped at a camp site that had yesterday been occupied, weather was iffy and with a big snowfall predicted for this weekend, we decided to keep moving but perhaps that was not the best decision as where we have ended up is quite crowded. Our neighbor tried to convince us that there were more spots up the road and he was thinking of going there, alas he has not moved and we have seen plenty people pass and come back this way – guess he just wanted the spot for himself and of course he is one of the “ones” who responds to us being from South Africa with “I hear there are many bad things happening there”. No prizes for guessing which side of the fence he sits.
The drive today was beautiful with spectacular views of the Grand Tetons.
21 June – Cliff Creek road: A slow start and easy day. After a cruise down the valley and past the majestic Grand Tetons we spent some time in Jackson Hole this morning, firstly to post off our old Garmin satellite messenger to a buyer in Panama and then to walk around town.
Fancied a bite to eat around lunchtime but touristy prices scared us ($15 for a burger with no sides) so instead headed a bit further south for a camp-spot which was last marked on iOverlander by “TheRichHippy” so we figured it should be good AND it is. Now we just need to see if the big storm from up north affects us or not. Really hoping not as we need some downtime and this spot would be perfect for a day or two off.
24 June – Flaming Gorge Reservoir: 300km of driving across a Karoo like landscape, a big grocery shop, a stop to refill water tanks and a couple of hours doing laundry, sums the day up…
The feared winter storm at our last stop didn’t quite reach so although it was cold (9dec C during the day) it was manageable and we had a good few days.
26 June – Flaming Gorge, Greek island Cove: We are trying to wait out the time until what we presume will be a very busy July 4th weekend but also wanting to change the scenery and vistas a little bit, so today did a short hop exploring a number of little coves around the reservoir. Many have, towed in huge mobile homes parked semi-permanently (and unoccupied) even though there are loads of signs saying 16day camping limit and “no residential camping”, presumably they are treated as weekend homes and therefore not occupied for 16 days at a time.
Found this little gem which is down a semi 4×4 track which was vacant, totally has white wine in the sun with feet in the water vibes
30 June – Dinosaur National Monument: We had a stunning 4 days at the Flaming Gorge reservoir.
Today’s drive was stunning along the edge of the Flaming Gorge and then over some pretty mountains before dropping down into Vernal where we needed to shop, fillup water, find a state liquor store (becuase we had crossed back into Utah).
Vernal is your typical American small town – very clean, spacious, a main shopping street with only two-story buildings etc and this one had all its spring bloom out (flowers in hanging pots on every lamp post.
As we were cruising along admiring it all, Tania spotted an “all day breakfast” diner. We have been wanting to stop at one of these for ages so in we pulled over. ZAR600 later 😭 and we had two bottomless coffees, a two stack of flapjacks and some bacon, potatoes and “biscuit” (aka scone). Pricey but an experience! As we have become accustomed too, in the most bizarre places people know a lot about South Africa – in this case via, the waiter via his doctor who is a hunter he knew of Cecil the Lion and also thought the 2010 World Cup was the best. He even knew our cities etc.
On the way out to our camp spot we stopped at the dinosaur national monument for an interesting tour of their visitor centre. This area was home to many dinosaurs and many fossils have been dug up – over 400 whole dinosaur.
Camp is a very dry, dusty and hotspot in the valley.