Driving on Going-to-the-Sun Road

...was a bust!  We knew the road wasn't completely plowed yet, so that's why we planned a stay at both the east and west entrances.  Before the trip, I kept checking online to see what progress had been made on the plowing.  It looked like all but a small section was open. 

But when we got here yesterday, we found out that even though almost all the road had been plowed, the turnouts hadn't been plowed yet, so there was no place to turn  around on the road, thus, the road is only open for 16 miles on the east side and about that far on the west side.

We drove on the road as far as we could, but it was too wet, cold, and windy, to walk on any of the trails and we weren't inclined to hike down the steep trails anyway.  I hopped out of the car to take some pictures, and took some from the car.

That's Saint Mary Lake with small Goose Island in the middle.  I'm a little confused about which mountain peak is which, but they all have names.

In the midst of writing this blog, the USB ports on my computer all decided to die, so I am not able to use my mouse.  The keyboard touch pad and I do not get along, so it's a painstaking process to put a blog together.  I hope to share the details and pictures of our trip to the Many Glacier area of Glacier National Park but I'll save that for tomorrow.

A Curvy Ride from Helena to St. Mary, MT

Last night a storm came through our campground.  Afterword, Dave and I saw  a meteorological phenomenon called a virga.  You can click on the name and read all about the science involved, but basically it was rain falling in the distance at the time of sunset. 

Virga at sunset

This morning the sun was out and the wind was gone.  We left the RV park at 8:45 and headed north to St. Mary. 

The mosquitoes weren't quite as bad this morning, but we still managed to get a windshield full of bugs as we made the 200 mile drive to St. Mary.  We saw a variety of scenery along the way.

Pretty trees in the town of Choteau

I didn't know there were oil wells in Montana.

We saw a missile launch control facility (no picture) and about ten miles later, we saw one of the underground missile silos.  The picture isn't too clear since I had to take it through the screened side window.

As we got closer to Glacier, the mountains became more visible at times...

...and not at other times.

The town of Browning is a junction for highways 2 and 89.  We were on highway 89 and continued north. 

St. Mary Lake popped into view.

After a harrowing drive through the narrow curves of Highway 89, we arrived at the East Glacier/St. Mary KOA.  It's a decent KOA, with friendly check-in, a playground, swimming pool, and hot tub, but over-priced at $115 for 2 nights after the KOA discount.

Below are two views from our site at the KOA.

We ate a late lunch in the motorhome and then went into the park to the St. Mary Visitor's Center and drove on the Going-to-the-Sun Road as far as it was open.  I'll write about that trip tomorrow.

Bugs, Bears, and Wolves

Dave and I left West Yellowstone this morning around 9:15.  While being attacked by mosquitoes, Dave carefully cleaned the motorhome windshield.  The windshield didn't stay clean for very long as you will be able to see in the following pictures. 

Disclaimer: Some mosquitoes were harmed during today's trip to Helena, Montana.

Only a few bugs on the windshield

Our route was Hwy 191 North from West Yellowstone, following the Gallatin River for quite a ways.  We then drove west on I-90 until we turned north on Hwy 287 after crossing the flooded Missouri River.  We followed the Missouri River for a while.  Pretty much the whole time we were on 287 we had road construction to deal with.  It's summer, you know. 

More bugs and more pretty scenery

Just outside of Helena we stopped for gas--the Exxon price was $3.59 per gallon and $3.69 for diesel.  Shortly after the gas stop, we stopped at the Helena Walmart Supercenter to get restocked for our week at Glacier National Park.  Then it was on to I-15 North for nine miles until we exited for our stop at the Lincoln Road RV Park.  It's a nice enough park, nothing to write home about, a bit pricey at $38.52 after the Good Sam discount, but the temperature is in the 90s, so we wanted full hookups and that's what we got, plus free speedy wifi.

The bugs don't show up as much in this scenic picture.

We didn't unhook the car, so we didn't get to see any of Helena this trip.  It was too hot to go exploring and now the sky looks like there's going to be a thunderstorm. 

Mucho bugs and less-pretty scenery

Sunday afternoon Dave and I went to the Wolf and Grizzly Discovery Center in West Yellowstone.  This is a great center that features rescued bears and wolves.  We watched an interesting movie about the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone. 

Tomorrow we plan to arrive at St. Mary, Montana.  We'll explore East Glacier Park for a couple of days and then head to West Glacier.  Grab your can of bug spray and join us!

Grand Teton National Park

Today was our last day at Yellowstone and we decided to take a drive (236 miles round trip!) to Grand Teton National Park.  The weather was beautiful today, but last night the temperature got down to 27.  It was still a bit chilly when we entered Yellowstone Park at 8:15 this morning.

We passed by the Continental Divide several times today.

As we traveled south of Grant Village on a road that was new to us, one of the first sights we saw was Lewis Falls.

Then it was goodbye to Yellowstone and hello to Grand Teton and one of our first views of the Teton Mountains.

We stopped first at Colter Bay.  We had stayed in the Trailer Park there in the early 1990s when we had our Fleetwood Jamboree Rallye Class C motorhome, and we wanted to see if we could still fit in the sites there with our 35E Fleetwood Bounder.  We determined that yes, this would still be a good place to stay.  Our motorhome would fit, even with the slides extended, and the sites have been upgraded to 50 amp electric along with the water and sewer hookups that we remembered. 

We visited the Visitor's Center, walked down to the Jackson Lake marina, took some pictures, and then had lunch at one of their picnic tables. 

We drove on to Jackson Lake Lodge, went inside and admired the lodge, and then went out to their patio to take some more pictures of the fabulous Grand Teton Mountains.

We drove on to Willow Flats Overlook but we didn't see any animals hanging around the meadow.  I was on a search for moose and bears!

Our next destination was Jenny Lake.  This was a part of the park that we hadn't seen.  What a lovely drive and beautiful lake!

We stopped at an overlook area and then drove to the Jenny Lake Visitor's Center and walked down to the lake.

We saw more pretty wildflowers.

I never did see any real live moose, so this picture on the wall at Jackson Lake Lodge had to suffice...

...along with these iron moose in the fireplace at the Lodge.

On our way back through Yellowstone National Park, we said goodbye to the park and enjoyed one more look at the steam from the geysers.

Tomorrow morning we leave West Yellowstone and travel north to Glacier National Park, with an overnight stop at Helena, Montana.  Thank you for following along on our trip to Yellowstone!

Yellowstone Grizzly RV Park, West Yellowstone, MT

This morning we made the big move (6 blocks) to Grizzly RV Park.  This was our first choice place to spend all seven nights we were here, but they were booked for the first five, so we ended up at Wagon Wheel Campground for those nights.  West Yellowstone is a busy town in the summer, so we were lucky to get reservations anywhere!

Grizzly RV Park is a very nice park, and it turned out that since we were assigned a back-in site in the back of the park, the price was 48.95 per day--minus the Good sam discount, plus tax, we paid $96.91 for the two nights we'll be here.  That's expensive, but a pretty good rate for this park and for this town.  We are within walking distance to everything, and even closer than we were at Wagon Wheel.

Back-in Site #28 at Grizzly RV Park The staff here are friendly and efficient.  This is a big park and we were lucky to be able to check in at 11 am because their recommended check in doesn't start until noon.  We had to check out of Wagon Wheel at 11, so that would have left us "homeless" for an hour.  Well, not really homeless, since we have our home with us, but without a place to park it.

The view from behind our site.  A large dog walk path is in front of the fence and circles around the park.

A view down one of the streets of the RV park.

The playground

Check-in parking

The park's mascot in front of the registration building.

I always like to see a park's flag waving!

The game room, restrooms, and laundry all are very nice.  There is no pool or exercise room.  This park offers cabins as well as tent sites.  We get can a satellite signal here, but the speedy free wifi (Tengonet) is limited to 2 hours during every 10 hour period, or unlimited free wifi if you are in a premium site.  I recommend both of the parks that we've stayed at here in West Yellowstone!