glacier
GLACIER
GLACIER
Glacier
June 2021
We got on the road at 8:20 am on a Saturday morning. Not bad considering I went with a friend to happy hour the day before for Old Fashions, and after that the evening morphed, like they frequently do, into dinner and more drinks at a neighbor’s house. That morning we drove from our house in Shakopee, MN to Dickinson, North Dakota, about a 7-hour drive. We had an interesting first stop at the Welcome Center in Fargo- we got to see the actual woodchipper from the movie, Fargo! It kind of was a highlight of the day. You either love or hate the movie, and while I cringe listening to their version of a Minnesota accent (I know I don’t sound like that 🤔), we love the movie. The people at the Welcome Center were super nice, they even allowed George to come in from the 95 degree heat to take a couple of pictures with the wood chipper. From there, we drove pretty much straight to Dickinson. We knew the first day was going to be one of our biggest travel days.
Once we got to Dickinson, we stayed at the Fluffy Fields Vineyard. It’s definitely not as flat in Dickinson as it was in eastern North Dakota, in Dickinson it’s kind of flat but has a few rolling hills with tall sporadic dirt mounds (I think they were buttes). It was our very first RV Harvest Hosts stay. Harvest Hosts is a network of wineries, breweries, distilleries, farms, and attractions that invite RVers to stay in stunning camping sites. For a yearly $99 membership, we have unlimited access to any one of the Host’s locations. They just recommend since we don’t pay to stay, we purchase one of their local products- which is not a hardship. After feeding George we left him in the air conditioned RV and headed into the winery to have a nice dinner and sample a few wines. After dinner, our evening entertainment was watching, “Army of the Dead” 🤣 (not bad if you like zombie movies). Earlier in the day it reached over a 100 degrees so we needed to run the generator to stay cool and sleep- and if you don’t know David, he likes it at about 62 degrees to sleep…
I think it was close to 11 pm when the weather temp fell and the storm started. The winds were so strong- up to 50mph! After looking at the weather channel, David said we should bring in the slide. After envisioning the RV tipping over or the slide ripping off, I promptly got out of bed and we brought in the slid. David slept on the couch and I crawled in bed with George (not a hardship since we give him the whole table area as a bed). While the wind was knocking us around, the hail started, and since this was just our third RV trip, I thought we would have major hail damage. After the hail, the rain came, wow, I’ve never felt so exposed to a storm before in my life. Around 1:30 am the storm was over, the heat had dropped, and we all had survived our first big storm…and luckily, we had no hail damage!
Theodore Roosevelt National Park
After the previous nights storm, it was nice waking up to a quiet sunrise over the winery. We had initially wanted to see the dinosaur museum in Dickinson but they were not open on Sundays, so we headed straight over to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We were only about 20 minutes away, so the drive was nothing like the day before. Once we showed our National Park Pass, we headed into the park. There is two main entrances to the park- the North and South Units with the Elkhorn Ranch in the middle. Elkhorn Ranch was the homesite of Teddy’s Roosevelt 1880s cattle ranch. The North Dakota Badlands, not to be confused with South Dakota’s Badlands National Park, were made by the muddy Little Missouri River and a lot of time. We drove in via the South entrance which is right next to the town of Medora and serves as the main recreational area for most visitors with its scenic driving loop and two dozen trails. The park was established in honor of the landscape’s influence on Theodore Roosevelt who, as a young man, hunted and ranched in the Little Missouri Badlands. He had said he would not have been President had it not been for his experience in North Dakota.
We saw our first buffalo when we stopped at the Painted Canyon Visitor Center. The first siting is always special, and you want to take a LOT of pictures- but by the end of the day the glamour has worn off because you’ve seen so many… In my case, I love to spot any animal, so they are all special and worth time watching- but maybe not take quite so many pictures. After watching the buffalo, we walked along the sidewalk to view the scenic overlook with George, then put him back in the RV to hike down to the bottom of the canyon and back. The only areas dogs can be in National Parks are in parking lots and sidewalks. And while George didn’t like being left behind, he really wouldn’t have like the hike back up- just saying. The painted Canyon was beautiful with all the different colors running through the buttes.
After hiking the Painted Canyon trail, we headed onward. The Park has about 500 buffalo and I think we saw about 50. We also saw wild horses and prairie dogs. The prairie dogs were so cute to watch. It’s amazing watching the colony all work together. I thought the scouting prairie dog’s alarm sounded like a dog squeaky toy. The only animal we didn’t spot was an elk.
Since we didn’t get to visit the dinosaur museum in Dickinson, ND we stopped at Montana State University’s, Museum of the Rockies to see their dinosaur exhibit. I’m a huge fan of dinosaurs- one of my favorite movies of all time is Jurassic Park.
Growing up I had an uncle on my mother’s side, Uncle Harold, who loved to hunt agates. He frequently took me agate hunting in the gravel pits of central Minnesota. It was that, and a trip with my parents to Montana to visit my dad’s brother, Dale and his family, where we took a day trip to hunt for sapphires that instilled my love of rock hunting. Because of that, the one thing I really wanted to do was go sapphire hunting again while in Montana. I could tell David really didn’t want to go, but he was a trooper and agreed- especially since we were only a few miles away🙄. We decided to drive to Gem Mountain in Philipsburg. We arrived early in the morning, and while we waited for the store to open we walked around the town with George and had pastries and coffee. After our small breakfast, we passed by a brewery that had a greyhound minding the store 🥰. When Gem Mountain opened we found that while we could mine a gravel bucket there, where we really should go to get the “real” experience, was the actual mine, which was about 30 minutes away- but they were booked solid! Since they were super dog friendly (most of the town was) and LOVED George, they said they’d call ahead and just go out there and tell them we were the people with the greyhound and they’d let us in. Which they did! We bought 2 gravel buckets and after an hour or so, we had our small vile of cornflower sapphires. Nothing huge or super valuable, but it was fun. After we left the mine we continued on a road that was sketchy (only open in the summer type road) but had super beautiful scenery! So glad we turned right instead of going back the way we came.
Big Mountain Trailhead, Whitefish
We camped at Glacier Campground, just 1 mile west of West Glacier. Nice campground, quiet, well maintained, and cannot beat how close it was to Glacier National Park. We stayed four nights. One of our day trips from Glacier was Whitefish. Absolutely adorable downtown area with shops and restaurants.
I know I wrote about this day but I must not have saved it…! Now, I’m getting behind on getting the site posted while other trips are piling up- I know, what problems I have. Anyway, the long and short of Whitefish was I loved the town and the hiking was great until we decided to continue on a trail that under construction (thinking it was just a short duration) instead of turning around. We should have turned around and eventually we did, just not soon enough…! Think mud, lots of mud. Thank goodness the RV has an outdoor shower hose.
We also spent another day going around Flathead Lake. The lake is over 27 miles long, nearly 15 miles wide and 300 feet deep.
Glacier National Park
David has an annual National Park pass but we were not aware that we ALSO needed a daily entry ticket ($2.00 per vehicle), which we did not have. 80% of those tickets are available in advance of your trip or you can try two days in advance for the last 20% of the tickets. David got online at 8 am to try for one of the 20% tickets but they were already sold out. LUCKILY, there is a provision if you come after 5 pm and before 6 am you can get in without the daily ticket. The daily ticket is for crowd control-and after visiting Glacier for a couple of days, I can definitely see the need for crowd control. So, on Saturday when we got back from going around Flathead Lake and were eating huckleberry pie at one of the many huckleberry shops, we decided to drive into Glacier (since it was after 5pm). Our strategy was to drive as far as we could. Since it was still early June, the Road to the Sun was not open due to snow on the road further up the mountain- which we were bummed out about…at the time. The Road to the Sun Road is touted to be one of the world’s most spectacular highways. It’s a 50 mile long road that follows the shores of the park’s two largest lakes and hugs the cliffs below the Continental Divide. The end of the road for driving, was Avalanche Creek and even at 6pm there were still a lot of cars trying to find parking spots… We decided not to park but to make our way back and stop at all the pull-outs, enjoy the scenery, and take some pictures. The view of the snow top mountains, green/turquoise water, and amazingly green, lush trees and foliage- was just beautiful! It filled us with awe. There were also some burnt areas because of a fire in 2018 that burned over 14,000 acres- but even that was awe inspiring to see what a forest fire can do. After spending a few hours there Saturday night, we had our game plan for Sunday- get up at 4 am and head to the park to get a big enough parking space for our RV. At 4:20am we were one of the first vehicles to drive in that morning, but by 6am the parking lots were majorly filling up- I’m so glad we came that early! That early, we had no problem getting a parking spot for the RV, and it was kind of fun watching everyone arrive and get ready for a day of hiking and biking. While you couldn’t drive the Road to the Sun, you could hike and bike it. Since we arrived so early, David decided to take a nap until the sun came up. I tried to sleep but I kept hearing people arrive so I got up, got my coffee and iPad and preceded to watch all the incoming people. When I saw multiple bikers with snowboards strapped to their bikes- I got a little concerned about where was I biking to that you could use a snowboard?!? Finally around 8am David and I set off biking the Road to the Sun. David had told me the night before that he was looking at the topographical map of the area and he didn’t think it was too steep of a climb. I like to bike, but I’m not a fan of hills…! Needless to say, 20 minutes into the ride the climb started and I didn’t know if I was going to make it, but the views were so stunning, I HAD to keep going! We were truly blessed that cars were not allowed on the road because we got to experience a once in a lifetime ride. Views kept getting better and better the higher you climbed, you just wanting to keep biking even though your legs were dying! The road really wasn’t bad- especially from someone that experiences MN winters, but we were so glad the road was closed to cars and RVs. We biked until we ran into snow. I made it about 80% of the way (the last couple miles I was stopping a lot and even walked a little to give my quads a break) but I was happy with myself, especially since both David and I had our mountain bikes and not our road bikes. A lot of people biking had e-bikes and I SO wanted an e-bike starting around mile 5…
Devils Tower, Wyoming
Devils Tower formed around 50 million years ago and was one to two miles below the Earth’s surface. Somewhere between 5 and 10 years ago, erosive forces began to expose the Tower. Although small rocks fall from the Tower with regularity, there has not been a significant column fall in recorded history. As we were walking round the base you could see a couple people climbing the 5,112 feet tower.
Trip Route
2,812 total miles
