Three Bears Before Lunch

Headed north again (as we will be for the next 3 weeks).  Destination Jasper Alberta via the Icefields Highway.

Got our usual early start (9:00 am) and withing an hour had seen three bears.  Black bears (one cinnamon cub) and no grizzlys yet.  By the end of the day we'd seen 6 more, plus an assortment of mountain goats..  All of the sightings were from the road, but it does make the hikes much more interesting.

The scenery along the way is nothing short of breath-taking.

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We're settled in at a campground that is noted for the resident elk herd, which the range said has a number of calves.  You Tube is full of videos of elk that don't like tourists.

We're planning some hiking in the area tomorrow but it's raining right now, (about 9:30 pm).

Good Night from Whistler Campground, Jasper Alberta.

STAMPEDE!!!!

Making our way from Glacier up to Lake Louise/Jasper area in British Columbia.

I have to say we're practically getting run over by the wildlife (animal type).  Just  before crossing the border we bagged two moose.  (Vanessa - eat your heart out.

As we were climbing up into the Kootenay Mountains we rounded a bend and about 30 mountain goats were hauling butt down the center of the road.

After we had set up for the night at Readstreak Campground in the Kootenays, as I was sitting at the picnic table, there was a huge THUD as a golden eagle slammed into a ground squirrel less than 20 feet in front of me.  (No pics of that one).  Not sure I'm ready for the inevitable bear encounter if it's as up close and personal as that. 

View from the campground

Good Night from the Kootenays

Brad & Val

Avalanche at Avalanche Creek

Just a teaser.  Didn't really have an avalanche.  But the road through the park is still closed due to Avalanche hazards.

We got an "early" start, (8:00 is early for us), and headed up the mountain 20 miles or so to Avalanche Creek Trail.  The road first runs along the shore of McDonald Lake with some pretty nice views.

Then on up the feeder "creek" that was running full tilt from snow melt and pretty impressive.as well.

We were rubber-necking the whole way up, so by the time we arrived, there was literally only one parking spot left.  Since this is where the cross mountain road is closed, most available high country hiking and biking trails have to start from here.

 (I couldn't decide if I wanted to hike or just sit there and sell the spot to the highest bidder.)

I opted for fun over cash and headed up the trail.

Butterfly trying to steal my PB&J

The broken trees are from the avalanche that rolled through here, from up there, in 2011.
Hence the name of the trail.

All-In-All, A Pretty Darn Good Day

Good Night From Glacier Again

Brad & Val

Blizzard In Missoula

Got up this morning to "snow" on the Funmobile.  The really fun part was that Montana has the largest population of really big, fat, juicy bugs, many of which were splatted across the front of the Funmobile.  The avalanche of cottonwood fuzz was like having the van tarred and feathered.

On the drive up we stopped at a sporting goods store to buy a fresh can of bear spray.  Guy behind the counter says "You want the large size or the small size?"  What a STUPID question.   

Arrived at Glacier Nat'l Park early enough to get a short hike along Lake McDonnald.  Scenery was cool, but most of the forest was in the early recovery state from a massive forest fire in 2003.. 

Nice thing about the burn...no place for the bears to hide.

Camping at Fish Creek campground inside the park.  Ranger says grizzly and black bear are active in the area.  The classic adage is "You don't have run faster than the bear, just faster than..." the really old people in the next campsite.

Tomorrow headed up into the high country for a hike along Avalanche Trail..

Good Night from Glacier National Park.

 PS  -  Val says that if I hit her with bear spray ONE MORE TIME, she'll feed me to the first grizzly we find.

Pushing Westward

Two travel days from the Black Hills to western Montana, (enroute to Glacier NP).  Took a back road to Billings instead of I-90 and stumbled across Custer Battlefield Nat’l Monument.  I’m embarrassed to admit that I thought it was somewhere in the Dakotas, not Montana.

I feel compelled to spill out some thoughts about what we saw and the impressions of the events.  So skip to the next blog post if I “wax too poetic”.

Unlike some of the Civil War Battlefields we’ve visited, there was a complete absence of the icons of other great engagements.  No cannon or glamorous monuments, no flags or glossy displays.  

Instead, a ridgeline and hillside dotted 

with small white headstones sits in the midst of hundreds of square miles of uninhabited rolling grasslands.   Each stone marking the location where one of the 263 fallen members of Custer’s 7^th Cavalry met their end.  Isolated single markers struggling up the slopes to meet small bands of five to ten Cavalrymen cut off from the main force.  Finally, at the top of a knoll, some 40 stones mark the location of the “last stand” where Custer and the remaining troopers were finally overwhelmed and died to the man.  

Standing on the ridge it was easy to sense the impending doom the small isolated groups must have felt as the over 2,000 Sioux and Cheyenne swarmed across the neighboring hilltops.  It was a classic fight to the death with no chance of victory.

The Last Stand

Whatever one’s feelings about the morality of the expansionist cause that instigated this battle, you have to find yourself with at least a small lump in your throat after scanning the surrounding landscape.  Most of these men were just soldiers, not fighting for a cause, but simply because someone ordered “charge”.  And for that, they were no more.

Added more recently were small scatterings of red headstones, similarly marking the known fallen Indian warriors of that battle.   At the base of some of these stones were what appeared to be medicine bags along with an assortment of coins.  (Symbolizing what?)

Among the visitors today were a number of Native American families touring the site, likely for the same reasons as the whites… idle curiosity or deep personal interest, or maybe just because it was a beautiful day eastern Montana.  But their expressions were just a little different.  Possibly because for them, this was a place of  a great, if short-lived, victory.

Good Night from western Montana

Brad & Val

PS - Southern Montana is awesomely beautiful. 

Buffalo are to South Dakota as Alligators are to Florida

  

Just a few thousand words worth of pictures today.  Poking around in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

 

Sylvan Lake

Also Sylvan Lake

Buffalo (plural)

Buffalo (singular)

Interstate 90
SD still waiting for stimulus money.
(Wrong politics I guess.)

Some of the locals living back in the hills
still haven't given up the hope of striking it rich.

 Good Night from the Black Hills of South Dakota

Brad & Val

Along the Trail Of Spotted Elk

Leaving the Badlands today, out the back door via Sage Creek Road.  This route crosses a plateau over which Lakota Chief Spotted Elk (AKA chief Bigfoot) made his last fateful journey to Wounded Knee. 

We were rewarded with the sight of probably a couple of thousand buffalo stretching across the horizon.  Probably much the same as in the mid-1800’s and as Spotted Elk had one seen it.. 

Makes you wonder how they could possibly be almost wiped out.

This wasn't a Buffalo, but pretty exciting never-the-less.

Finished the day at Sylvan Lake in the southern Black Hills, (and a tornado watch).

Good Night From the Black Hills of South Dakota

Val & Brad

Isn't that CUTE!!

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Castle Trail - The Badlands

Badlands National Park is one of my favorites.  Probably because of the 1980’s visit on which we encountered a topless jogger on the Castle trial, (which we are hiking again today).  We have perfect hiking weather of high 70’s, light overcast and a moderate breeze.

Val just told me a picture is worth a thousand words, so I'm taking the hint and instead of boring you with dialog, here are several thousand words worth of pictures.

Photos

The scenery was awesome, and the Big Horn sheep were a special surprise.  Maybe not as good as the topless jogger, but all-in-all, not a bad day.

Good Night from the Badlands again.

Brad & Val