We are back in the "lower 48!" We decided to leave Canada and all its smoke and head for the border. We drove through Banff National Park on the Icefields Highway, which is supposed to be spectacular scenery -- it may have been, but with the rain, clouds, fog, and smoke, we didn't see much of anything. About the last 20 miles of the highway, the smoke started clearing and there were a few breaks in the clouds and what we saw was amazing. Too bad we were unable to see the rest of it.
We crossed into Montana at Eureka about 9:15 in the morning and headed to Columbia Falls, which is right outside Glacier National Park. Out of the week that we spent there, we had maybe two days of rain and the rest were nice days. We had a gorgeous sunny day for our drive through Glacier National Park. Road to the Sun is exactly that, you start climbing and keep climbing and the road narrows (and there was construction) and you finally get to the top which is Logan's Pass and it was beautiful.
After Columbia Falls we headed towards Yellowstone and spent three nights there. It was raining when we arrived there (imagine that -- rain), but the next two days were sunny and warm. I almost forgot what a blue sky looks like!
We saw more wildlife in Yellowstone than we saw our whole trip through Canada and Alaska!
This guy decided a shortcut through the parking lot was easier than walking along the road! We didn't get any closer and were staying close to the truck in case he decided to get closer.
After Yellowstone we headed west to Idaho and I was able to visit with some long-time family friends, which was a treat. Then we headed west of there and took a turn into
the moon? Actually it's Craters of the Moon National Monument, which was interesting.
Tomorrow we head for Declo, Idaho, which is where we'll stop for a few days to watch the opening night of the new football season when the Saints play the Vikings. We're slowly winding our way south to Lake Powell, which is where we'll meet up with the RV club for a few nights at Lake Powell and then the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We will stop at Bryce Canyon on our way down, which I'm looking forward to seeing again.
So that brings us up to date. We're still enjoying what we're doing and after the Grand Canyon trip we're headed back to the Albuquerque area for a while to plan where we'll head next!
