Go West and Take the Old Dog With

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To become aquainted with the Travelblog and learn how to use it I will publish several of our previous trips.

In September 2005, Karen, Amber and Wayne loaded up the old pickup camper and headed west to Glacier National Park and other places west of the Mississippi. Our first stop was in Detroit Lakes, MN. to visit Mom Gjersvig and sister and brother-in-law; Karen and Gary.

The next day we drove to Western North Dakota and stayed at Teddy Roosevelt National Park (Northern Section). This is Bad Land country. We continued west into Big Sky country. Teddy Roosevelt

Visited Ft. Peck dam and reservoir. (I wish I had my boat with). Found a very nice RV park in Havre for a good night's rest. Arrived Glacier in time to get a camp site at Sunrise camp ground. The ranger warned us that we may hear a load loise during the night. They were trying to live trap a bad bear in the camp ground. Didn't take any long walks that evening.

Drove over to the Many Glacier area and hiked along Lake Josephine. Karen and Amber decided to boycott this hike after they saw the bear warnings. Karen did take a hike later in the day in an area without any bear warning signs. I guess that means there weren’t any bears in the area.

Going to the Sun highway opened the next morning so we drove over Logan pass. Lots of traffic since the road had been closed for several days. We got to drive on the mountain side of the road most of the time which made Karen happy. Stayed at beautiful Lake McDonald that evening.

After a great breakfast at West Glacier we headed south along Flat Head Lake (I wished I had my boat) and ended up in Missoula. We kept going South until the Idaho boarder. I wanted to take a shortcut through the mountains, but couldn’t take Karen into it. So we drove on a very nice highway over Chief Joseph pass and visited the Big Hole Battle National Monument. Another tragic story of Native Americans fighting a loosing battle.
Big Hole

We drove east of Wisdom and spent a delightful evening in a deserted National Forest Campground. There were a number of vehicles and horse trailers in the parking area. I assume that they were bow hunters after elk in the Beaverhead Mountains.
Beaverhead National Forest

We decided to make a stop in Yellowstone National park. The map showed some interesting shortcuts, but we decided it would be faster to go through Butte on the good roads. After a stop at Old Faithful and a dive through much of the park we camped at Lake Village. It got very cold that night and while having breakfast at the Lodge it started snowing. Karen sighted a couple of grizzlies as we were about to leave the park.

Now it was over the Big Horn Mountains and a long slog across eastern Wyoming to the Black Hills of So. Dakota. We spent part of the day driving around the Hills and hiked in the George S. Mickelson trail.
Mickelson Trail
There was one sign that mentioned mountain lions so we didn’t hike too far.

Another long slog across SD and we spent our last night on the trail in Sioux Falls. One more state to cross and we were back in Wisconsin.

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Photos

North Dakota Morning
Wayne and Amber take a hike at Teddy Roosevelt Natioanl Park.

Home on the Range
A Bison on a autumn day at North Dakota Bad Lands.

Rising Sun Campground View
Another great morning at Glacier.

Goose Island
A great view across St.Mary Lake.

There She Goes Again
Karen ignoring Old Faithful.

Black Hills Hike
Karen and Amber enjoy a hike on the George S Mickelson trail near Deadwood, SD.