6/19- We enjoyed a nice night at the horse farm. Teddi enjoys when we are stopped for a while and makes sure we know who is in charge. This morning we headed back to the Spokane mall to pick up my glasses. I am so excited to be able to see inside buildings since it was so difficult with just my sunglasses. Now if we can just avoid having any more glasses getting lost on the rest of the trip.
After the mall we headed back to our Harvest Host to break down and hit the road. The other couple that were staying there had already left by the time we got back. Our drive was just over an hour to Albert’s Landing Campground and RV Park. It is on the banks of the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River. Since our RV is bigger than most RV’s we were not able to take the bridge from the highway across to the park but instead had travel about 5 miles down the road, over another bridge and then back up a narrow bumpy road. We weren’t sure how we felt about how hidden this campground was and if it was worth staying at, but once we arrived we were very pleasantly surprised. The campground is tucked away with many sites on the river and the staff there is very friendly. We got parked and hooked up electricity and water, we talked to one of the workers about the best places to go off-roading. He recommended a couple roads but wasn’t sure if one was too overgrown to go up. So we dropped off and set up the RV and headed out in our Jeep to explore with the Forrest map that the worker had given us.
We headed to the questionable road first and it did not look very promising. As we were sitting on Forest Road 806 trying decide if we wanted to go up it a gentleman pulled up behind us. We moved over and he pulled up next to us to talk. He owned land off that road and said it wasn’t in good shape. He told us that the other roads were better so we headed off to give one of them a try.
We decided to start with Bumblebee Loop on Forest Road 323. It is the harder part of the loop but still very doable. You could see people had been up the road recently removing fallen trees and reopening up the trail. We started at the base of Bumblebee Mountain. That side of the loop was just over 5 miles long and took us about an hour and 45 minutes to go up. We climbed up over 2,000 feet to 4700 feet, as we went up the rain turned to sleet for a brief time.. As we traveled along the views were amazing. We went from the base of the trees to being at the top of some trees.
Then it was time to head down the other side of the loop which was Forest Road 796. This was a much easier smoother ride down and we reached the end of this part of the loop in about 45 minutes. It ended at Bumblebee campground that could be accessed off the main road.
It was now after 5 pm and we were concerned about it getting dark so we decided to head back to the campground for the night. We found out later that we didn’t need to be concerned because the sun didn’t set until almost 9 p.m.
6/20- There was a dirt road leading out of our campground that was recommended to us by the workers. It lead from our campsite toward Couer d’Alene, Idaho. We found out the name of the road was E CCC Road and was name that because it was one of the many roads the Civil Conservation Corp built in the 1930’s. https://www.lib.uidaho.edu/digital/cccidaho/about.html . The road was rough but had amazing views of the river. It was about 9 miles long and we ended up right by highway 90 so we hopped on that to head to Couer d’Alene Lake.
We weren’t on the road long before we saw a sign for the Cataldo Mission so we sidetracked and headed over to check it out. It was known as the Mission of the Sacred Heart in 1853. The chapel is the oldest building in Idaho and was built by Father Ravalli who wanted it to look like European cathedrals. He did the best he could with the Indians helping him. It has changed little since it was built. https://parksandrecreation.idaho.gov/parks/coeur-d-alenes-old-mission/ . It started to rain shortly after we arrived so we ducked into the chapel and checked it out but were not able to explore the grounds.
We had decided when we had passed by Couer d’Alene the day before we really wanted to take the scenic byway around the lake. https://visitnorthidaho.com/activity/lake-coeur-dalene-scenic-byway/ . We started off to drive the 35 miles around the lake hoping we would be able to take lots of pictures along the way. But the road was two lane and very winding without any pull offs, so although we enjoyed the beauty we were not able to take many pictures.
Toward the end of the route we arrived in the little town of Harrison where we stopped to explore and enjoy some huckleberry ice cream and fudge before heading back to the RV.
6/21- My Nephew Jeff had invited us to stop and visit him and his family in Montana where they lived in Columbia Falls. So we headed toward Montana to see if it lived up to its name of the big sky state. Neither of us had ever been to Montana and we were not disappointed in the beauty and the skies that seemed to stretch forever. On the way to my Nephew’s house we had to pull over and take some pictures of the scenery and what we were later to learn was Flathead Lake.
We arrived at Jeff’s late afternoon just as he was arriving home from work. We visited and he made a barbeque dinner for us before driving us around in his side-by-side to see the beauty of the area. He lives on 2 ½ acres so had plenty of room for us to park the RV and we were able to hook up to his water and electricity. The view out our window of the nearby mountains were unbelievable. Hands down it beat any campground we could have ever stayed at. The weather changes so quickly here. One moment it is cloudy and gray and then the sun burst through and the sky clears up.
6/22- I had gotten up early yesterday morning to get on the National Park website and was able to reserve tickets to the Going-to- the-Sun Road through Glacier National Park. The road was built between 1921 and 1932 through the park. It is almost 50 miles long and climbs to 6,600 feet before crossing the Continental Divide. It closes every winter and often doesn’t open until mid to late June. Inside the park is Going-to-the-sun Mountain where the Blackfoot people believed the Sun God lived and was a sacred place to them. Because the road is so narrow and right up against the mountain in some places there is a limit on the size vehicle allowed to drive the road so we were glad that we had our Jeep since it met the limit of less than 21 feet long, 10 feet tall and 8 feet wide. The RV was left safely parked at my Nephew’s house. https://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/gtsrinfo.htm .
We headed to the park at 8:00 am. We chose to go in the West side so we were driving toward the sun and had the best views. It seems that the majority of the people had chosen to do the same but since they limit the passes released each day to 1,000 vehicles it wasn’t overly crowded. Due to the age of the road and the extreme weather it faces each year it is constantly under repair. For the first 9 miles of the road we were driving on dirt and were unable to pull off to any of the viewing areas which limited our view of McDonald Lake.
Once we passed that area we had a hard time not pulling off at every viewing area along the way. Between water features and mountains the views were outstanding.
We did walk down to Sacred Dancing Cascade Waterfall where we saw the river dance down the falls. We ended up having to get off the bridge so that a park ranger led horse tour could cross over. Horseback tours in the park goes back to the early 1900’s where people would travel by train to the area and since there were limited roads the only way to view the park was by horse. On each end of the park today sets Amtrak stations where many tourist still arrive by train.
One of the outstanding surprises throughout the park was the construction of the roads and bridges. We could see how rocks where used to make the base of bridges along the roads and how tunnels were constructed through parts of the mountain. We stopped at West Side Tunnel which was built around 1926 and has a window port in it so you can view out over the valley and mountains. Beside the tunnel was one of the many waterfalls coming off the rocks of the mountains.
Shortly afterwards the road makes a tight loop as it travels around the mountains. We were able to view Heaven’s Peak there which stands almost 9,000 feet. Then we passed Bird Women Falls and Haystack Creek Falls where the water cascaded down what looked like stair steps built into the mountain. Haystack Falls actually goes under an arch that was built in the road so you drive within feet of the falls.
Within a short time we reached the highest point of the road Logan Pass where we crossed the Continental Divide before passing through the East Tunnel built in 1932. Today the top of the tunnel is covered with trees that have grown on it.
Glacier National Park is home to 26 glaciers, many have shrunken considerably over the years. We stopped to view Jackson Glacier that covered over 1800 acres in 1850 but has now shrunk to under 250 acres. We could see as we drove through the park how the glaciers had carved out the landscape.
Almost 5 hours after we started our drive we reached St Mary’s Lake which is a glacier finger lake. It is 9 miles long and 300 feet deep. On the lake there were boat tours if refurbished boats that used to take tourist around the lake almost 100 years ago.
Reaching the end of the Going-To-The-Sun Road did not mean we were done as we still had an almost 2 hour drive outside the park back to my nephew’s house. We arrived just in time to head to the town of Columbia Falls for dinner at the towns Thursday Night Community Market.
6/23- We had debated going back up to Glacier Park and taking one of their boat tours. We got on line and found the one at McDonald’s Lake was completely booked and we would have to drive over 2 hours to St Mary’s Lake for the tour there and after all the driving we had done the day before we wanted to do something closer so we booked a boat tour in the afternoon at Flathead Lake.
We got going early in the morning and found a laundromat in town to do our wash that had piled up since Canada. We like laundromats because with the multiple machines we are able to wash and dry multiple loads to less than two hours. Then it was back to put the laundry away, have lunch and hurry out the door toward Flathead Lake. Our tour was with Far West Tours out of Lakeside. https://www.flatheadharbor.com/boat-tours. The tour was almost 2 hours long and took us along the shores of the lake while the Captain told us about the sights we were seeing. We were disappointed that so much of the shoreline was developed with large mansions that came right down to the water’s edge, but there were some pretty sights along the way.
There were some unusual sights also of a house built to resemble a bird and another one that a family built a funicular to get down to the lake from their house that was high above the shoreline.
After our tour we headed back to Jeff’s house where the treated the family to a pizza dinner to thank them for allowing us to stay there. We shared family stories and enjoyed our last evening together before we head out tomorrow.
6/24- First things this morning we went grocery shopping and restocked the fridge and got food for meals. When we had first gotten to Jeff’s he had shown us a road near his house that led up to a short hike to a waterfall. We had been wanting to go do the hike the whole time we were there but had been so busy with all our other touring we hadn’t had a chance, so before leaving we headed off for our short hike. We followed Jeff’s directions but unknowingly passed the waterfall he knew about that was just off the trail and found one that crossed the trail. We marveled in its beauty and as we headed back we could hear another waterfall and found the one Jeff knew about and it was beautiful too. It was an enjoyable hike before our drive.
After saying our good-byes we finally hit the road about 1 pm but we only had a short trip of less than 2 hours down to Salmon Lake State Park. We arrived to a campsite of an amazing view of the lake. We set up camp and pulled out our lawn chairs and watched the boaters, skiers and paddleboards out on the lake. We met our neighbors who also had a camp cat which was a Lynx Point just like Teddi. We visited with them and enjoyed the evening at our site.
6/25- We spend the morning enjoying Salmon Lake State Park. We walked around but luckily did not see any of the bears they warned us might stroll through the campground. Then it was time to try and get some sites booked for next week near Yellowstone and Grand Tetons. I had tried all week to find anything open with the 4th of July coming up and the popularity of these two sites. Frank and I usually don’t like to plan more than a week out as we enjoy being spontaneous and being able to change where we are heading or how long we are staying in any area along our route. Fortunately after a full morning I managed to book sites through July 3rd except for one day which we will have to figure out. For that day we may be boondocking on BLM land or sleeping in a rest stop. Since most campsites are so expensive around National parks we tried to supplement with as many Harvest Host spots as we could find.
So we left Salmon State Park and drove to our Harvest Host spot for the night in Garrison, Montana. It is a beautiful area with a warm springs creek running through the property and a river nearby. The owner had set up 5 spaces and you could pay $30 and be able to plug into electricity for the night. We opted for the payment as we know we will be doing a lot more boondocking and were concerned with as cloudy and rainy as it was we would not have enough solar for as many nights as we needed. We were the first to arrive but by 8 pm all 5 spaces where filled and we enjoyed getting to know some of our neighbor who came from South Dakota, Georgia and yes even one from Texas too.
It has been a very full week and we have enjoyed so many awesome places and sights along the way. We have enjoyed spending time with family and are looking forward to what this coming week will bring as we visit more National Parks.
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