July 11

As we were making our way to Yellowstone National Park, we had a one-night stay in a town called Deer Lodge, MT.  With the one night stay we normally just need a place to sleep but to our surprise we found another hidden treasure to investigate called Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic site.  This ranch preserves the history of the American open-range cattle era, showcasing a 1500 acre working ranch with original buildings, livestock and artifacts from the 1860’s and onward. Its 1866-1920 owner Conrad Kohrs is known to be the first cattle baron in Montana with 10 million acres for cattle grazing (this acreage covered parts of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming).  Not only do you get to tour the original house, but you also get a history and decline of cattle in the open range.  

Never a dull moment for us when on the road.

July 12-15

Wahoo, we made it to Yellowstone National Park with 2 full days to explore.  We visited Yellowstone last year but with it spanning 3472 square miles across Wyoming, Montana and Idaho there was section we did not get to visit.  That is the North Entrance from Gardiner, MT.  

This entrance is closest to the Lamar Valley, which is supposed to have the premier wildlife viewing areas, often called “Americas Serengeti,” known for its vast grasslands, bison herds and predators like wolves, bears and coyotes.  Lamar Valley was our target.  Day one we took advantage of a slightly cooler morning and did a 5-mile hike, armed with our bear spray to fend off any attack.  Thank goodness we only saw a small snake, a few ground squirrels and a grouse (no bears) and returned with all our limbs intact.

Day two was full of wildlife.  We saw Elk, bears, pronghorns, coyote, deer, chipmunks and of course bison.  Herds of bison.  We spent the day driving through the valley, stopping to eat a picnic lunch on the roadside sitting on the tail gate while watching a bison herd.  Note: never to close to being in danger, we have seen far too many YouTube.  You could clearly see that it was “rut” season (bison mating season) as the bull males were very frisky.  In the herds there were also a vast number of calves just born this spring.  Lamar Valley, awesome!

July 15-16

Hardin, MT, a small town about 50 miles east of Billings, MT was a good place to find a RV Park so we could visit the Little Bighorn Battlefield located 15 miles outside of town.   They call the battlefield a place of honor and reflect on the sacrifices made there on June 25, 1876, when the Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors fought against a deliberate attack by the U.S.  Army’s 7^th Calvary led by Lt. Col. George Custer, who sought to enforce policies that threatened their traditional way of life.  Parts of the grounds have walking paths that take you up to the “Last Stand Hill” where Custer and his 210 soldiers met their fate.  A granite memorial now stands there honoring those soldiers that lost their lives.  

Just down from the monument stands a memorial to those Indians that also lost their lives that day.  

With the battlefield covering 765 acres, there is a driving route that takes you on a 4.5-mile drive from the Custer Battlefield to the Reno-Benteen Battlefield.  Along this route there are scattered white headstones marking the original spot calvary soldiers died as their remains had been moved to a mass grave under the granite memorial.

There are also brown headstones marking the location of fallen Indians.  The Indians were able to recover their dead and buried them according to customs. 

The progression of the battle is explained with storyboards along this route as well, which really helps put things into perspective when you are literally looking over the battlefield. Historians and archeologists today are still debating how the battle truly unfolded.

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 3

Leavenworth, WA.  This place was a must see since we had just done a trip to Germany last year.  Leavenworth is a German themed town nestled in the Cascade Mountains that was transformed from a dying timber town into world famous Bavarian village in the 1960’s to avoid becoming a ghost town.  Facing economic collapse after it primary industry left, civic leaders made a radical, coordinated decision to completely reinvent the town’s visual and cultural identity.  The entire downtown area is designed to look like a German village, with shops, restaurants and breweries.  Where they also host numerous themed events to include Oktoberfest and large Christmas celebrations. 

We stayed at A KOA campground that was just down the street from the downtown area.  When we made these reservations, we did not realize that it was 4^th of July weekend, the campground was super packed.  We noticed during the 2 days at the KOA we were the only campsite without children or 2-3 dogs (will rethink a KOA in the future on a holiday.) 

Back to the town, we felt as if were back in Bavaria for sure.  The first thing we did was look for some German food, which was everywhere but we were hoping for more than wurst.  Score we found a place that had authentic rouladen with sides of roasted potatoes sauerkraut and red cabbage.  There were so many stores and restaurants but not enough time to see them all.  We were able to squeeze in a visit to a nutcracker museum.  Apparently, it is the world’s largest collection with over 9000 items ranging from ancient nutting stones to modern, pop culture themed figures.

July 6

We had a one-night stay in Kellogg , Idaho before we arrived at Glacier Nation Park for 4 days.  Always on the hunt for unique places our overnight was at the site of a gold mine.  Yep, we were ready to get out our pick and ax but they kind of frowned on it.  Instead we took their mine tour.

Around 1905 the hillside where the mine was had been blasted closed to hide the mine entrance. This left tracks, a mine car and tools inside, a sure sign that someone intended to come back.  However, they never did and the mine stayed hidden and lost for over a hundred years.  In the 1960’s the mine entrance was exposed during the building of Interstate 90.  In 1991 the owner saw water seeping out of the hillside.  Hoping it was a spring, he dug into the entrance and discovered more of the mine.  Soon after, the owner put a piece of plywood over the entrance and kept it closed for years.  In 1996 the property was sold again to retired miner who uncovered the rest of the mine turning it into a attraction and RV park.  There could still be gold and silver in the mine but for the time being it will stay a attraction.

July 7-10

Glacier National Park (West) can you believe it, this make our 7^th National Park this year.  With Glacier being so far north in Montana we decided now or never.  Our timing was perfect as all the passes and roads were completely open (they had snow and flooding just a few weeks ago) The layout of this park is far different then most it basically has one road in and one road out the “Going To The Sun Road”, needless to say you need to take your patience pill while trying to get to your destination.  Our first stop was to Logan Pass.  Logan Pass is the highest point on the Going To The Sun Road, with a visitor center, stunning views and access to the popular hiking trail, the Hidden Lakes Trail.   This trail was awesome, we saw a little bit of everything during our hike, wildflowers, deer, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, chipmunks, ground squirrels and of course we walked on a glacier

There are so many hiking trails, but we know our limits and stick to the 3-6 mile hikes, like the popular trail, Avalanche.  This one was so busy that we were up at 5am to be able to find parking at the trail head by 6:30am.  This hike was about 5 miles (we did 13,800 steps) long.  We followed raging rivers and old growth forested paths that brought us to Avalanche Lake.  This lake is fed by 5 waterfalls from the Sperry Glacier.

There are so many places to stop in the park to just soak in the views.  That I just have to bore you with more photos.

June 26-July 1

We had a great time watching our oldest grandson graduate from high school, followed by a week of family fun then two more weeks of just us with the grandsons.  What more can grandparents ask for, quality time with their children and grandchildren.  We are so blessed.

Time to get back on the road, we had reservations for a one-night stay at Cane Hot Springs in Oregon, this was a surprise stay.  We were not looking for anything special, but when we realized that there was a hot spring pond that was 5 feet deep with a maintained temperature of 104-106 and open 24 hours weather permitting, we changed into our swimsuits faster than Superman in a phone booth.  The mineral springs are known to have high amounts of negative ions which can help promote feelings of physical and psychological wellbeing.  Well, whatever they do after 2 hours of soaking we felt pretty darn good.  Would have been nice to say an extra day but we already had reservations at our next stop.

Next destination was in Culver, Oregon for a one-night stay, again.  This RV Park was a KOA which are known to be very family friendly.  The park was nice, but when they said they were having a ice cream social that night Walter said  “this is awesome” just two scoops!

On to the Eagles Nest RV Campground that was located on the Washington State side of the Astoria Bridge.  The campground was ok, maybe because it was cold and muddy from all the rain they recently had but the location was great.  We got to see so many things.  Astoria is where Goonies, Short Circuit and Kindergarten Cop were filmed.  So first on our punch list was locating all the Goonies icon locations. Success, we found the Goonies House, the jail that the Fratelli brothers broke out of and the Flavel House.  The last iconic Goonies stop was a drive to Cannon Beach to see Haystack Rock.

The Short Circuit house was fun to see, they even had a life size Johnny Five decal in the window.  Last but not least, the John Jacob Astor Elementary School where Arnold’s character taught kindergarten. (and no, it is not a tumor)

We visited the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center, learned a few things that we either forgot from American history in school or never were taught, either way it was a great experience. Hiked to the Cape Disappointment lighthouse (not disappointing at all) and the toured Columbia River Maritime Museum.   

Have you ever been to a cranberry museum, well we have.  I have a better appreciation for our Thanksgiving cranberry jelly, it takes a lot of work to get wrangle those little berries.

What is a trip without finding the largest gooey duck oyster and frying pan!!

July 1-2

We found a hidden gem of a campground, the Taidnapam Park campground.  This is a campground that is managed and supported by the Tacoma Power Company.  Full hook ups, co-located to a fishing lake, walking paths, playground for the kiddos and every campsite is paved, and had fire rings, covered with beautiful 100 ft pine, spruce and alder trees.

We planned on two nights at Taidnapam Park so we could make the 1 ½ hour drive to Mt. St Helen.  Can you believe it has been 46 years since the eruption?   Most of the forest that was destroyed has been reforested but you can still see the scars of the damage to the Toutle River  when all the debris flowed down stream to the Columbia River and then the Astoria harbor where it meets the Pacific Ocean.