Glacier, Shortest River, Yellowstone and More

Monday: Tried to go to Glacier National Park. The free shuttle only functions from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Since our RV is 22 feet, we can’t drive the Going to the Sun Road (vehicles have to be 21 feet or less). All we could do was to drive in 5 miles, and take a hike. Even that hike was cut short as dark clouds gathered, and sprinkles started falling. We got back to the RV before the real rain fell. Ah well, such is part of the adventure. What we saw was beautiful.

Tuesday: We visited Great Falls, but couldn’t go to the island because it has the same dates of operation as Glacier. We took a hike along the river, though and that was gorgeous.

After the hike we went to the Louis & Clark Interpretive Center. There was so much valuable information about what they went through we spent nearly 3 hours. Not too much to take pictures of, but enjoyed learning more details. The down side of spending so much time was that we didn’t have time to follow the historic trail by it.

Wednesday: We visited the world’s shortest river, Roe River, at 201 feet. It flows from Giant Spring, which percolates from underground spilling 150,000,000 gallons of water daily. Part of it flows directly into the Missouri, but Roe River takes its share 201 feet. The first picture is of the spring, the second where the spring dumps into the Roe River, and for the last one, I just turned around on the bridge to show the end of the river.

Thursday: We took a beautiful hike above Billings Montana in the 4 Dances Recreational Area. Not many trees, but a different kind of amazing beauty. We also visited the temple.

Friday: We visited the fascinating Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming. Naturally they had a lot on him, but also a large Indian exhibit, thousands of guns, western art, and natural history.

Saturday: Yellowstone! Old Faithful will be another day; today we visited the Mud Volcano. Cracks opened up in this field in 1978. The trees that weren’t killed when the mud started bubbling up soon died because the ground around there rose to 97 to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Also, we saw buffalo along the way to Yellowstone’s Grand Canyon.

We took 2 hikes in that canyon. The shorter and easier hike was for a view of the lower falls. The longest was to the Upper Falls, and the bottom of the Lower Falls. We hiked down 328 steps as well as the trail to get to the lower falls, but there was a rainbow at the end of the journey. The way up sure got our hearts pumping. This was at 8,000 feet elevation. It was worth it!

 

 

Ice Field, Banff & Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump

Monday: Ice field! We took a ride on one of 23 Canadian made Terra Buses which were built to drive on ice fields. We rode onto the Columbia Ice Field. (The USA has one of those busses for exploring the Antarctic.) It was another once in a lifetime experience. If you look closely, you can see that my right pant leg is darker than the left. I stepped into a knee deep slush-covered hole about the size of my foot. All I can say is, “BRRRR.”

Tuesday: Hiked a Banff trail in Johnson Canyon and saw gorgeous falls. These pictures show the color of the water better than last week’s pictures. There are two main falls, and several smaller falls along the way. Stupendous. On the way there we saw a bear. We drove to Calgary and saw the unfinished temple. It’s going to be beautiful.

 

Wednesday: Head-Smashed-in Buffalo Jump. This is a fascinating museum. For thousands of years, Black Foot Indians staged buffalo hunts near cliffs (white man’s horses and guns ended the practice). It took weeks of preparation, and even then nature had to co-operate. They set up cairns several feet apart with tall bushes stuck in them which, to the buffalo’s poor eyesight, looked like a solid funnel shaped barrier leading from their grazing site toward the cliffs. A couple of braves donned wolf skins and prowled the perimeter for weeks adding to the anxiety of the herd. Meanwhile the rest of the villagers prepared for the big day. When the wind blew the right direction and everything else was in place, a young brave donned a baby buffalo skin and called out like a baby buffalo in distress. The whole herd instinctively tried to come to its rescue. Ever so slowly he moved toward the cliff while the wolf pretenders prowled. The anxious buffalo followed the baby buffalo pretender. When the brave reached just the right point close to the cliff, he gradually moved faster and faster until he broke into a run close to the edge. At that moment braves rose up with skins stretched out between the cairns. By this time the buffalo were running full speed ahead in a furor. The young brave slipped between the sideline braves just before reaching the cliff. The whole herd then plunged to its death below (today it’s not as deep mainly because of thousands of years of bones piled up). A few survived, but the braves killed those so they wouldn’t escape and tell other herds about the plan. They skinned, butchered, dried the meat, and used some of the bones to make tools. This kill would feed the tribe(s) involved through the winter.

 

 

Thursday & Friday: Moved on to Cardston, Alberta. Thursday we attended the temple, and took a rest and recuperate day here Friday. Cold mornings, but it warms up during the day. Pictures are of travel through Jasper and Banff National Parks and on the way here. The over-pass is so animals can cross the highway. Animal contact accidents are down 80%.

 

Saturday: We planned on moving on to St. Mary Lake for the weekend so we could be close to Glacier National Park Monday. (BYU is playing football Saturday afternoon, so we wanted to be in camp that day.) However, we would have to come back to Cardston for church, so we decided to save gas and stay here. We took a walk along the stream that flows behind our campground.

 

Edmonton Mall, Jasper, & Banff

Monday & Tuesday: Mostly travel through farmlands. I’ll never get tired of green. There were areas of golden fields where crops had already been harvested, or were ready for harvest. Tuesday I finished the cross stitch of our home in Thailand. I must admit there were times I felt like quitting such as when I was working on the tree, but I kept pressing on, and eventually worked through it. Life is like that. When we think it’s too hard, if we simply keep pressing on: one stitch, one step at a time, we can make it. We’re in Edmonton, Canada.

 

Wednesday: Another mall! Even bigger than the last one. This one has an ice rink, world’s largest indoor waterslides, wave pool, seal show, large aquarium, miniature golf, and the largest indoor amusement park in the world. Oh, did I forget to mention shops, food court, and restaurants? We also attended the Edmonton temple. 

Thursday: Farmer’s fields changed to forests. We spent the night at a nice campground in Edson, Alberta Canada.

Friday: One look at the first water I saw in Jasper National Park in Alberta Canada and I knew why it had that name. The water is the color of jasper as you see in the pictures. We went to Maligne Canyon today.  At last we’re seeing wildlife! I’m running out of superlatives.

 

Saturday: First we took Jasper’s tram up the mountain. It was a partly cloudy day, but we did get some incredible views and even saw the first snow of the season.

 

In the afternoon we visited 2 magnificent falls: First—Anthabasca Falls.

Second—Sunwapta Falls. Here at last I found out why the water is that beautiful blue-green color. As the water rushes down from the glaciers, it grinds off miniscule bits of rock that reflect the blue and green colors of the light spectrum.