Back in the USA, Glacier NP, Lewis and Clark, Stanley, ID, Wendell, ID, Alpine & Lander Wyoming

Thanks to Steve, my tethering capability has been restored.  AT&T moved me back to my old plan, which is more or less the new plan that I moved from, with tethering restored.  I'll spare the details.

After leaving Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada, we crossed into the US near Chief Mountain.  There were two cars crossing over and it took about 5 minutes.  It was one of the easiest border crossings I ever experienced.  We drove until we reached the Eastern Entrance to Glacier National Park, but did not enter the park.  We were still towing the teardrop, which cannot make the trip up to Logan Pass, and we were told that there were no available campsites on the eastern side of the pass.  We stopped to reconsider our plans when we received a text from Monica Martin.  Monica rode in our Coast to Coast bicycle trip in 2015.  Monica is a Canadian, but has a vacation cabin in Whitefish, Montana.  She offered to put us up in her guest cabin, and we said yes.  We caught up with Monica and shared stories from our 8 week bike trip.  She was a very accommodating hostess and we enjoyed Whitefish.

After a night of rest we returned to the Western entrance of the park, without the teardrop.  We drove to Packer's Roost, and hiked about 6 miles up to the granite chalet.  The views were stunning.  See for your self.  We then hiked back down, spent another night with Monica, and moved on.  While the views in Glacier as spectacular, I told Frances, I take vacations to get AWAY from crowds like that.  According to Monica, the last couple of years have seen an explosion in visitation to the park.  We did try one other campsite, Two Medicine on the east side of the park.  It was a beautiful site, with a full, and so-so campground.

We headed toward Missoula on Rt 93, stopping south of Hamilton near where Lewis and Clark crossed the Bitterroot Mountains.  There were lots of sings a la "Lewis and Clark _________  here", and it was cool to be retracing their footsteps.  We entered Idaho and stopped in Salmon at the Sacajawea Museum there.  Not much to see, but she was born near the area, a member of the Shoshone tribe.

South of Salmon we stopped and "boon docked" (free camping on public land, also known as dispersed camping) along the Salmon River.  An eagle had a nest on the cliffs above us.  We saw two eaglets and one mature bald eagle.  Early in the AM, I saw and Elk high up on the hills.

We left our free site, and the car inexplicably ended up in one of my favorite places on earth, Stanley, ID.  We camped on the Yankee Fork of the salmon river, a stream that was trashed by gold mining a few miles upstream of where we camped.  Miles of the stream are strewn with the tailings of the Yankee dredge which was used in the gold mining process.  We had a beautiful campsite at the Hidden Creek campground, which has 5 campsites.  We met fishermen from Georgia, were given 4, stream-fresh rainbow trout from a fisherman from Phoenix, and had a great chat with a couple from Minnesota who, unbelievably, took their first camping trip in Monte Sano State Park, 5 miles from our house.  One more data point for the "small world" thesis.

As hard as it was to leave Stanley,  we were excited to see another member of our cross country bike team, Alan Young.  Alan lives in Wendell, ID.  We had an exciting adventure in Mexico with Alan looking for Tecate, and we also helped him observe his first 'gator in the wild, when we reached Florida.  Alan took us to Shoshone Falls, near Twin Falls, ID.  We also saw Evel Knievel's ramp from when he tried to "jump" the Snake River Canyon.  Alan then cooked us Cornish game hens for dinner and we talked over old times with a bottle or two of wine.  We were glad to meet his wife, Peggy, and hope that she is feeling 100% after being a bit under the weather during our visit.

We visited Soda Springs, ID on our way to Wyoming.  A timer allows an eruption every hour, otherwise the geyser would spew a100-150 foot plume 24/7, 365.

Idaho is an amazingly beautiful state.

We entered Wyoming and camped along the Snake River near Alpine.  It was basically a rest day.  The river is beautiful there, but the campground was basic roadside camping in bear country.  We then went through a beautiful town of Pinedale, near the Bridger Wilderness Area.  We passed by, but I'm reading of a spot, Cirque de Towers which is almost universally rated as a back country area of stunning beauty.  It would take a backpacking trip to get back there, and we didn't have time for that this week.  (We have to be in Denver next Friday to see Maggie and other family).

Based on suggestions by the folks from Minnesota, we made our way to Canyon Sinks near Lander WY, which is where I sit and type.  A nice area, very big with ATV riders.  Once you get off the paved route, you find dispersed camping all over the place.  I had a nice bike ride up the switchbacks to the end of the pavement this morning.  We are now in town for some WiFi and other stuff.

We will talk this afternoon about the next few days as we make our way to Denver.  We may drop in with Rose and Murph, staff members of the Coast to Coast tours.

We are both stunned that our six month trip only has about six weeks left to go.  Too short!  We may have to ask for an extension.

Some photos of the trip segment.