Glacier & T.Roosevelt National Parks

[Bill and Elaine]

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In late July 2012 we set out for a teardrop adventure to Glacier and Theodore Roosevelt National Parks from our Maryland home. Our teardrop is a LG Silver Shadow. The tow vehicle is a Subaru Forester. Fortunately we had no mechanical problems on the over 5000 mile trip.

We saw some unique wildlife along the way. This creature was observed in Deforest, WI.



Theodore Roosevelt NP is located in Medora, ND. Roosevelt cut his western teeth in Medora before he became President. The park consists of a "badlands enviromnent" and is home to herds of bison, wild horses. praire dogs, and elk which we saw on our visit.



The weather varied wildly while we were in Medora. The day we arrived it was over 100 degrees F. Then a front came through and we had rain, wind and temps in the 50's. Medora is noted for its slimy, sticky mud. We had a run in with that stuff and we were glad id didn't rain more while we were there. One day we left the park and drove the Enchanted Highway from Dickenson, ND to Regent, ND. The road is 30 miles long and has huge, art sculptures every 4-5 miles. If you look closely at the jumping deer you can see Bill in the picture. This will give you some perspective of the size of the art pieces.



It took a day and a half to drive from TRNP to Glacier.





There was a abundant wildlife in Glacier NP. We saw bears every day! Mountain Goats were common sights too.




Teardrop friends Jim and Jean K. (Wingnut) live in the area and helped us plan our trip.


We took a day long hike to Iceberg Lake. The alpine cirque was magnificent. So were the blooming wildflowers. The lake is filled with enormous blocks of ice, even in the summer.



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Our final stop of note on our return trip was Devils Tower, WY
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We had a GREAT trip!

A little side story... We camped in the tiny town of Big Timber, MT, population 1650. After eating dinner at our campsite we drove into town for a look around. The main street has about two dozen old buildings which are home to shops and a offices. The Grand Hotel was attracting some foot traffic, so we went in to get some dessert. Seeing that all the tables were full we sat at the bar. The very friendly bar/hotel owner immediately noticed us as non-residents and came over to chat. We found may things to talk about including or teardrop travels. While we were at the bar we noticed a well groomed man sitting two seats from us. I tought he was a business man, but Elaine immediately knew he was an actor. She just could figure out who it was. The friendly bar owner finally said to us, "Would you like to meet actor Michael Keaton?" (BATMAN!) He told Keaton that we were travel across the country in a teardrop. Michael said he knew what they were and asked all the usual questions. It was quite a thrill to meet him. He was just a regular, nice guy. It turns out that this area of Montana is home to several celebrities as the remoteness allows them to lead normal lives.

[eaglesdare]

now this one sounds like a fun trip! thanks for sharing.

[Bill and Elaine]

Thanks Louella.

Glacier NP is spectacular wilderness country. The town where we camped (St Mary, MT) has a huge number of visitors from June-mid September. Once the Fall comes nearly everyone leaves. The town population shrinks to 50 hearty souls who manage to make it through the very harsh winter months. Therefore, the park is essentially nature's domain where humans only visit a few weeks a year. Grizzly & black bears and mountain lions are ever present. Visitors need to be cautious and aware, but with care you can have an unforgetable experience.

Will we see you at Patapsco in a few weeks?

Bill

[eaglesdare]

yes, i will be there. we can chat!

[Bill and Elaine]

We are looking forward to it. See you then.

[Blumie]

Bill & Elaine, I think we saw the same young grizzly you did! We saw it foraging on berries on road edge at Many Glacier. Same two-tone brown shagginess as the one we photographed the third week of July.

[Bill and Elaine]

Blumie-Wow! We saw him on August 6 at about 10 AM on the road into Many Glacier. He came bounding across the road right in front of our car. Then he got down to business looking for the ripe huckleberries within 30 feet of the road. Awesome!

Here is another shot of our bear:

Were you camping? We stayed at the KOA in St Mary because I didn't want to meet up with a bear on the way to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

As I mentioned, we saw bears daily. All were viewed from the safety of our car except one. We went over the border into Waterton, Canada. When we arrived at the Visitor Center the parking lot was full so we drove the short road up to the Lodge. We then walked down to the Visitor Center. We passed, thick bushes filled with huckleberries but we never considered a bear may be nearby. After our orientation in the Visitor Center we began our walk back to our car. Suddenly a black bear came tearing out of the bushes heading right toward us! We used the noise technique to alert the bear but it was more like...Oh sh##! A bear!!! shouted at the top of our lungs!@!!

Fortunately he was frightened of us too and he headed into the bushes before he got too close.

However, our anxiety wasn't over. We still had to walk up that road right past the place where he went into the bushes. We made a racket as we quickly walked up the road. Thankfully we didn't see him again.

I should add that on the way into to Waterton Elaine spotted a large brown "rock" on the side of the road. At least that's what I thought it was. She insisted it was a bear. She was so right! It was the largest grizzly we saw on the entire trip. Sorry that I don't have a better photo but this was the best I could do:



It was only 50 yards off the road. Again it was the berries that kept it busy, ignoring us in our car. We were close enough to see a cloud of gnats surrounding the bear's body when we looked at it through our binoculars. BTW-no one else bothered to stop to view that big grizzly. I guess the Canadians see them so often that they don't attract any interest. At Many Glacier, the same bear would have stopped traffic for half a mile!

[Blumie]

We stayed at the St. Mary KOA one expensive, mosquito-filled night, then bugged out and got a site at Rising Sun campground at 7 a.m. the next morning, as soon as an early-riser left. We never saw a bear in 4 nights there, but the habitat was so similar to what we'd seen the grizzly in at Many Glacier that we were vigilant. This was the only campground where the wind was so strong the teardrop was rockin' in the breeze... but if we'd thought about the way the trees were all growing bent over, we might have suspected as much. It was a memorable place and experience!

[Bill and Elaine]

Jim and Jean (Wingnut on T&TTT) had recommended that we camp at Many Glacier. Maybe we should have. The KOA was marginal and very expensive. There was a bear in the Rising Sun campground one of the nights we went there for a ranger talk. The story we were told was that once he spotted the Ranger's distintive hat, he took off. I guess he's been bear sprayed a few times by Rangers so he knows they are trouble. We liked the look of the campsites at Rising Sun.

Did you hike? We went to Iceberg Lake and Avalanche Lake on Ranger led hikes. Both were enjoyable but Iceberg Lake was more strenous and also more rewarding. There were people in our group who swam in the ice water in that lake. Crazy huh?

The mountain goats were seen at Logan Pass. That's were Elaine is throwing the snowball too.

You mentioned the high winds. Apparently the high winds in St Mary in the winter really shut the place down. We had one snowplow driver tell us the winds reach 90 miles an hour! The KOA office lost part of its roof last winter in the winds. We did notice in Browning, MT that all the trailers and many single family homes had old tires on their roof. Guess they are trying to hold the roof on in the gale force winds. Yikes! Glad you didn't get even stronger winds.