Travels with Daisy 2011: 08/09/09

We have left Montana and head southeast into Wyoming. Basically we are headed toward home, however we still have THINGS TO SEE so we will take our time.

Cell phone capabilities are so incredible that when we feel are all alone and far from all civilization - the phone rings and brings us back to reality!

Wyoming flowers rival Montana's!

The flowers are outstanding and so are the mosquitoes!

Sunset behind the beautiful pines.

Next morning…

We stay in the 'crazy' campground and I manage to hang on to my sanity!

This is just my opinion from what I saw…

Next morning we are off again.

There is a power plant across the highway with a conveyor belt running under the road connecting the mine and the plant, very efficient.

In past years we have toured just about every corner of Wyoming except the north east and obviously missed Devil's tower. It was very impressive - from far away and up close.

Well a person can change her mind!

Next day we enter South Dakota as we continue to head east.

We spend the night in Wall, SD, home of the original Wall Drug Store. In 1936 the owners posted signs on the highway advertising a free bottle of cold water to anyone coming into their store in an attempt to get more customers - it worked! The home store is huge and full of the most amazing amount of 'stuff' for sale (as well as some very nice things).

Nice things like cowboy boots…

and cowboy hats stacked ever so interestingly.

These signs are all over South Dakota (Montana uses a small white cross). At every bend in the road it is guaranteed to have several signs as if people in these states are unable to make turns. A bit depressing, but keeps us alert.

I think South Dakota very clever for turning the grass adjacent the highways into hay for the animals.

We love visiting capitol buildings in the western states. They are magnificent! I hate to admit it but we have yet to visit the beautiful capitol buildings in Annapolis.

Daisy is still on meds for her altitude sickness. Her internal system goes haywire when she returns to lower altitudes after being in the mountains.

We celebrate our anniversary in South Dakota.

White pelicans at this dam.

Actually there may be Killdeer on the eastern shore where it is flat.

The pheasant, another bird I have not seen in Maryland in 20 years.

Another small town with an energetic artistic resident. The entrance to town had several 'naturalistic sculptures'.

AAA had the Terry Redland Art Gallery as a GEM (a must see). That completely baffled Jamie and me.

On that 'artistic' note I leave you as we continue to head eastward.

We are still at Many Glacier camp in Glacier National Park, Montana. We want to hike to Lizard Glacier and have a choice of taking two boats across two separate lakes or hiking around both lakes before start hiking to the glacier - guess what we choose?

Both boats are wooden and beautiful and of course it's always nice being on water.

This hike has the most beautiful flowers of all hikes!

If you look closely you can see the shape of a lizard, thus it's called Lizard Glacier. We did not hike all the way to the glacier as there were some dangerous snow bridges to cross, but we were close enough.

Just a few of the abundant wildflowers we saw along the way.

Rain after our hike made sitting in the lobby by the fire a treat.

The next day we hiked to Iceberg Lake which turned out to be the highlight of the entire trip! This was a fantastic hike and one of the best hikes of all time! Our first wild life sighting of the hike was a golden eagle sitting on the rocks just above us. We stopped to watch, wondering if something was wrong and then…whoosh

As we hiked, we passed or were passed by several groups of people, but for some reason stuck with this family of three. I guess our pace was about the same. At any rate we enjoyed sharing the experience with them.

When we got to a break/lunch point, we discovered they were from Baltimore! Our friendship was sealed and we stayed with them the entire ten mile hike.

We arrived at Iceberg Lake which turned out to be a MAGICAL place. There was a sense of solitude in spite of all the people having pictures taken in front of icebergs. The tall wall of rock surrounding the lake on three sides gave a feeling of security while the intense blue of the ice reflected water gave off a warm glow. There were yellow Alpine Lilies all around our feet and young mountain goats frolicking up high on the rocks.

That evening as we rode our bikes to the Ranger Program we saw a black bear.

Then while walking Daisy in the campground a cow moose and calf were enjoying the evening just a few feet away from the tents. Everyone was excited. In all it was a good wildlife day!

Next morning we exchanged addresses with our good hiking friends before each of us move on. We hope to see them when we get home.

We move to St. Mary's campground which is still on the east side of Glacier. The question of putting the RV in the sun or the shade is always a dilemma. The weather has been cool, but it could turn hot…mosquitos might be in the shaded areas, flies in the sunny…etc.

Just some thoughts:

and observations:

Next morning we are off to get one last look at the Road to the Sun (which goes over the pass and connects the park's east and west sides)

At the pass we take a short hike and interrupt a mountain goat traveling in the opposite direction on a very narrow path with solid rock going up on the right and a long long drop going off to the left. He trotted right toward us as I clicked the camera, then suddenly he stopped and was unsure of himself. Instinctively Jamie and I both flattened ourselves up against the high side wall and looked at rock instead of the goat. He bolted around us letting quite a few rocks fly off the edge. I figured the alternative for him would have been to butt us off the edge so he could continue - and he could have too!

We had planned on leaving Glacier this day, but we spent too much time looking at the sights so we stay another night.

That afternoon we took a very different hike around a lake instead of a mountain. It was delightful and proved that Glacier has many different environments to explore.

Of course we have to allow Daisy some fun time too!

Today we sadly leave Glacier! What a wonderful time we had, but now we will officially stop going away from home and begin heading in the direction of Sykesville, Maryland, although slowly.