2025 Adventures

 Drove to the Cascades National Park. Didn't know what was in the way so we were quite surprised to find Winthrope which is a tourist town in the wild west style! We didn't stay too long as we were keen to get to the mountains. Unfortunately the mountains were on fire! Well at least those in the north of the park 240 miles away. The wind sent the smoke down to where we were but we were in no danger. A ranger told us the fire was started by lightning so at least it was a natural fire which the forest relys on. After taking some pictures of the smoke we pitched up at Newhalem Creek Campground owned by the National Park Service. Like a lot of our campsites this was in a beautiful forest of very tall trees. Cedar, Hemplock and Fir. We took a walk through some old growth forest which was lovely and by then the smoke had cleared somewhat and we could go see some mountains. North Cascades NP has about 300 glaciers which is 276 more than Glacier NP.  The only ones we could spot were o...

 It would have been good to have more time in Glacier to do one of the longer hikes but time and tide wait for no one and we needed to start heading to the coast.  We are on our way to the Cascades and today was mostly a travelling day - making our way through Idaho and into Washington State.  We chose a scenic route so went through many small towns. Second breakfast at Henry's Diner in Libby - very local dinner, don't think they see many (any!) UK tourists come through. Nice coffee and brekkie though.  On our way we stopped at Kootenai Falls which were just beautiful. The water was a lovely emerald colour and the falls were so powerful, we could have watched them for ages.  We also stopped at Bayview Oregon for a view of the Bay (Lake Pend Orielle) and some ice cream.  Camped at Wilbur, WA. Another small town. We are enjoying their local newspaper with pictures of the county fair and the news that the wheat pile is getting bigger as it gets harvested. We a...

 Friday 29th August  Glacier NP has pretty much one road going through it called the 'Going to the Sun Road'. We are camped at the south west of this road and in the morning drove out to the north east of the park. It wasn't very sunny first thing and a lot of the time was spent driving in cloud. However, it was very exciting when occasionally the mists cleared and we got a dramatic view of looming steep mountains. Made it to St Mary which was below the cloud level and has another attractive lake. We wanted to visit the Many Glacier area but the road was under construction and we realised we would have needed to reserve a shuttle bus ticket in advance. Not that there are that many glaciers now. There was 80 when the park was formed, now down to 24 and of much diminished size.  After a picnic by the river in the drizzle the clouds started to clear and so we made our way back across the 'Going to the Sun' road. This time we had much better luck and got some amazing v...

 Thursday 28th August  Drove to Glacier National Park in some scattered showers. Along the way, misty mountains rose from very flat ground. It all looked very Lord of the Rings-y.  The showers had stopped by the time we got to Glacier NP just before noon. We had a lovely picnic lunch at Fish Creek overlooking Lake MacDonald. We then took a walk along the lake shore which circled back round on a nature trail. The views over the lake were good even though the far mountains were in cloud. Spotted one small glacier. The trees are nice colours, some just turning to fall yellow. Only animals spotted were birds and one squirrels.  Then to Apgar village to get some souvenirs (and wine) and we are camped at Apgar Campground which is one of the larger ones in the park. Checked in with the rangers and as always I like to know which bears have been sniffling about! Mammoth Campground had grizzlies passing through and there was bear scat right by our camp spot! Here however they ...

It chucked it down overnight but luckily cleared up around dawn. Drove into Montana. I persuaded Ada to try a small town dinner. The most random one I could find was yeti themed! It had pictures of military veterans and school sports stars from the town on the walls as well as yeti (or sasquatch as they call him here) paraphernalia. Its an experience you don't get in the UK! The host was very friendly and the pulled pork was excellent!  Stopped for the night at Yellowrock Campground just outside Lolo.  This is just down the road from Travelers Rest State Park where Lewis and Clark camped on their expedition. I've cycled through here before and was keen to pop back to the park again. Its actually the only verified campground of theirs.  The museum area has expanded and its a lovely walk around the creek with lots of information about what the archaeologists found where. Also it's just a beautiful woodland and river and we spotted a family of four whitetailed deer. 4 miles ...