Sunday 9/1 We drove the rest of the way to Chicago, and got in around 3pm. We unloaded / swapped car stuff and verified that Janet had not been charged three weeks worth of parking passes for leaving the Subaru in her spot, then wandered down to Mariano’s for some… Continue reading
Saturday 8/31 We wandered through Wall Drug again in the morning for coffee. Refills are only 5 cents!… As advertised on multiple billboards. Apparently Wall doesn’t have any dedicated coffee shops, so we we inadvertently played the tourist role of getting nearly free coffee at the end of the 100… Continue reading
Friday 8/30 Up, breakfast and then started driving South towards Custer State Park and Wind Cave National Park. It was a little rainy for the drive through Custer. Apparently, since it’s on a main highway, there’s a “loophole” where you don’t have to pay the state park fee of $20/car… Continue reading
Thursday 8/29 As noted, the park isn’t huge, so we headed up the main drive again stopping at a few of the same spots and a few new ones on the way. We did a few shorter hikes, some of which seemed to be kind of hikes to nowhere and… Continue reading
Wednesday 8/28 We drove the remainder of the drive from Billings to Teddy Roosevelt National Park, getting there in the afternoon. Found a campsite at the Cottonwood campground that was sufficiently shady and set up the tent under a tree. Stopped at the picnic area to make lunch and then… Continue reading
Tuesday 8/27 The plan for the day was to do Grinnell Glacier hike along Swiftcurrent Lake, Lake Josephine, Grinnell Lake and then Upper Grinnell Lake and Grinnell Glacier. We didn’t start super early, so we just left the car at the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn and walked the extra 1/2 mile… Continue reading
Monday 8/26 Attempt number two at Highline Trail followed the same basic plan as the first, but with vastly improved results. It was an excellent day for the hike, low fog in the morning rising up and leaving a nice afternoon. Highline is a 12mi one-way hike (I guess you… Continue reading
Sunday 8/25 Our plan was to hike Highline trail and we attempted to do just that. Up early, made oats and coffee for the ride, and drove up to Logan Pass to get parking before 8:00. It was slightly rainy / foggy, so we dressed appropriately (raincoats, etc) and started… Continue reading
Saturday 8/24 We woke up and drove from Kalispell about 30-40 minutes into the park. This was our first time in the park, so we weren’t quite as sure what we were going to find. We arrived around 10:00 and the first order of business was, of course, finding a… Continue reading
Friday 8/23 For the final day in the park, we drove up to the Mammoth Hot Springs area and hiked the loop there. The hike goes past a portion of the driving tour route, but we skipped doing the full drive. I’m sure Mammoth is not the only area to… Continue reading