I posted earlier about Glacier National Park but of course we didn’t just magically appear at Glacier in our van. The journey to and fro was full of lots of amazing things and we had quite an enjoyable drive getting there and back. This is a picture story of our 12 day trek to Glacier NP and back.
We started with a lovely wedding at the Canyon River Ranch on the Yakima River just north of Ellensburg, WA. The beautiful bride is Emily Routh, now Emily Ernst, and the daughter of a dear friend of mine. It was great to connect with the extended Routh family again and to see Emily and Jake so obviously happy and in love.
Before the wedding we did a little hiking in the hills overlooking the Yakima River Canyon and saw some beautiful wildflowers.
I loved the color of these luminescent little pale blue moths that we saw everywhere on the trail.
We went a little out of our way to see and hopefully camp at Palouse Falls but it turned out that they only allowed tent camping and our van was not welcome.
It was still worth the trip to see the rock formations and this huge waterfall that seems to appear out of nowhere.
After finding that a few of the camp sites listed on the internet were now closed due to budget cuts we ended up at a site on the Snake River near Lewiston. From Lewiston we ran up the Highway 12 following the Clearwater River and then the Lochsa River. Both rivers had a bunch of gnarly looking rapids swelled with spring runoff and we only saw a few rafters braving the chilly water. Highway 12 from Lewiston to Lolo hugs those two rivers and makes for a beautiful but very curvy ride.
We pulled into Missoula to gas up and buy groceries. Missoula seemed like a city worth spending a little time in but we wanted to move on towards our destination and so we didn’t spend much time there. This picture is of the mountains that overlook Missoula.
Our destination that night was Flathead Lake, a massive natural lake over 20 miles long and 15 miles wide. At sunset some of the smoke wafting down from Canadian wildfires made for a blood orange sunset. Big sky country indeed!
The next day we did indeed make it to Glacier and spent three nights there before starting our journey home. On the way out we visited the funky nearby town of Whitefish and then headed south down highway 93 towards Missoula. We stopped at Flathead Lake again and tried out another campsite. It seems like the dandelion is state flower of Montana – we saw entire fields of yellow dandelions in some places and our 2nd campsite at Flathead lake was covered in dandelions.
From Flathead Lake we continued through Missoula on highway 93 along the Bitterroot River. We followed the Bitterroot River and then picked up the Salmon River after crossing over the Bitterroot mountains into Idaho. We stayed at the scenic little town of Salmon, Idaho on the Salmon River. The owner of the RV park said that the mountain range overlooking the town was the Beaverhead Mountains – a sub-range of the Bitterroot Mountains.
This osprey put on quite a fishing demonstration right next to our campsite.
We continued down Highway 93 and cut over onto Highway 75 and into the town of Stanley, Idaho. Stanley bills itself as the gateway to the Sawtooth Mountain Wilderness and from this picture you can see why.
We continued on towards Boise but skirted the city to the north a little bit following the Payette River across the border into La Grande, Oregon. We went through Vale and ended up at Unity Lake State Park for the night.
The next day we made our way further into Oregon and came upon the lovely Strawberry Mountains just outside of Prairie City.
And you don’t want to miss the well covered “shoe tree” on Highway 26.
And not to be outdone, just up the road and trying to gain support is the “bra tree”. Ladies it needs your supports!
We saw quite a few antelope along the way.
And some flying animals as well. And once again lots of wildflowers.
Wildflowers along the way - Click image to enlarge
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We drove Highway 26 to Bend, stopping off at the Painted Hills section of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. The Painted Hills will be the subject of a later post. Then we stayed with my old friend John Wright who just became a Grandpa and got to meet the next generation of Wright’s in the person of Luke Wright.
The next day it was an easy jaunt to Portland and we gave the van a good scrubbing after the 2800 miles we traveled.