Monday, May 30, 2022

Roosevelt National Park then onto Glacier

 

Saturday May 28, 2022 - We woke up early today and made it into the park before 7:00.  What a wonderful experience to have the whole park to ourselves!  We did a lot of short hikes and really enjoyed the quietness of the park.  The rain came later that afternoon, so we decided to get 5 hrs of drive time in.  We stayed the night in Lewistown at the local Kiwanis Park.  There were only 4 or 5 other RVs camping there and it was a great spot for the night.  


Sunset on Friday night at our campsite on BLM land outside of Roosevelt NP




Breakfast with a view




The gravel road leaving our campsite to head into Roosevelt for the day




Kevin looking for wildlife at the skyline vista, right inside the park





The vista view




We saw lots of wild horses throughout the park





and lots of bison




We hiked the Wind Canyon trail that was on a cliff above the Little Missouri River




Beautiful views from up there









More bison





We came upon about 4 bison in the road that didn't really want to move




but eventually did




Views from Boicourt Overlook




More views and a few clouds rolling in





View from the top of Buck Hill




We sat on the rocks at the top of Buck Hill and enjoyed the quiet and the view













The 36 mile loop around Roosevelt Park is closed at about mile 28, due to a washed out road they are hoping to get fixed this summer.  We had to turn back here.





We hiked out to the Old East Entrance Station, which was built in 1938.  This used to be the entrance to the South Unit of the park.  When I-94 was built in 1968 they moved the entrance to Medora.










Sunset over Lewistown Kiwanis Park 


Sunday May 29, 2022 - We got an early start with a 1.5 hr drive to Great Falls.  We stopped at Walmart and spent time at the Great Springs State Park.  There was a nice trail along the river and we had lunch with a view of Rainbow Falls.  It was fun to get to see where my niece Emily lived after college.  We then spent a few hours at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.  We had read the book Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose, quite a few years ago and loved the story of the Lewis & Clark exploration across the country.  The museum did a great job of telling this story.  And it was fun to see what part Great Falls played in their story.  It was then a 2.5 hr drive to Glacier.  We have reservations for 3 nights at Johnson's RV park in St Mary, MT, which is right outside of the St Mary entrance to the park.  After having dinner and getting settled at the campground we decided we needed to make a quick evening run into the park, to see if we could see any wildlife.  It was a foggy, rainy drive, but fun anyway. 




Kiwanis park with the Lewistown airport in the background




We looked for the plaque saying Emily had lived here, but it didn't seem to be on the welcome sign, yet




Rainbow Falls




Crooked Falls




a few wildflowers for the road




A nice bike trail along the river (wish we had our bikes)





Glad we didn't have to portage 18 miles around the 5 falls in Great Falls, MT like Lewis and Clark had to






The buds are just starting to come out on the trees here in Glacier NP




We drove in Many Glacier Entrance.  This was a view of Lake Josephine




Our first bear crossing sign (no bears though)




fog over the lake





a mountain goat eating dinner





Love the big red rock, seems like many of the rocks along the lake are very colorful




A mountain goat walking through town







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