Lake Louise-Jasper-Banff

Our travels in Canada begin with Lake Louise AB.  We spent about a week at a provincial campground in Lake Louise and traveled from there to Jasper and Banff.  “The Lake” is the main attraction. 

We took a long day and drove the 145 miles up to the Jasper Icefield for a ride on a sno cat out onto the glacier.  We continued our drive another  15 miles to the actual town of Jasper.  We walked around the town for a while and had a great lunch and then the long drive home. 

We took a day to go to the city of Banff.  We rode the tram to the top of the mountain for some great views.  We didn’t walk around the city much after the rains started. 

Enjoy all of our photos of this great week!

"The Dollhouse"

The Dollhouse

One of the goals we set for our travels is to find a geocache in each US state and Canadian Province.  Geocaching can take you to places you would never see or even know about otherwise.  Whenever possible we travel secondary roads instead of freeways.  That’s how we found the cache “The Dollhouse”.  The cache is located beside Highway 2 near Sinclair, Manitoba.  When we are towing the travel trailer, we have to be careful of what we’re getting ourselves into when we stop.  As we approached “ground zero” we were able pullover to the side of the road.

The Dollhouse is a unique art exhibition using an abandoned farmhouse.  It was created in 2007.

Around back, the north-facing wall of the house has been replaced with Plexiglas, showcasing its interior, fully restored with candy-coloured walls and furniture from the 1960s, when the home was abandoned.  "I wanted to show the passage of time … I was able to show what it looked like before it was left, but then what it looks like now, you know, 35 years later," said Heather Benning the artist who created the giant dollhouse project.

Finding the cache itself was pretty easy…there was a path trampled in the grass right to it, but it was hidden in a unique way.  It was well worth the stop.

In Search of...

For the last 20+years wherever I’ve traveled, I have hoped to see wildlife….elk, bear, moose etc.  I scan the hills, the swamps, the ditches looking for animals.  Others tell me about seeing fields with herds of elk or spotting a mother bear and her cubs along the road.  The last few of weeks in northern Idaho,  Wyoming, Montana and Canada, I had hopes of having my own wildlife sightings.  We left before daylight to travel to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks in hopes of spotting something wild.  We hiked to lakes and waterfalls knowing that bear were in the area.

I really think all those signs that we were seeing along the road were fakes…”Sheep Crossing Next 3 Miles…”Elk Crossing” complete with flashing lights so you don’t  miss it and my favorite…the large reader board sign that reads: " Sheep in Road Next Mile".  You would think if they went through all the trouble to bring in large reader boards and set them alongside the road to warn you about sheep in the road – those sheep would actually be there – never saw a one. 

My own aunt and uncle who have a home literally on the side of a mountain near Plain MT told me about the big horn sheep that show up on their flagstone patio to drink out of their water feature.  They chase them away…he doesn’t want them to puncture the pond liner.  We were there for 2 hours and never saw a thing.  He sent me an email to tell me that the next day there were at least 8 Big Horns drinking out of his pond and he chased them down the mountain.

To be honest we did see SOME wild life…a female moose in Grand Teton ( no horns), a herd of traffic stopping bison in Yellowstone, a shaggy group of mountain goats on cliff and some big horn sheep at both the Visitor Center in Glacier National Park and on the way down from the Ice Fields in Jasper National Park.  While I looked for the wildlife, I saw fantastic scenery and that made all that looking worthwhile.

The Rocky Mountains

OK on Sunday 7/22  off to Glacier National Park hopefully in search for wildlife. Spent 2 days in West Glacier and did  the drive “Going to the Sun Highway” What beauty!!! Sharp Jagged peaks Curvy road with 1000 foot drop-offs and Peggy holding on for dear life. Major construction going on for about 4 miles of the 50+ mile road. We left West glacier early enough in the morning that we beat the construction workers so there was no delay. First stop was The summit. 8:30am and the visitor center was closed. Walked up to the meadows and spotted 3 big horn sheep.

Drove down the back side to Babb, MT and Many Glaciers National Park. On our way we caught a very brief glimpse of  a Mother black bear and 2 cubs. I was driving to fast to take pictures, I slammed on my breaks and backed up but by the time I got back they were gone and hidden in the brush Damn!!!! Drove into Swift Current Lake and wandered the beautiful Lodge there.

Time to head back we’ve been on the road now for about 5 hours. It is just as beautiful going the opposite direction. We weren’t as lucky on the way back as we were stopped by the construction for about 30 minutes but that was alright the scenery was so cool and it was nice to rest from driving.

Hope you enjoy the pictures and now it’s off to the Canadian Rockies.

From ghost towns to whore houses......(Bannack, MT to Wallace, ID)

We Spent 10 days visiting with my oldest brother in Smelterville ID. We took a day trip over to Paradise MT to see Peggy’s uncle whom she hadn’t seen in several years. We decided to take a back mountain road (Thompson Pass) back to Smelterville.
We must have just been about 15-20 minutes behind a HUGE wind storm on the west side of the pass. I was the first vehicle to come upon huge trees down over the road. Not once but 3 times. I was in the process of clearing the first blockage when a guy drove up behind me. Luckily he had a chain so we could move the tree out of the way. He tied the chain to my front hooks and off I went pulling it out of the way. Cool on our way….Nope another 400 yards around a Corner an even bigger tree across the road. Got that cleared and drove about a mile and there were 2 really large trees over the road again I had to pull the tree’s off the road so we could pass. I felt really good that I did my deed for the day so others could get through.

Montana Ghost Towns:

View of Bannack from
 Cemetary Hill

3 day layover in Dillon Montana so we could explore some ghost towns. Pretty neat stuff allot of history about the gold rush of 1862. Three towns all interelated, Bannack, Virgina City and Nevada City. Virgina City and Nevada City are pretty commercialized and touristy, still some good history but by far Bannack is a true ghost town.

Definitely some pretty shady characters. We learned about "Road Agents" (They were the bad dudes, robbers, murderers) and the "Vigilanties" (They were the good Dudes). One particular Road Agent was Henry Plummer a Sheriff from Nevada City CA. He was imprisoned at San Quentin for manslaughter. Released in 1859 he arrived in Bannack in 1862 and because he had Sheriff experience they made him the Town Sheriff. Bad move on their part. He hired a bunch of "Road Agents" to help him. Between Dec 23,1863 and the end of Jan 1864 The vigilaties had hung over 20 Road agents including Henry Plummer their Sheriff for robbery, murders etc. What was interesting is that Henry Plummer prior to the hangings had ordered that the gallows be built to hang a murderer John Horan. Little did he know that he'd be hanging from the same gallows some 2 Months after their construction.

It was awesome to be able to walk freely into those old buildings. You could actually feel like you were part of that era.

The Gallows

Exploring Dubois

We've been staying in Dubois for over 2 weeks.  We've poked around in different stores, art galleries and museums and taken drives up into the hills.  It's an interesting little town.  The marketing for this town stresses the cowboy aspect ....how cowboys still ride their horses into town.  I've hardly seen a horse - let alone a cowboy riding his horse into town.  ATVs seem to be the main mode of transportation - especially up in the hills surrounding the town.

One of the many roads in our search of the
Wiggens Fork Outhouse geocache

I have already posted about our geocaching adventure to Wiggins Fork.  Another geocache adventure took us to 3 Lakes and the Glacier Trail.

Almost every where we've stopped, someone has a suggestion of a drive up into the hills we should take.  At the Bighorn Sheep Center they gave us a map to the bighorn sheep viewing areas of Whiskey Mountain - No sheep this time of year, but beautiful views.

Big Horn Sheep Center

A woman at the Dubois Museum asked if we had gone to Double Cabin or Brooks Lake - we took both suggestions.  All of these roads we end up taking are very rough unpaved roads.  They are narrow with tight, scary corners...and they are busy with traffic.  On most of these roads we thought we would be the only one on it...not!  It seemed like we were always meeting cars, trucks and RVs...but the upside is...around every corner is a  beautiful view.

River into Brooks Lake

Brooks Lake is a spectacular area.  Brooks Lake Lodge is gorgeous.  The campground is right near there.  We stopped at the bridge to grab a geocache and watched a couple fly fishing.  Very beautiful views of mountains at every turn in the road.

Double Cabin is another long rough drive, but it is also well worth it.  There are a couple of areas to camp.  We were surpised to see a large 5th wheel trailer being towed out to a campsite.  It too was a popular area for day use and camping.





We also headed up to Union Pass.  Theoretically, you could drive from Dubois to Pinedale WY by going over Union Pass...if you could stand being all shook up on the rough road.  We went up to the pass and were so surprised to see a nice year around community up there.  We kept hoping that the higher elevations would mean wildlife...we only saw a marmot and a couple of little chipmunks, but the scenery was fantastic.  There were meadows of lupine, forget-me-nots and tiny yellow flowers....small alpine ponds and spots of snow still on the ground.  The air was warm and fresh with 360 degree views.

Marmot Sunning Himself

Small Town 4th of July-Dubois WY

We weren't quite sure what to expect for the 4th of July festivities in Dubois - population 971.  The fireworks display was canceled due to fire restrictions, but there was a parade, kids games and fireman's BBQ scheduled. 

The announcer for the kids games and parade did a good job....although he could've been PG-13 rated sometimes and he wasn't always PC.  He managed to get the crowd - kids and adults alike - involved in the water balloon toss, hula hoop game and bucket brigade.

The parade had some interesting entries

I think the favorite for kids and adults alike - in the 90+ temperatures was all of the fire trucks spraying water as they came down the street.  I got soaked and didn't mind at all.

After the parade, we walked down to the the Dubois Volunteer Fire Department's new building for their BBQ and grand opening.  It was a fun day.