Washington State

We spent our first night in Washington State in a town named Colville. Of all the wildlife we have seen so far this was our closest encounter. While sitting outside the camper at dusk we saw 3 deer foraging maybe 20 feet from us.....where were we? A Walmart car park - really!

The National Forest Service has escalated the fire risk from 'Very High' to 'Extreme'. It's dry, dry, dry out here.  There were fire alerts for the North Cascades National Park and we were hoping we wouldn't have a rerun of our experience in Glacier. So far, so good.

Looking at the map, we decided to deviate from our planned route to the North Cascades National Park, leaving Rte 20 to take yet another beautiful scenic route through the Colville Confederated Tribes Reservation. It took us south through the Sanpoil River valley which was stunning. A high sided, magnificent rocky canyon with the Sanpoil River meandering down the narrow, lush, green valley. We eventually rose out of the valley and travelled up through high range land. We barely saw any other cars as we headed back north to rejoin Rte 20. (Sorry no pictures)

Statue of Chief Joseph in Nespelem, WA.
This land was given to the few remaining members of 12 tribes after they had been forcibly moved around, starved, and humiliated for many years, like so many other American Indian tribes.

We have spent a lot of time in 2^nd (and sometimes 1^st) gear going over passes from 3,200 – 5,600 feet above sea level, but after seeing the covered wagons that made this same trip almost 200 years ago we feel like we are flying. Wheee!

We spent a few days at North Cascades National Park where we managed to snag a great campsite right on Diablo Lake by arriving at 8am. This is the first place we have camped for more than 1 night since we left Collingwood, Ontario. We walked some great trails in the mornings, but it was so hot we spent the afternoons relaxing. In the evenings we attended interpretive talks at the amphitheatre – it was a very nice, relaxing three days.

Julie decided to take a dip in the lake one afternoon, but she only made it up to her knees - there's a reason it's called a glacial lake! Brrrr!!

We decided to head east back over the Cascades on Rte 20 again for our second trip over Washington Pass at 5,476' above sea level. 

Welcome back to 1^st gear!! The reasons for our decision to backtrack were first, because we had missed a lot on our way in, and second, so we could take yet another scenic route we didn't want to miss.

   Town of Winthrop




So we headed south to rejoin Rte 2. As we drove we started smelling smoke and by the time we reached Chelan it was thick and acrid. We stopped for groceries and asked where the fire was, hoping they wouldn't say it was along our route. We learned that it was at the top end of Lake Chelan, 50 miles NW of us, but the wind was bringing the smoke right down to us. There was no chance of it reaching us so we headed up Rte 2 back up into the mountains for a nice smoke-free night.  

The next day we stopped at 2 awesome roadside interpretive trails. The first was the Iron Goat Trail which follows the abandoned Great Northern Railway through Stephen's Pass. More info on this wonderful trail can be found at "http://www.irongoat.org/history.html". We got to walk beside the concrete backwalls that are the remains of the snowsheds built to protect trains and tracks from avalanches in the winter.

The second was Deception Falls, a lovely walk through a beautiful forest to another dramatic waterfall.

We then dawdled our way west to Seattle to spend a few days with our cruising friend Connie.

At one point we were following a small biplane on a trailer with wings folded along the sides – very cool. 

Montana

We continue our journey west on Route 2. The scenery is magnificent, rolling ranges straight out of the cowboy films – we feel like we've gone back in time. Except that even at our slow speed of 45-50 mph we are still going way faster than the riverboat steamers and lightening fast compared to the trappers and wagon trains!

After travelling beside the Missouri River all day we camp beside it just below Fort Peck dam, the largest hydraulically filled dam in the US. The lake is 130 miles long and 200 feet deep. It's a lovely spot, we enjoy the Interpretive Centre, and learn about the building of the dam. The day is so still the lake looks like a mirror.  

Here we are doing our impersonation of Lewis and Clark.

We drive for a couple more days through the plains spending our nights at Walmart car parks. We've learned that it's not worth spending money to camp when you just want a level spot and an early start the next morning. 

Where else but on the back roads of America are you likely to see dinosaurs "in the wild"?

Windmills.

The confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers.

 Our first view of the mountains.

We are starting to close on the Rocky Mountains and our near-term destination, Glacier National Park. Mark happens to check the status of the "Going To The Sun" road that winds over the continental divide in the park and discovers that a forest fire has just started on the east side of the park and the only road through the park is closed!

 Bear tracks!

We decide to hang around for a day to see if the fire will be put out, but no luck, the high winds and dry conditions are just making the fire worse. So we skirt around the southern edge of the park and spend 3 days hiking and exploring the West side of the park, probably only about a third of the entire park. We have a great time but now we'll have to return to see the rest of the park another time. Luckily the wind is blowing the smoke away from us so our stay is very pleasant.

On our way out of the park we stop at a roadside stand and buy some huckleberries. The next morning we enjoy some delicious huckleberry pancakes for breakfast.

We stop at Eureka and enjoy the Tobacco Valley Historic Village. Ten old buildings were moved here when the nearby Lake Koocanusa reservoir was created to save them from destruction. Great museum, free, and very informative.

After driving down the scenic lake we stop in at Libby Dam for a tour. Our tourguide, Megan, is great and extremely knowledgable. With only the 2 of us doing the tour we get extra special attention and Mark is surprised to find himself unable to think of a single question Megan can't answer. To quote Mark, "This is the best dam tour we've ever been on!"

These mountain guys are serious about their target practice.

 We have read about Yaak, MT, population 248, in one of our travel books. It sounds interesting and fun, so once again, we head off the beaten path and have a beautiful drive to the most northwest town in Montana. We stop in for a beer at the Dirty Shame Saloon and have a great conversation with our bartender and the owner. After slaking our thirst, we return via a different route and enjoy the Yaak Falls. Outstanding!!

On to Kootanai Falls, where the film "River Wild" starring Meryl Streep and Kevin Bacon was filmed. Also great. Although, to be honest, we aren't too thrilled with the swinging bridge.

Ross Creek Giant Cedars is next. What a great sightseeing day this has turned out to be. An old grove of huge western red cedar trees some 175 feet , protected by their inaccessible location from logging and forest fires, is stupendous! 

The dry creek bed is covered with rock cairns, also quite a sight.

We have spent the whole day on scenic highways, our favorite way to travel. We reward ourselves by paying half price ($5.00) for a National Forest campsite on a beautiful lake.   There we light the last campfire we'll have until we get someplace where the fire risk is less than high, very high, or extreme.  It's been a dry summer all over the Northwest.

The following morning we wake up in the middle of the forest with a flat tyre! Luckily Mark manages to inflate it and it lasts until we get to town. Our new friend Jeff delays his lunch break and fixes it for $15. Great service in Troy, MT from a wonderful guy!

Yet another scenic drive beside Lake Pend Oreille, with the Cabinet mountains to our right and the reservoir to our left, through the Idaho panhandle and into Washington state. A train goes by while we are eating lunch beside the lake and 4 of it's cars contain passenger planes, obviously the wings had been removed! It went by too quickly to get a picture!

Next stop Washington State!

North Dakota

On entering North Dakota we stopped at the visitor information center to get a map and any other info we could. We asked the young lady about camping as we crossed the state. She got a worried look and said "You shouldn't get off Rte 2 anywhere west of Minot, it's dangerous!" Whoa!! Apparently there has been a big fracking oil boom in the state and there are lots of workers 'causing trouble', the crime and murder rates are up, housing is hard to find and prices are high. "Oh. Okay. Thanks." we said and left.

Since we wanted to see the International Peace Gardens which span the border of US and Canada, and they were east of Minot, we figured we would be safe up there. It was a delightful 40 mile drive north over rolling plains with lots of wind generators. 

The gardens were beautiful, especially the cactus greenhouse – what an awesome place filled with an incredibly wide variety of spiny plants!

Back to Rte 2 and once again headed west, we were amazed watching the crops and trees being whipped around by 25-30 mph winds. The down side for us was that this wind was dead on the nose and it reduced our gas mileage from 14-16 mpg down to just over 9 – the lowest we've ever seen!! Ouch! We didn't even know it was possible to push that much fuel through our little 4-cylinder engine!

After Minot we started to see more oil derricks and more trains with lots of oil tanker cars. Increasingly we also saw temporary housing, sometimes simply containers that had been converted to housing. They looked like terrible places to live – some had no windows! And there were lots of liquor stores. By the time we got to Williston (pretty much the epicenter of the fracking boom as near as we could tell), near the western border of N Dakota, it was quite depressing. 

Since it was beginning to get late, we decided to wander off the beaten track to a free campsite we had read about. It was right on the N Dakota/Montana border but it was still in N Dakota AND relatively close to Williston.

We were a bit nervous about going there so Julie called the place to check. The woman she talked to reassured us that it was safe there. She said "We just had a troupe of girl scouts camp here this weekend". So we decided if it was safe enough for girl scouts it was probably safe enough for us, too. The campsite turned out to be on the grounds of the Fort Buford State Historic Site, a lovely setting, and we were the only ones there. We even got to watch prairie dogs pop up out of their holes right next to the camper. Also on the grounds was the confluence of the Missouri & Yellowstone rivers. We're in Lewis & Clark country now, the first explorers to find a route west through the US. The Missouri river was an integral part of this exploration, we shall follow it now as we head further west.

Just a few miles past Fort Buford was Fort Union built in 1828. It took a paddle steamer 75 days to get here, 1800 miles upriver from St Louis. It was the main hub of fur trading in the area for 30 or 40 years. We actually had to cross into Montana and, following the driveway, backtrack a bit to reach the fort, just barely inside North Dakota.

On to Montana!