Dunfey Alaska Journey

We left Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota and drove across Montana to Great Falls where we stayed at the Walmart – once again filling their coffers with food and misc. purchases. In the morning, we proceeded north to Glacier arriving about 1 PM. KOA Campground hosts generously installed our new hitched that arrived via UPS. They also worked on electrical problem for us.  Great people!

Journey across Montana provided varying scenes as shown in pictures.

We took an afternoon ride up the fameous Going-to-the-Sun-Road. We stopped to take a couple of hikes. One was to the St. Mary’s Falls. The pictures do not do this justice.

On our way back to campground, we stopped for a paddle of St Mary’s Lake. This lake can be quite windy and difficult to paddle. The early evening was perfect with glassy surface to guide across the lake.

We will be spending next two days in other parts of the park.

It was wonderful visiting this park before the tourist season. We could stop anywhere without worrying about blocking others. We met people at major stopping points but rarely saw anyone on the roads. We were the only boats on the lakes.

On our first full day here, we spent morning traveling to Many Glaciers area and kayaking Swift Current Lake. In the afternoon, we went across the border to the Canadian side of the park to Waterton Lakes area. We paddled Upper Waterton Lake and took a scenic drive to Cameron Lake.

MANY GLACIER AREA – Hike to Falls and Kayak canyon lake

Waterton Lakes Area – paddle lake and scenic drive

At the end of the day, we decided to limit future Kayak Trips to one per day, if possible.

The kayak has added to our enjoyment immensely. We went to roads end in canyons and slipped into the kayak and went where you couldn’t easily get to by foot. We passed one mountain peak after another in the water. We got close to moose, ducks and saw Big Horn Sheep high in the cliffs over looking the water.

The glacial water was very, very cold. It probably will be no colder in Alaska. It didn’t bother us once we were in the kayak.

On the last full day here in Glacier, we drove to Two Medicine Lakes area. We planned to kayak down Two Medicine Lake (length of 2-3 miles) and hike about a mile to Twin Falls. We had to break thru ice that covered parts of the middle of the lake. That was a fun, When we got to the trail head, we had difficulty finding the trail and realized that there was snow up to our knees the whole way. We turned back. A storm arrived just as we got back.

On Monday 5/26, we spent the morning putting a new electrical connection on the car for the trailer. We are so greatful to the work campers at Glacier KOA who spent their time off helping us through our hitch issues. They were like angels sent from heaven to help us in our distress.

We drove to Calagry after lunch. We are staying at a Walmart for the night before proceeding on to Banff and Jasper.

This travel day was one of the most spectacular drives of our life.  A great  variety of terrains and views entertained us as we drove from Cody, WY through Yellowstone National Park, Grand Tetons National Park to get to Star Valley, WY. Our plan was to drive up the scenic Chief Josephs highway into reach the Northeast Yellowstone entrance. We wanted to get a feel for the two national parks (Yellowstone and Grand Tetons) where we planned to spend more time at the end of our trip. We knew it would take  to 4 to 5 hours to drive straight through. That gave us a few hours for stops along the way.

Buffalo Bill Dam Cody, WY 7/13

As with all plans, we had to adjust when we headed in wrong direction. We were on road to Yellowstone East entrance by mistake. We decided to take advantage and visit Buffalo Bill Dam on the outskirts of Cody. This Dam is one of the world’s tallest Dams. It provides much of the water for this region.

Drive from Cody to Montana Yellowstone Northeast Gate –  7/13

We drove up Chief Josephs highway . The climb up through the rising mountain passes and switchbacks gave us great views. The story boards at Dead Indian Pass gave us a history lesson about the last of the Indian wars. We arrived at Cook City in Montana just before we reached the Northeast Gate to Yellowstone.  Cook City appeared to be a quiet small tourist tone nicely appointed for this task. We only stopped for gas before heading into Yellowstone.

Yellowstone NE Gate to Grand Tetons 7/13

We stopped for lunch at a picnic area as we drove though Yellowstone from the northeast gate to the Grand Tetons. We went by the Lamar Valley where there is much wild life to see ( we did see a lot of buffalo herds). We passed the canyons and Yellowstone Lake.

Drive through  Grand Tetons 7/13

We stopped at the Grand Tetons Visitor Center. We got kayaking information for future visits when we take day trips up from Star Valley during our 3 week stay there.\