July 14
We have seen so many animals since we have been visiting the national parks. I won’t give you the whole tally or anything, but here is a sampling of the animals we have seen in Mt. Rainier National Park, Glacier National Park and Yellowstone.
Bald eagles
Pronghorn antelope
Black bears
Wolves
Elk
Bison
Coyote
Mountain goats
Moose
Deer
Marmots
Martens
Osprey
Chipmunks
Red squirrels
Mountain bluebirds
Woodpeckers
Clark’s nutcracker
Bats
That’s a pretty awesome list, I would say. There are other birds too numerous to mention. We’ve also seen many butterflies and dragonflies. The onslaught of mosquitoes we come across should not be on this list, but they are an annoyance, sometimes worse than others.
As usual,
Happy trails,
Linda and Ken

random factoids

Hello to everyone who follows this rather sporadic blog—

Did you know that:
Yellowstone National Park was governed for 30 years by the US Army? Our first national park was then turned over to the National Park Service when it was created.

Missoula, Montana has one of the top smokejumper training facilities in the country? The visitor center runs a great tour. We have a lot of respect for those young men and women who fight wildfires in our wilderness areas.

You really can overnight in your RV in Walmart’s parking lot? They even have electronic surveillance, and nobody bugs you. Butte, MT

Black bears can either have a black, brown, or cinnamon colored coat and still be called black bears? We were on a hike above Mammoth Hot Springs yesterday, and we saw a sow bear with a cinnamon coat and her 2 black coated cubs. They were close however the mother bear seemed unconcerned. We were very cautious anyway. Got some pictures!

The geothermal features of Yellowstone come from snow runoff seeping into cracks in the earth and becoming superheated by a huge dome of magma? We’re actually camping within the boundaries of a caldera, the remains of an ancient super-volcano. And guess what—this is one of the most active places on earth when it comes to geothermal/volcanic activity. Are we crazy, camping in a super volcano?

a state of bliss

We got a question from a friend about a picture we sent. It was of the lodge at Many Glacier, one of the tourist spots in Glacier National Park. He thought it was gorgeous, and asked what state it was in. I responded that it was in the state of Bliss. Actually it was in the state of Montana, but that is the way we feel about this state. Views are expansive, wide, tall, and scenic. The park was amazing. It is a national park, but we just refer to it as Glacier. It is the northernmost location that Ken and I have ever been, only about 30 miles from the Canadian border. In fact, we brought our passports along just in case we were able to take a day trip up there to the Glacier-Waterton International Peace Park. But we decided there was not enough time. Just another reason to return!

While we were at Glacier, we drove over the Continental Divide. Logan Pass had just opened for the season the day before, and the road goes from the west side of the park, where we were camping, to the east side. It is called the Going-To-The-Sun Road, and is very narrow, windy, and world-famous. We got an early start and took many pictures. The views were breathtaking. We realized why it is called the U.S. Switzerland. It looked like right out of The Sound of Music. Glacier is also called the Crown of the Continent, a very appropriate name.

Now it is the Fourth of July and we are in Bozeman, Montana. If it doesn't thunder and lightning on us, we'll see the local fireworks show. Hopefully we'll be at the fairgrounds, not viewing them from our truck!

Happy 4th and Happy Trails,
Linda and Ken

Full bars and connections/my apologies

Now I don't mean places to hang out and drink. My phone has had zero bars for more than a week and the laptop connection was very slow. So I have been incommunicado. I will try to bring you up to speed in a somewhat orderly fashion.