2013 Lap around the USA

Day 40 – Tuesday 18th June 2013. Bandlands NP, South Dakota- Wall Drug -Rapid City – Bear Park USA – Sibly State Forest Wyoming. 413 Miles

Up early and breakfast over, and on the road by7.30am. The previous day we had seen sign after sigh for a place called Wall Drug Store. We had never heard of it so decided to call in and have a look.

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Wow. What an impressive place that was. We spent ages looking around and in all the different section of the store. I think we ended up spending $180 before we left. I ended up with a great big cowboy hat and a new wallet and my wife with a lot of souvenirs.
I think it must be the biggest gift shop I have ever seen. Its also a beautiful town as well.

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Back in Rapid City and the first stop was Macdonald’s for lunch. Mainly just to get the laptops out and use the free wi fi to touch base with our family and friends back home.
Next on the to do list was Bear Park USA. A drive through zoo with lots and lots of bears roaming freely as well as wolves and mountain lions in their enclosures. A lot of other wild animals as well.

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I think the highlight though, was the little bear cubs playing and climbing threes. So much fun to watch and of course photograph, it was hard to leave.

It was after 3.00pm by the time we left Rapid City and had no real plan for the rest of the day.
Our plan over the next few days was to make it to Glacier National Park. We crossed over into Wyoming and again hit with some pretty wild weather as we approached Gillette. We took cover at a Truck Stop and fuelled up while waiting for the rain to ease.
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Once back on the road it was a nice scenic drive up to Sheridan before turning off onto a scenic road that would eventually lead us to Cody, Wyoming.

The road was called alt 14 and a beautiful drive through the mountains. Not sure where to camp we drove until we came across Sibly State Park. It had a nice campground set back off the road and a beautiful lake as well.
By the time we paid our fees and set up camp it was around 9.30 pm and still plenty of daylight left.

We certainly made use of the available light that day as we had travelled over 300 miles since leaving Rapid City. The long days was certainly to our advantage and gave us time to explore the sites without rushing.

Day 41– Wednesday 19th June 2013. – Sibly State Forest Wyoming – Cody – Beartooth Highway – Red Lodge – Great Falls Montana – 507 Miles.

It was 5.30 am when my wife woke me so we could drive down to the lake for sunrise. I went about cooking breakfast and making coffee while Sandy took the photos.

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After breakfast we headed off in the direction of Cody. A lot of road works slowed our progress but really good just to take in the scenery and what was happening around us.
A fuel stop at Cody and on our way again. It wasn’t long before we turned off onto Beartooth and in the direction of Red Lodge.

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Now this is what I call a scenic Highway, no sooner we turned off it was raging waterfalls, breath taking mountain scenery and more. It wasn’t long before we crossed into Montana.
The roads took us higher into the mountains and more snow began to appear. We even came across some half frozen lakes.
Everyone was travelling at a slow pace and with plenty of places to stop; we took every opportunity for one more photo.

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By lunch time we had arrived at Red Lodge and stopped for a while to look at the maps and plan where to go from here.
Up until now it was a beautiful sunny day but it looked like our clouds had caught up to us once again.

From Red Lodge I took a back road that connected with highway 90 at Columbus. Frome here we followed 90 for about an hour before turning off onto 89 to take us through White Sulphur Springs and onto Great Falls.

Not long after getting onto 90 at Columbus, I could see the storm clouds building from the south and getting closer.
It wasn’t long before the rain and hail along with strong winds hit us. I kept driving while my wife slept through it all. I glanced over onto the mountains and watched as a black cloud dropped down a small funnel near a hill side not far from the highway. I stopped and took a few photos, woke my wife who wasn’t very interested and went back to sleep.

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I thought nothing of it and kept driving until the storm passed and we turned off onto 89 towards White Sulphur Springs. The weather seemed to have passed so I just enjoyed the journey through the beautiful country side.

We fuelled up at White Sulphur Springs before moving on and thinking about stopping at another State Park for the night.
No more than half an hour on we were hit with the bad weather again, rain hail and strong wind.
We pulled over and waited for it to pass again before both agreeing to continue on to Great Falls and avoid having to camp out here. We still copped a lot of wind and rain for the rest of the journey.

It was about 7.30 pm when we made it to a Travel Centre at Great Falls and the weather was still pretty bad. We soon changed into some warmer clothes before getting out of the van.

We ended up camping in the car park after having dinner inside the centre. Even though it was freezing outside we were very comfortable inside our van.
With another long exciting day behind us, so it didn’t take long to fall asleep.

Day 42– Thursday 20th June 2013 – Great Falls Montana – Glacier National Park Montana – 325 Miles

Up at 7.00 am to cold, wet and windy morning. First stop was a Dennys Diner for breakfast.
Back on the road it was a slow drive to West Glacier via Browning, the weather didnt seem to get any better.
We arrived at about 12 Noon and went about getting a campsite. We ended up with a campsite in Apgar campground not far from the Park Village.

We made enquiries at the Apgar Visitors Centre as to the Going to the Sun Road. We were told it was due to open the next morning depending on the weather and the road works.
This was pleasing as we wanted to head into Canada for a few days and this was our chosen route. So with fingers crossed we decided to go for a drive around the Park.

After a few hours driving around looking for wildlife we headed back towards the village. Up ahead we spotted a big red bus and a few cars pulled up behind it.

A bear jam. Mamma bear and her two cubs were playing not far from the side of the road. We watched for a while before the ranger came along and scooted us. He used a horn as well to frighten the bears back off into the woods.
We made most of the available light and decided to head out along the Going to the sun road to the road block and take a few photos. We nearly had the place to ourselves and spent a while looking at waterfalls and rapids.

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Back at camp we still had time to cook dinner in daylight and eventually going to bed at 10 pm. Even then it was still light outside. I had read somewhere that late afternoon is the best time for driving around as most people are back at camp by then. Pretty good advice.

Day 43– Friday 21st June 2013 – Glacier National Park Montana – Going to the Sun Road – Fort Macleod. Canada. 148 Miles

Up early again. Cooked breakfast by 8.30 am. We got talking to a Ranger in the campground and about all the trees down around the park and campground. It turned out that the storm we had followed up through Montana also hit the park fairly hard before moving on causing more damage.

We got the news that the Going to the Sun Road had just been opened and there was a steady stream of traffic heading that way. We got going by 9.30 am and joined the traffic. Its a good thing we explored the small section of the road the day before as it was a very popular spot for photos.

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Wow.Another spectacular road to travel on. Waterfall after waterfall, snow on mountains and more snow. Lakes and even a few people extreme skiing on vey little snow. I think this drive would be very hard to top.
It took us five hours to drive the 50 miles and I don’t think there was a scenic stop that we didn’t stop at.

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We also made the point of visiting Many Glaciers before moving on that day.

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Arriving at Saint Mary’s we were given the bad news that Calgary and the surrounding areas were closed due to major flooding. Our storm had left its mark on Canada as well.
We had planned on spending a few days around Calgary and the National Parks. Not wanting to go back the way we came, we decided to head into Canada and stick close to the border and down to Seattle or Port Angeles.

Our Border crossing into Canada was no problem with a friendly officer wanting a chat about our travels and giving us advice on where we could go once in Canada.

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After the crossing we made our way to Fort Macleod we it was a motel for the night. We watched the news on TV and horrified to see what was happening around Calgary.

It wasn’t until we got home in Australia I googled the weather warnings for Wyoming and Montana for this period, that I found out we were travelling during a pretty sever storm warning for the area.
Without regular television or Internet service we were unaware of the weather forecast

This was the weather warning I googled after we got home. Looks like we were very lucky to avoid most of it.This warning was pretty accurate.

As a powerful low pressure system explodes across the northern High Plains on Wednesday, an outbreak of dangerous severe thunderstorms, including tornadoes, will erupt from southern Alberta into southern Saskatchewan and much of Montana.

Some of the cities and towns most at risk include Calgary, Lethbridge and Medicine Hat, Alberta; Swift Current, Saskatchewan; Great Falls, Mont.; Glasgow, Mont.; Williston, N.D.; Billings, Mont.; Helena, Mont. and Miles City, Mont., to name a few.

The greatest impacts from these thunderstorms will be large and potentially destructive hail up to the size of baseballs, or even softballs.

These storms will also have the ability to produce damaging gusts of winds over 60 mph and a few tornadoes, one or two of which could be long-lived and violent.

Baseball and softball-sized hail can be very destructive to crops, vehicles and even roofs on homes, as shingles are easily damaged. This size hail can also seriously injure or even kill exposed livestock. Any people caught without shelter can also be quite seriously injured.


While some scattered thunderstorms will be around to start off the morning, the main outbreak will not begin until the late afternoon or evening hours.

Initially, the storms will be more spread apart, and have ample opportunity to tap into significant twisting in the lower part of the atmosphere. This means the highest tornado threat will be found in central and northern Montana.

The storms will then congeal into a line that takes on more and more of a bowing, or backward 'C' shape, as it accelerates across the Canadian border.

Once this happens, the storms will still have the ability to produce large hail and tornadoes, but the biggest impacts will come in the form of damaging gusts of wind.

Though severe thunderstorms are not frequent across Montana and the Prairies of southern Canada in June, this is the best time of year for them to occur as jet stream energy shifts north for the summer. Still, this will be a particularly widespread and dangerous situation, the kind that usually happens only once or twice a year.

If you will be out and about across southern Alberta into southern Saskatchewan and much of Montana, you will need to pay special attention to the weather.

Once thunderstorms develop this afternoon, they will strengthen quickly, and dangerous conditions could follow soon after.

One added concern across the region will be very heavy, potentially flooding rain. This storm system will have the ability to produce a large area of 1-3 inches (25-75 mm) from Calgary into Edmonton, Alberta.; and Regina, Saskatchewan.

Current technology has advanced enough over recent years to provide ample alert of the potential for severe weather and the approach of localized severe storms. Be sure to understand the difference between a watch and a warning. A watch means that an area is being monitored for dangerous weather. A warning means that dangerous weather is imminent. When a warning is issued, there may be too little time to travel across town or across a county to escape the storm. The time to have a plan of action and move to the general vicinity of a storm shelter or safe area is when a watch is issued.

Keep in mind that lightning is one of Mother Nature's most dangerous killers. If you can hear thunder, you are close enough to the storm to be struck by lightning, even if the sun is still shining.

Well thats the trip so far. We are up into Canada by this stage and have under two weeks to go. Hopefully I can get some more photos edited over the weekend and finally get this field trip report finished.
I have been living this trip since booking tickets in January this year. Once the report is finished I have to get stuck into editing and updating my website.
John

Loving the report John and it's bringing back some good memories. I also loved the drive along the Million Dollar Highway, and being in a 30ft RV made it even more fun !

Pleased to hear you got to drive the 'Going to the Sun road', it's quite something isn't it.

Dave.

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Originally Posted by Southwest Dave

Loving the report John and it's bringing back some good memories. I also loved the drive along the Million Dollar Highway, and being in a 30ft RV made it even more fun !

Pleased to hear you got to drive the 'Going to the Sun road', it's quite something isn't it.

Dave.

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Thanks Dave.
Loved everthing about the trip. Going to the Sun Road was awsome. I cant believe it took us five houts to go fifty miles. No wonder I have so many photos to edit.

As far as the Million Dollar Highway - Im glad we done it in a little van. Your trip would have been more interesting ina 3o foot van.
John

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Originally Posted by john.waters

Well thats the trip so far. We are up into Canada by this stage and have under two weeks to go. Hopefully I can get some more photos edited over the weekend and finally get this field trip report finished.
I have been living this trip since booking tickets in January this year. Once the report is finished I have to get stuck into editing and updating my website.
John

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Think up some more stuff to tell us John. Im really enjoying reading your reports and im not ready to do mine just yet lol
Keith

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Originally Posted by keithg

Think up some more stuff to tell us John. Im really enjoying reading your reports and im not ready to do mine just yet lol
Keith

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Thanks Keith. Hopefully the boss will be away ay work again and I can write some more up on Microsoft word and upload later. Still plenty to tell just not the time to do it. I thnk shorter trips are needed.

Looking forward to yours too Keith.

John