Category: family

The travel trailer is now winterized and back in storage. I was also able to get the water heater fixed and get the hitch on the tow vehicle lowered (the Land Cruiser’s hitch was about 4″ higher than that of the Tundra).

It is time to put the plans together for the 2016 Summer Trip! Only 208 days until we roll out.

I am looking at a few different possible itineraries. Much will depend on if I am able to get reservations where I need to get them.

The mission will be similar to last year’s: exploring our National Parks. The wife has never been to Yosemite (gasp!) and it would be nice to spend some time there early in the season. I have never been to the Grand Canyon (gasp!) or any of the other major national parks in Utah and Colorado.

I really enjoyed my time at Glacier National Park and would like to spend more time there. We didn’t get to see all of Yellowstone.

For reservations, I already have them for Yellowstone and Grand Teton. They start accepting reservations two years out. Yosemite is a gamble. It is hard to get reservations there and I have to wait until January or February to try. Pretty much all the rest of the parks do not take reservations until 6 months out. That puts me at the end of November and the beginning of December to get my reservations in.

Most likely I will dash out to the West first. That will take four days of driving. If I can’t get reservations in Yosemite, I could always go to neighboring Kings Canyon or Sequoia National Parks. I have never been to either.

The fastest approach would probably be taking I-70 west until hitting I-15 in Utah. Then heading towards Las Vegas, take I-15 until I hit Barstow, CA. Alternatively, I could head south first, down to I-40 and make my way to Barstow, CA by way of Albuquerque and Flagstaff.

In California, we can stay either in Yosemite, Kings Canyon, or Sequoia. This would allow us to take a day trip (or overnight) out to the Bay Area to see relatives. I most likely would come in from the south through the San Joaquin Valley and approach from the west. Alternatively, I could head north up the eastern side of the Sierras to Lee Vining, CA. From there I could take Tioga Pass into Yosemite. But that would mean that Tioga Pass was open in early June and I had reservations for Yosemite. We will see.

After California, I will head south and then east to Las Vegas, back up I-15 and head for Zion National Park. From Yosemite to Zion is 650 miles, making this leg a two day trip.

After spending a few days at Zion, it is a 125 mile jog south to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

A few days here and then up to Bryce Canyon National Park, a 150 miles north.

After Bryce Canyon, I can hop back on to I-15 and make my way towards Glacier National Park. This will be a three day trip with stops in Pocatello and Great Falls. It would be nice to spend two full weeks at Glacier. Probably mostly on the east side, but maybe the west too.

From Glacier it will take one or two days down to Yellowstone. I have reservations for the Canyon Campground. I think this should put at us for a good location for exploring. We need to devote some time to see Mammoth Hot Springs. I think we could spend the day there, head east having dinner at Roosevelt Lodge near tower and then spend an early evening watching in wildlife in the Lamar Valley.

After Yellowstone, a week in Grand Teton exploring much of went unexplored before is in order. Then generally heading the direction of home, perhaps a few days in Rocky Mountain National Park? When all is said and done, this could be a seven week trip – but could be tailored for less if needed.

We had a great day at Yosemite. We left the cabin at about 7:15am. It was difficult getting Emily going. I got up early and loaded the bikes the in the truck. I should have made some sandwiches but at least I packed a six pack of water bottles and two bags of Cheerios.

The total distance from the cabin to the Yosemite Valley floor in about 75 miles. The drive started pretty easy. Down the mountain on CA 108 to the junction with CA 49 heading south. CA 49 then leads to CA 120 and moves quickly until the Priest Grade. 8 miles of slow, steep and windy road. Then things moved fast again through Groveland… which reminded me of Sweeney (was he Grandpa Barrios’ brother?). I also remember the adults making a trip to the Iron Door Saloon from Family Camp one time. We passed that too.

After the turn off for San Jose Family Camp (I wish we had had some extra time to take that detour) the road got a bit more windy and you could still see plenty of evidence of the Rim Fire. The park entrance is about 20 miles from the valley floor. I got the newspaper they hand out and a map. It is a windy drive down into the valley, but very pretty.

Once down on the valley floor, I pulled into parking which I thought was the Visitors Center. The drive had taken about two hours. After we parked, we started walking to find the bathrooms prior to going to the Visitors Center. Then I saw a sign that said the Visitors Center was a 10 minute walk along the bike path, or you could take a shuttle bus. I realized we were just in a parking area – no where close to the Visitors Center. Back to the truck and we unloaded the bikes. We were off.

After a short ride we arrived at the Visitors Center. We got our National Park Passports stamped and the Junior Ranger worksheets. I also got a map that showed the bike trails around the valley floor.

We then hit a nearby deli and got sandwiches…. as breakfast was kind of skipped in an effort to get out the door. Once fueled up with a bit of food, we took our bikes over to Yosemite Falls. Emily was really excited to see the waterfall. You can’t ride bikes up too far but after we parked them, it was a short hike with a pretty view of the lower falls.

Back on the bikes, we swung across the valley floor and crossed the Merced River on a bridge. When we were coming up behind people on the bikes, I gave my little bike bell a ring to get them to scoot over.

Our next stop was Camp Curry and their General Store where we got ice cream and took a quick break. Then we continued on to the Mirror Lake trailhead. We made a short hike to the lake (which looked much different than I remembered it), found some rocks, took a break and drank water.

Back on our bikes and heading down the road, we saw a small black bear just off the side of the road. He was on a fallen log, pulling it apart – probably looking for grubs. The bear was about 20 feet away.

After more riding, we stopped at The Ahwahnee – the fancy resort hotel on the valley floor. We got water there and rested a bit. Nothing we could live without in the gift shop (lots of fancy stuff).

Back to the Visitors Center. We worked on the Junior Ranger worksheet, then attended a Junior Ranger program conducted by one of the rangers. After that, the girls got their Junior Ranger badges. In recognition of their achievement, we took a trip to the gift shop where Sarah got a Yosemite Half Dome baseball cap and Emily got a puzzle with a picture of a black bear on it.

A short bike ride back to the truck. The parking lot was PACKED. I am so glad we took the bikes. After I packed up the truck (now 3:30pm) we made our way back out. Cars parked everywhere. I am glad we got there when we did.

The drive back had more traffic than the drive there.

A great day – the girls had a lot of fun.

Our day started back at St. Mary’s Lodge where we were to meet the Red Bus. These “Buses” are something else. A rag top convertible that seats…. 15? What a way to travel and see the sights. We got to see some wild life. A moose…. way off in the distance. Black bears…. far down in a valley, but in was a mom and her cubs out enjoying the day. We made our way south from St. Mary’s down to East Glacier. East Glacier is home to the Glacier Park Lodge – one of the old time railroad built national park lodges.

The main building was beautiful and you could see the path from the (still active) train station up to the lodges entrance.

We enjoyed lunch and then made our way back north to Two Medicine.

Two Medicine Lake was inside Glacier National Park, had a great general store and campground. Surrounded by mountains, the snow melt and glacial runoff streamed downwards into the lake.

After breakfast, we stopped at the St. Mary Lodge (located just outside the St. Mary entrance into Glacier National Park) in an attempt to make reservations for the Red Bus tours that take place in and around Glacier National Park. The staff at the lodge were very helpful and although reservations our not made through the lodge, they allowed us to use their phone and we were able to make reservations for the following day (Tuesday) for a tour between St. Mary and East Glacier that included Two Medicine. The lodge was very nice and a comfortable place to relax. Although not as fancy as some of the other national park lodges, St. Mary Lodge had a great dinning room and lounge. We also made reservations for Thursday to pick up a Red Bus tour in West Glacier (actually the Apgar Visitors Center) that would take us up to Logan Pass – the summit of the Going To The Sun Road.

We left the lodge and headed north to Many Glacier. The distance from St. Mary to Many Glacier is fairly short – the drive takes about 20 minutes. First we drove by the Many Glacier Lodge. We decided to try a short hike from a trailhead near Swiftcurrent Lake to St. Josephine Lake.

After the hike we headed over to the Many Glacier Lodge. The lodge was beautiful and had a wonderful, rustic alpine look. We went to their lounge and enjoyed an excellent lunch. The service was great. The wait staff were young college folk from all over the country (and world).

We then went down stairs and outside to buy boat tickets. Glacier National Park has several major lakes (Swift Current, St. Josephine, Two Medicine, MacDonald) which are all serviced by these really cool, old fashioned pleasure/sight-seeing boats. For some lakes they take you across for point to point. At other lakes the boat takes you around the lake for a tour.

We woke up early, got on the road, and continued north up I-15 to US-2. The drive was nice, flat, and easy drive. We took MT 464 which was hilly, but not too bad. I saw a Google car for the first time. In the middle of nowhere Montana… there was a Google car. The weather had fairly low, dark clouds rolling from the west. I anticipated a picturesque drive west towards the Rockies but with the low clouds, I couldn’t even really see the Rockies. Space was available and we were able to check into Saint Mary’s Campground a day early.

My plan was to spend the night at the St. Mary KOA campground and then move to the Glacier National Park’s St. Mary campground the following day. Learning my lesson in Yellowstone I came to the realization that instead of campsite hopping, it was best to get set and maximize time exploring rather than setting up and tearing down a campsite.

We arrived at Glacier’s St. Mary campground. A difference from Badlands and Yellowstone National Parks is that at Glacier, rangers run the campground check-in kiosk. I explained that I had reservations starting the following day and was wondering if that campsite was available for tonight? Yes it was – good news.

The campground was nice, although our site did not have much of a view.

After getting the trailer set, we drove to the St. Mary Visitors Center and finally broke out our National Park Passports. I was not really sure where I had packed them and had not used them during my previous visits to Badlands and Yellowstone. What we were to discover was that (generally speaking) every national park visitors center has a passport stamping station. The purpose of the passport is to kind of “collect” national parks. Some visitors centers have only a date cancellation stamp and others have both the date cancellation stamp and another special stamp. It is also possible to purchase “stamps” that can be affixed the passport book above the cancellation stamps. To be honest, I still don’t fully understand how these picture “stamps” are supposed to be used.

At the visitors center we were able to get Junior Ranger Books for the girls. It seems like every national park does their Junior Ranger Program a bit differently. At Yellowstone you had to purchase the Junior Ranger activity book. At Glacier, they were free. In Yosemite, books can be purchased or you can use a copy from the activity newspaper that you get when you enter the park.

We had lunch in the town of St. Mary and tried Huckleberries for the first time (Huckleberry pie).

On our return to the campground we learned that Going-To-The-Sun Road was closed and was not going to open until Friday. There was road work taking place in between the entrance to the park and the campground which was the reason given for the road closure. I was not anticipating this. My lesson learned here is to be better connected with park news. All the parks do a good job of posting information concerning the status of roads, campgrounds, and anything else – but if I don’t look at it I wouldn’t know.

My plan for exploring Glacier was based on having access to the Going-To-The-Sun Road. I hadn’t planned on going up to Many Glacier, thinking that it was too far away and maybe wasn’t really worth visiting.