Yellowstone

 West Yellowstone, Montana

July 26 - Aug 2

It was a long drive from glacier to yellowstone but mostly went through some very pretty scenery. Most of Yellowstone is in Wyoming but the western side is at the very edge of Montana. The RV park was a in the town and a short ride to to the park entrance. If you haven't been to Yellowstone, you should put it on your list. As Sue put it, it is the all you can eat lobster buffet of wildlife. Elk, Buffalo, Eagles and Osprey for a few. We missed Moose, Bear, and Wolf.

Of course we went to Ole Faithful. Named that because it's one geyser that gushes on a regular basis. We had an hour to kill until show time so we had a drink at the beautiful Old Faithful Lodge. The interior seems made of all raw wood with ta huge stone fireplace! 

The bar had these groovy cut glass windows separating it from the restaurant that depicted scenes with animals doing various human stuff. Think dogs playing poker of Fabulous Mr. Fox. Beautiful woodwork all around.

The geysers and hot pools are otherworldly. Bubbling pools of all different hues. Water shooting up hundreds of feet! the bacteria mat of life forms that thrive in the hot, sulphurous environment.

 

Glacier National Park

 Glacier National Park, Montana

July 18 - 26

Welp, we did a lot of research for this trip, including ensuring the dogs had the proper paperwork to cross the border to Canada, and back into the U.S. We entered Canada completely uneventfully - they did not even check our carefully-prepared dog paperwork.  Unfortunately we did not so much research going back into the U.S. In short, once again we were dumb. We completely missed the sign that advised us to declare all produce, food, wood, etc. Happily we were assisted by a very kind border agent, Officer Chin. She calmly asked us what all we were bringing across the border that might be of concern. Here's a short list

•     frozen bacon
•     eggs
•     frozen ground pork
•     apples
•     avocado
•     tomatoes
•     Sue's beloved herb garden!
•     firewood

Thanks, Officer Chin!

She confiscated all of this except the firewood which she directed us to cross the border back into Canada to dispose of!  Also we had not filled our the proper forms for the dogs! Sue quickly downloaded and emailed the forms to the proper place but when we reentered the U.S., no one even seemed to care. Lesson learned! The hard way! Officer Chin was amazing though -- she cut down my herbs, packaged them in paper, and returned them to me in their planter which she had washed! Gone of course were there roots but we had some herbs to use for the next couple of days until we replaced the plants. 

Sue's favorite instrument!

Anyway, we eventually made it through and went about 5 miles into the US to stop for the night as it was a bit too far to do in one go. The next day we continued on to West Glacier, Montana, which is about 1 mile from the entrance to the park. The RV park was very nice with grassy sites and a bike lane to the town. 

Do I need to catch up on my roots!?!?

We took the bikes on the border trail until we saw the bear signs. These were the most serious signs we came across so we turned around and headed back. Glacier National Park contains a long drive through a glacier cut canyon. Very pretty but a lot like the Banff canyon. 

We took the 4 hour drive and saw some goats and glaciers is the distance. Very pretty but unless you are going to hike one of the many trails, not great. We had the dogs so were limited to paved trails. The Visitor Center was more of a store for national park merch. 

We decided to do a white water rafting excursion. It was only a 3 hour tour, (a three hour tour). The first part was a leisurely float with the second half picking up to class 2 and 3 rapids. No one from our boat fell out but we all got a bit wet.

Sue got out for a brief swim (water cold!) 

Flathead River

Klaus chastising us for not filling out dog forms.

Klaus driving the getaway bus

Murray prepping to go back to Canada
 to avoid Trump's awful policies

Huckleberries abound in the park

Typical dramatic sky

Embroidery update!

Finally giving up on this recipe

We had a super nice spot with a firering!

Banff

Banff and Lake Louise, Alberta

July 13 - 18

Banff is super famous and we found it, along with Lake Louise, to be another international tourist destination.  Germans, French, Chinese, Dutch, Indians, etc.  All main attractions were swarming with peeps. We had a lovely campsite with great views of the surrounding mountains and the gigantic sky. Our campground was around 15 km from Lake Louise and about 30 or so km to Banff. The site was a Canadian National Parks site and had no hookups so we were on solar and battery which never went below 80%! This was also the beginning of the Great Mosquito Attack on Sue. Denis gets bitten but doesn't react. By the end of this week Sue was a giant itchy welt.

The Chateau

The "uncrowded" side

The crowded side

Kamloops, Revelstoke

 Kamloops & Revelstoke, British Columbia

July 3 - 13, 2025

We extended our stay in Vancouver by a few days so we could do DeCourcey but did not have plans after that. We had 10 unplanned days until our booking at Banff. We thought we would boondock for a few days so we found a free camping area in the Canadian equivalent of BLM land. It did not look too far off the main highway and the map showed a road so we decided to give it a shot. We pulled off the highway, detached the car and started up the "road" it quickly turned into a very rough and steep dirt road with lots of ruts. We got a mile up and decided this would not work. We had to turn around and head down. The car ant the entire back of Riginante was covered in dirt! We quickly made a reservation at a campground in Kamloops. 

Not kidding when we said it was covered 
in dust!

We spent three days in Kamloops. Not too much here - apparently it's Vancouver's "desert". We did short hike with the dogs around a lake and a trip to a local wildlife refuge. The refuge was not too bad. The environments were large and had plenty of hiding places for the animals. Their claim to fame was the only Kermode or "Spirit" Bear, a white variant of a black bear. We had a failed attempt at kayaking on the river. We made an appointment to rent kayaks at the riverfront park at 11:00 as the company said they opened then. We waited until about 11:30 before leaving as they never showed up to open - this is the only instance of Canadians being flaky in our entire travels!

This is a walk from our Kamloops campsite

Nice lake at Kamloops

After some research, we decided to spend the rest of the time before Banff at Revelstoke. We had never heard of it but it turned out to be a super cool and beautiful place. It is a ski area and home to Mount Revelstoke National Park. The town also had that quaint old timey ski town vibe with a small walkable downtown strip with lots of restaurants and shops. 

We had a pretty site at Revelstoke.

A cool climbing rock in our 
campground

Gondola ride was cool...

Because Revelstoke is a ski area, we took the gondola up to the top of the mountain for lunch featuring lovely views. But ... Denis had the bright idea to "walk" down so we did. Now, it was only 3 miles and it was downhill - what could go wrong? Welp it was almost all sharp large rocks going down. One mile took us 59 minutes (a typical hike mile is like, 17-24 depending on terrain). To add to the fun we did not have poles/water. It was simply awful. Lesson learned.

View from the top

Super steep and wearing dumb shoes

Little did we know how we would look
in 2.5 hours

Dining in Revelstoke was interesting especially as we chose a German/Indian restaurant! Again, what could go wrong? Sue was wise and ordered a German meal (pork schnitzel and red cabbage) Denis, however, tried the Butter Chicken Schnitzel. We will leave it at that. 

Dogs at top of Revelstoke

We had a lovely space in Revelstoke and it was enhanced by Sue's bear sighting as she rode her bike to do laundry. Sweet little bear but she was too scared to take a pic. We drove up to the top of the mountain with the dogs to check it out. 

View from top

Bike ride

Bear scat 

 

All this wood smelled so good

So this is the part of the trip where Sue starts to lose it a bit. Remember that Denis works M-F so Sue is on her own all week. I began to assemble my teeny tiny jigsaw puzzle and, as usual I experimented with new recipes despite being in the tiniest kitchen on earth!

Typical dinner prep

This was actually a nice dish with 
cherry tomatoes, butter and pasta 
water making a good sauce

First focaccia in our dumb convection
oven - rosemary from our "garden"
on top

                      

Downtown Revelstoke

This puzzle was 5" by 9" so each piece
was tiny

                  

Denis at the site of Nels Nelson famous jump
in the 1920s!

   

Lazuli Bunting!

Revelstoke Lake

                  

Another shot of site