The Road Goes On…

2014 Northern US

  • St Mary, MT

    Over a huge breakfast at the Johnston’s Cafe we planned the day’s activities. Continuing high winds made us decide not to risk taking the Going to the Sun highway so we went horseback riding instead.

    Ruth rode “Smokey” and Martin rode “Larry the Cable Guy” for an hour and a half accompanied by two guides, Chum the cow herding dog and a white pony that left its grazing ground and followed us on our outing. The landscape was breathtaking.

    20140725-hwy2-1396 20140725-hwy2-1398 20140725-hwy2-1399 20140725-hwy2-1412 20140725-hwy2-1415 20140725-hwy2-1421

    By late afternoon the winds had died down and we drove the west part of the Going to the Sun highway to Logan’s pass. The landscape was just beautiful and at the visitor centre we encountered a big horn sheep and very curious Columbian ground squirrels.

    20140725-hwy2-1062 20140725-hwy2-1064 20140725-hwy2-1453 20140725-hwy2-1477 20140725-hwy2-1478

    We had dinner at a Mexican canteen run by Blackfoot indians and then spent a second night at Johnston’s Campground.

  • St Mary, MT to Hungry Horse, MT

    Morning came extremely early – 5AM so that we could photograph the sunrise and early morning hours on the Going to the Sun highway. This also meant less other tourists and easier driving along the narrow parts of the mountain road and parking at the various points of interest.

    20140726-hwy2-1123 20140726-hwy2-1129

    We stopped a couple of times for pictures. One highlight was a family of mountain goats.

    20140726-hwy2-1169 20140726-hwy2-1173

    On the west side we stopped for a hike at trail of the cedars after breakfast in the RV.

    20140726-hwy2-1200 20140726-hwy2-1201 20140726-hwy2-1225

    After exiting the park we stopped for lunch at West Glacier and then looked for a place to have an afternoon nap. We lucked out at a fishing access point on Lake Five which also had great swimming opportunities. After a great swim in glacier fed water we continued to Hungry Horse where we found a nice campground for the evening.

  • Hungry Horse, MT to Coeur D’Alene, ID

    This was a day of driving from Montana to Idaho. We stopped at a roadside cherry stand which turned out to be a small little orchard owned by a woman named Donnie. She told us all about her cherry trees, each of which was named a family member. We took a walk through her orchard and photographed the cherries on the tree named “Anna”. We bought two kinds of delicious cherries, jam and postcards of cherries. Bit of theme here…

    20140727-hwy2-1816 20140727-hwy2-1829

    The drive was diverse with mountains, lakes and plains.  The small towns such as “Paradise” weren’t all that inspiring. We stopped in St. Regis for a salad lunch at a restaurant and casino with a reserved tabled for the cowboy-like seasoned regulars.

    The landscape became more and more beautiful as we approached Idaho and we stayed overnight in Coeur D’Alene at the Blackwell Island RV Park which is located where the lake and Spokane river meet. A wonderful spot with lots of Albertans. We talked for quite a while with Tim and Wendy who had trouble with their new Via camper and had to visit their local Mercedes dealer to get a software update for the engine so that they could drive at regular speed again.

    A swim in the river and dinner, with wine, under our rarely used awning -wonderful day!

    20140728-hwy2-1833 20140728-hwy2-1841

  • Coeur D’Alene, ID to Pullman, WA

    The day started slowly by taking care of some housekeeping, a nice long shower and breakfast, but it would become an exciting and long day.

    At 11AM our friend Jojo came and picked us up in her battle hardened Ford Expedition used for photography missions on rougher roads. First stop, however, was a civilized lunch at a very nice restaurant at a beautiful artificial lake designed by her brother. We followed Jojo in the Roadtrek to Pullman where we parked at Walmart. The four of us then piled into Jojo’s non-airconditioned SUV and with open windows and fresh country air explored the less accessible parts of Palouse. The roads often have no signs and choosing the ones that looked more travelled and had power lines wasn’t always the correct course of action. This led to exciting 3-point turns on very narrow dirt roads. The landscape was gorgeous with rolling hills, charming red barns and bountiful wheat fields. Harvest season became real by seeing huge combines working the fields and leaving long trails of dust in their wake. Needless to say, we drank lots of water and had lots of fun, stopping abruptly whenever a picture perfect scene presented itself.

    20140728-hwy2-1985 20140728-hwy2-1989 20140728-hwy2-2021 20140728-hwy2-2027 20140728-hwy2-2033 20140728-hwy2-2039

    The day ended with a gorgeous highlight – a trip to Steptoe butte where we had a bird’s eye view of the landscape we had photographed all day. We ended this wonderful photographic day with a picnic dinner in the waning light with a refreshing cool breeze.

    20140728-hwy2-2072 20140728-hwy2-2073 20140728-hwy2-2078 20140728-hwy2-2112

  • Pullman, WA to Leavenworth, WA

    The morning came early. 4AM to be exact. We left the Walmart parking lot to catch a sunrise in the Palouse. We were lucky to find a great spot on a dirt road to photograph, making the early wakeup worthwhile.

    20140729-hwy2-2160 20140729-hwy2-2171 20140729-hwy2-2173 20140729-hwy2-2181 20140729-hwy2-2192 20140729-hwy2-2193

    Now we deserved a great breakfast and that we got at the Top Notch Cafe in Colfax. This cafe could have been on Route 66 with its booths, barstools and milk shake mixer. The food was plentiful and really good. Pete, the owner, had lived in a number of different states and had bought this cafe from his nephew about 10 years ago. A good number of locals had their morning coffee, chatted and teased each other about the size of their combines.

    20140729-hwy2-1862 20140729-hwy2-1864 20140729-hwy2-1863

    Next stop was Spokane, a beautiful city bisected by the roaring Spokane river. Two hydroelectric plants dating from the early 1900s provide power to the city. A riverside park has gondola rides across the falls, an Imax theatre, sculpture of runners and an old carousel ride among other attractions.

    20140729-hwy2-1879 20140729-hwy2-1880 20140729-hwy2-1917 20140729-hwy2-1921

    The drive from Spokane to the Grand Coulee Dam was mostly through the plains and we had 40 degree temperatures. The early morning wakeup caught up with us so we stopped at a rest area for an hour long nap.

    We reached Grand Coulee Dam in good time, parked in the shade to keep Pepsi cool and visited the information centre to learn about the three powerhouses at the dam. A very informative video explained the geological processes that created the spectacular basalt column formations we were to see later on in the day.

    20140729-hwy2-2202 20140729-hwy2-2207

    We had a swim at the Steamboat Rock State park before heading further west.

    All of a sudden it seemed that Hwy 2 had taken us to Bavaria, with alpine mountains, painted houses and schnitzels. The now busy town of Leavenworth had been a logging town that had fallen on hard times and had reinvented itself as a Bavarian themed tourist destination in the 1960s. We just had to stop for a schnitzel dinner at the Baren Haus.

    photo 1 photo 2

    A forest fire 8 km away had closed Hwy 2 and prevented us from continuing and the detour on a winding and narrow road at night didn’t seem advisable so we stayed at the lovely Alpine RV campground for the night.

    20140730-hwy2-2223 20140730-hwy2-2229