LOGAN PASS, GLACIER NATIONAL PARK

We Made the trip to Logan Pass in Glacier National Park today.  Here are a few photos.

 Road construction delays on the way up.  The road closes completely at midnight tonight (Sunday)

 Looking back into the valley from which we came.

An actual Grizzly track with my hand in it for scale.

 .

Campbell Lake between West Glaicer and Logan Pass

My truck afterwards.  At least it makes the coach look clean.
( I had taken it to a car wash in Polson just a couple of days before! )

As expected the weather was not great.  Many of the peaks were completely hidden from our view by the clouds.  Still, we got a little view here and there.  There are no pictures from the top as it was completely socked in by the clouds, it was raining and the wind was blowing a good 30 knots.  We literally ran from the car to get inside the visitor center.  Stayed long enough to stamp our National Parks Passport and headed back down through the construction.  The valley floor was more hospitible.  No rain, no wind.  On a nice day we could have done this trip in less then an hour.  Today it took over two, with two 15-20 minute delays going up and one going back down.  Even the bears were not out.  No "bearjams" on the road.

It is supposed to be worse tomorrow.  I feel for the construction folks but they were dressed for it.  We, on the other hand, will be headed south in the morning.  We'll make it back to I-90 and camp for the night with Yogi and Bo Bo before heading for Lolo Pass and Clarkston, WA

This is the 10 day forcast for Glacier National Park as of this morning.  After tomorrow lots of sun.  Maybe some sun this afternoon - just before they close the road.  Looks like we may be driving back to Missoula in the rain tomorrow which will make for a long ride.  Light rain here now.  Hope the forcast for this afternoon is correct.  One way or another we are going today, with our warm jackets.

West Glacier - KOA

We made it to the West Glacier KOA this afternoon and it is a ghost town.   This is a very nice, well maintained KOA but just barely "big rig friendly."  We might of had problems if there were more campers here.  It turns out that Highway 2 through Glacier National Park will be closed at the end of the day tomorrow for paving.  This is a big time closeure for a long period of time.  Logan pass will only be accessible from the east side of Glacier and going there is out of the question for us at this point.  It already feels like winter is breathing down our necks because so many people have already left.  If we had been one day later we would have driven up here for nothing.  Lesson learned about checking road reports this late in the season.  Although the weather is not predicted to be good tomorrow we will try and drive up to Logan Pass.  It is windy here today so it could be much worse tomorrow.  On Monday we drive back to Missoula to visit Yogi and Bo Bo at Jellystone Park.  Can't wait to send you those pictures.  That's assuming they have not gone in to hibernation already.  I suspect they have.

Here are some additionla pictures of the campground.  These are posted in a Picasa website.  If you do not have the Picasa viewer loaded on your computer the link may as you to download it.  It is free.  After you view the picturesyou may have to use your BACK button to come back here.

CLICK HERE   for pictures of the campground.  I am experimenting with this method of posting more pictures so if you have feedback send it to me at waltdews@gmail.com.

POLSON, MT

NORV III Overlooking Flathead Lake

Prevost in the lot below us.  Thought this might actually be Larry The Cable Guy but probably not judging by the old guy reading the paper otu side.

The neighboorhood.  For a change we don't feel like we stick out.

We made the roughly 230 mile trip from Coeur d'Alene to Polson, Montana today.  All went well, we made good time and Norv III did an good job with the mountains.  We are in a "motorcoach resort" and boy is it fancy.  We are on a hillside wth an unobstructed 180 degree view of Flathead Lake, a very big lake I might add.  We are just outside the town of Polson, MT and will spend two nights here before heading for West Glacier and the National Park. Could not be more pleased with how things are going with the new coach.  The weather here is much cooler.  Had lots of rain on the way here and both the coach and the pickup are a mess so we will work on that problem tomorrow.

This is a map of the entire route as planned.  Click on the above to see a larger copy.

Coeur d'Alene

Blackwell Island RV Park......

.....on Lake Coeur d'Alene

On  Tuesday we made the drive from Ellensburg to Coeur d'Alene, just about 205 miles.  Pretty boring straight drive.  Arlyene even drove a spell to get the feel of Norv III.  Nice RV park here at Blackwell Island and lots of room.  Leaving here Thursday morning headed for Flathead Lake in Montana.  Should be about 230 miles but with lots of ups and downs between here and Missoula, where we get off I-90 and head north. 

So far my coach repairs have consisted of tightening two nuts and one screw.  Took me longer to find the right wrench then it did to do the jobs.  But the bugs still stick to the windshield and the front of the coach just as bad as ever.  Some things never change.

As we get closer to Glacier National Park we hope to start posting some more interesting pictures.

THE REAL TRIP BEGINS

Ellensburg, WA  KOA

So the first real day of travel towing the truck was from the Casino over Snoqualmie Pass in the Cascades and to Ellensburg a whole 132 miles.  Towing the truck and taking on a mountain pass was a good test on our shake down cruise.  Everything is still working great.  This campground is our first place with full hook ups so we don't need to use the generator or the tanks.  It was a bit of a squeeze getting in here.  This KOA was really not built for larger rigs like NORV but we got squeezed in and are settled and I now have the bugs cleaned off the front of the coach.  We will be here two nights, not because Ellensburg is all that scenic or exciting but we are still figuring out some of the systems and figuring out where we want to store things and who gets what drawer in the bedroom.  We have more space but space is still a valuable commodity on a motor home.  I got the satellite dish working at the casino and it works here too so we were able to sit outside in the shade of a tree and watch the Seahawks lose.  Tomorrw we will make a run thorugh downtown Ellensburg for one or two little hardware items and Arlyene wants to go to the big Fruit Market on the edge of town.  I don't know what the high temperature here was today but it was pretty darn warm.  that's OK, we have air conditioners if we need them.  That's about it for today.