2019 Travel Summary

We had another great road trip in 2019. We visited a lot of family and friends and went to another twenty great National Park Service locations, all but one of them for the first time. We toured two more U.S. state capitols and two Canadian Province capitols (Legislative Buildings) and drove more than 9,500 miles.

Our drive across the TransCanada Highway from Grand Portage, MN into Alberta was something I’ve wanted to do for a long time plus it was a practice run for RVing in Canada. Why? Because next near we plan to make the trip to Alaska which requires a lot of driving through Canada. This year’s trip in our new, downsized accommodations (over-cab truck camper vs 40 foot rigs) worked out great so we are ready to roll. Now I have the winter to plan the trip.

Have a great winter and watch for more travel adventure next year!

Here is the travel map for the last five years with 2019 in purple (click on it to enlarge).

The Grand Canyon

Our next stop was the south rim of the Grand Canyon where we stayed for five nights. We had beautiful weather to allow a lot of walking/hiking. We hiked most of the rim trail in sections and I hiked down to Skeleton Point and back up one day. That is still my favorite section of trail even though it has become popular.

This was our first time staying at Trailer Village and it was very nice. The shuttle comes there and, for walkers, there are paths to the rim and the big new visitor center. It’s about a mile walk to the visitor center. There are several publications with maps that help you navigate around.

It had been about 12 years since we last visited The Canyon and it sure was good to be back and see one of the most phenomenal places on earth. Four full days plus parts of two might may seem like a lot but we go slow on every section to take in the wonder and time just slips away. The lighting at different times of the day makes it seem like you are at a different place, seeing different colors, each time you walk up to that rim. I feel sorry for those that arrive, walk to a viewpoint, take a picture and walk away thinking "done that". 

On to Pipe Springs National Monument

From Great Basin it was time to head on to Arizona to spend a couple weeks in the high country before heading down to the valley. We spent six nights at the Kaibab Paiute RV park that is right next to Pipe Spring National Monument. Why stay in the remote Arizona Strip so long? Because we can and it is a wonderful area with a very nice RV park.

We had a short, maybe a quarter mile, walk from the RV park to the monument visitor center. This is a wonderful place to visit that can take several hours to see everything. The Monument was created, and is operated, as a cooperative effort of the Kaibab Band of the Paiute Indians and the National Park Service. It tells the story around a natural spring - the proverbial oasis in the high desert. Ancestral Puebloan peoples followed by Paiute Indians have lived there for centuries and then Mormans came along and made claims in the mid-1800's. What happened next is the typical conflict and ruining of the land sending the Paiutes to the edge of survival. There is a great film and tours of the historic fort that tell the story-history very well. The beautiful surroundings at the base of the Vermilion Cliffs help make this an enjoyable place to visit.

Pipe Spring National Monument

Pipe Spring National Monument -
The Fort - Winsor Castle

Cowboy building on Ridge Trail

View of the compound from Ridge Trail

Crossing Nevada and Great Basin National Park

When we left Reno we drove east all the way across the state on US 50, dubbed The Loneliest Road In America by Life magazine in 1986. That loneliness is one reason we really liked the drive. You see very few cars and trucks and thus you don’t have to deal with the maniac drivers you do in most populated areas and on interstate highways. Then there is the beauty. Lots of people would say the drive is boring but we enjoyed the mixture of openness and mountains, the character in each different mountain range you see and climb over, the different colored and sized tiling’s on mountains from old mines, and the endless blue sky. I guess after 10 years of crisscrossing this country it still isn’t old.

Why did these RV'ers cross the state? In this case, to go to Great Basin National Park. This is not a highly visited national park but it is important. This park protects bristlecone pine forests that have trees believed to be 2,000 to 4,000 years old, it has flowers that don’t exist anywhere else on earth, a small glacier, and a cave with a sensitive ecosystem. The park elevation ranges from 6,800 to 13,000 feet so it is pretty much a mountain environment for the driving and hiking. To see the things like the bristlecone pines you will usually need to hike.

A couple hints: if you want to do the cave tour you’ll need to reserve well in advance. Also, be sure to watch the park film at the visitor center, as it is very good. Our visit ended up being rather short since we chose not to do the cave tour because it sounded just like the one we did only two weeks earlier. We also did not drive up the narrow, winding road to the mountain overlooks and hikes because my passenger has a severe fear of open heights so the road was terrifying and not worth continuing, so we turned around. That’s ok, we can hike other places.

Great Basin NP peaks in the distance from Sacramento Pass
BLM Campground

Great Basin NP from main Visitor Center

Lassen Volcanic National Park and Virgina City, NV

Lassen Sulphur Works and view

We left the coast and the Redwoods behind and drove highway 299 to Redding, CA. This is a beautiful, twisting, usually slow, mountain drive. After restocking in Redding, we went on to Lassen Volcanic National Park. We had been across highway 44 before so we decided to drop down to Red Bluff and take highway 36 east and then north through the park. I think that worked out well.

Lassen Sulphur Works

We were lucky with a beautifully clear day that made the park sparkle. This park is, as the name implies, all about volcanoes. The park protects the only place in the world that has four different types of volcanoes in close proximity. I can’t remember all of the details but the 20 minute park film shown in the visitor center tells all about it along with showing some films during the last eruptions that took place as recently as 1915. This park has some geothermal activity and some beautiful views. We left the park on the north side and stayed at a campground before moving on down to Reno the next day to visit friends.

Lassen Sulphur Works and view

From Reno we took a short drive to historic Virginia City, home of the famous Comstock Lode. This was a mining metropolis in the 1870's and there are lots of old buildings dating back to the 1860’s and 1870’s. Most old buildings have shops in them. This town is basically a tourist trap, but it is great walking around looking at the outsides and peeking inside at those that haven’t been modernized too much (you don't have to buy). One in particular has the original plank floor from 1862. We enjoyed our visit. Look for special events before going because they have some that will fill the town and you may or may not want to be there. 

Lassen view while driving

Virginia City

Virginia City

Virginia City

Virginia City

Redwoods National and State Parks

For our next adventure we only had to drive about 50 miles south to get into the land of the Redwoods in very northern California. The Redwood National and State Parks start at Hiouchi, east of Crescent City, and are in sections south for around 50 miles. Several California State Parks were established starting in the 1920’s to protect the Redwoods. In 1968 the Redwood NP was established to protect even more land surrounding those state parks and they work together to help restore and protect the habitat. Most of the old growth giant trees are in the state parks. These parks also protect about 40 miles of shoreline.

We spent four days exploring both trees and shoreline by doing a lot of walking. This is truly a remarkable area. The redwoods are an amazing species. You should plan on the loop trail off Walker Road a couple miles west of Hiouchi (starts near the restroom), Drive the Newton Drury Scenic Parkway with a stop at the Big Tree, and stop at the Prairie Creek Visitor Center and walk the James Irvine trail for as long as you want and turn around and go back. As you drive along the coast there are a lot of turnouts. Stop at the first visitor center you can and get info on hiking and things to see.

Coast

Coast

"The" Big Tree

Oregon Caves National Monument

Well, it’s been two months since my last post. Most of the time was spent visiting family before we started heading south for the winter the end of September. To protect the innocent, I don’t give details of family here so I’ll get down to the Meandering in my RV update.

Our next stop of interest was at Oregon Caves National Monument in the southwest corner of Oregon. This National Park Service location is in the Cascade Mountains and protects a cave and historic chateau. The drive to the cave is a slow, twisting climb of about 3,000 feet to 4,000 feet. The visitor center is in one of a few buildings built in the 1930's. The other historic buildings were closed to bring them up to current safety code so we didn’t get to tour the Chateau. The cave tour lasted about 1.5 hours and was very informative. We’ve been in a lot of caves and, on a relative scale, this one wasn’t very interesting as it was pretty bland with no unique formations. If you’re new to spelunking you would find it more interesting as the tour is educational.

Visitor Center

Chateau

We exited the cave to snow falling

Glacier National Park

St Mary Lake - Wild Goose Island

After Waterton we dropped back down into Montana to do the other side of the Glacier-Waterton International Peace Park . We stayed in a RV park near Babb so we were close to both the St Mary and Many Glacier entrances to Glacier National Park. When we started on our great American adventure in our RV ten years ago, Glacier NP was one of the first parks we saw and we were in awe. When asked, we have said it was one of the favorite places we’ve visited. 

A view on the Going-to-the-Sun road

That said, now it’s been nine years and hundreds of other great places visited so we were wondering what we would think. Well, I’ll still say the Going-to-the-Sun road is the most beautiful road we've been on in North America and Glacier NP is tied, with Bryce NP and Grand Canyon NP, as the most beautiful places we’ve been to in this country.

I just want to mention, when going to any big-name national park – go in early! This way you beat the crowd. We were going in between 6:30 and 7:00 and had a peaceful time until later morning when the hordes arrived. Trailhead parking at Glacier fills by 8:30 in the summer. The lighting for pictures is so much better and you can only get water reflection pictures on calm water in the morning. 

Sun Point on St Mary Lake

Sherburne Lake along road
to Many Glacier

While at Glacier NP we drove the Going-to-the-Sun road from the east side this time (we started on the west side last time we were here). We just went a little way past Logan Pass, to the big bend, and turned around and headed back due to the west side being too narrow for my comfort with our big dually truck. We hung out at Sun Point on St Mary lake and enjoyed a fantastic setting. The next two days we went into the Many Glacier entrance and hiked. The first day we did the easy hike to Redrock Falls. We saw moose and an amazing view when we got to the lake and falls. The next day I dropped Ann off at the Many Glacier Hotel where she enjoyed the amazing views and an easy hike while I did the hike to Iceberg Lake. The scenery at the hotel and all of the hikes from Many Glacier are just amazing, especially when you get wonderful weather like we did.

View at top of Redrock Falls

Swiftcurrent Lake near hotel
early morning

Swiftcurrent Lake near hotel
early morning

We moved over to the west side of Glacier NP for a couple of days to do some hikes and see it again in some nicer weather as last time we were there it was heavy overcast most of the time. This time we just dealt with some smoke haze. We hiked the easy Johns Lake Loop trail which, in addition to seeing Johns Lake, also goes along McDonald Creek. The other trail I wanted to do was closed due to recovery from last year's fire so we decided to just chill on Lake McDonald after two weeks of on-the-go.

On trail to Iceberg Lake

Iceberg Lake

Chilling on Lake McDonald

Nine days in Canada

Manitoba Legislative Building -
Winnipeg

We crossed from Minnesota into Canada just north of Grand Portage. We drove north and worked our way to the Trans-Canada Highway (Hwy 17 in Ontario). We continued westerly until we got to Winnipeg, MB with a night stop over at Wabigoon Lake, ON. The Trans-Canada Highway is Highway 1 in Manitoba and west. Our drive across Ontario was wooded, rather hilly and around lots of lakes. Once we got to Manitoba we were in the great plains farmland and the land was flatter and more open.

Bridge, with restaurant, across Red
River in Winnipeg, MB

We went into Winnipeg for a day and, of course, toured the Manitoba Legislative Building (Capitol). It is a nice building but most of it gives a feel of a big, old office building. There is very little attempt at grandeur as we’ve found in many Capitols. They don’t have multiple branches of government so there is just one assembly room. 

Saskatchewan Legislative Building -
Regina

We then found a place to park near an area called “TheForks”. This is an historic area at the meeting of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers where trade has taken place for centuries. There are two large buildings that used to be used for warehousing that have been renovated into modern shops and eateries. There is also a nice park and walking/biking path along the rivers. We walked around including taking the path across the Red River, on the only bridge in the world that has a restaurant on it, over to the French Quarter of Old St. Boniface.

Queen Elizabeth II statue

We then spent a day driving to Regina, Saskatchewan where we spent a night before going into town to tour the Saskatchewan Legislative Building(Capitol). This building was very similar to the building in Winnipeg but it had marble in the main staircase and rotunda so it looked a little grander. Otherwise, it too was mainly a big office building. From there we went to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Heritage Center which is a museum providing the entire history of the group. It was a nice building and the displays were well done so we learned a lot.

RCMP Heritage Center

The same day, we made the relatively short drive to Moose Jaw to take one of the tours in the Tunnels of Moose Jaw. We did the prohibition tour which was done in a theatrical style with a couple people pretending we, the tour group, were interested in buying some of Al Capones hidden stash. It was cheesy, not particularly well done and there was no true explanation of the tunnels themselves. Therefore, it was pretty much disappointing.

Lunch stop on Middle Waterton Lake
Waterton National Park, Canada

After spending the night in Moose Jaw we drove to Medicine Hat Alberta where we spent the night before going on to our grand finale for this trip into Canada – Waterton Lakes National Park which is on the Canadian side of Glacier National Park. The two parks together comprise the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park World Heritage Site. We had a beautiful day for our drive from Medicine Hat so we started seeing mountains on the horizon 60 miles away. As we got closer we recalled why we say “the west is best” – the Rocky Mountains are awesome.

Upper Waterton Lake on Boat Tour

As we entered the park we drove by the smallest of the Waterton Lakes and stopped for lunch in a parking area with a beautiful view on Middle Waterton Lake. After hanging out there for a while we drove on to the campground in the little town of Waterton Park which is on Upper Waterton Lake. The setting is gorgeous, nestled in the mountains on the lake.

Over 70 percent of the park was burnt in 2017 and all of that is closed which includes most trails and side drives, so, over the next two days we walked around town, walked along the shore, walked over to a waterfall that isn’t very far, walked up to the Prince of Wales Lodge and did a boat tour of the lake which was fantastic. The boat tour goes the entire length of the Upper Waterton Lake so it crosses the international boundary into Glacier National Park. Our tour narrator was great and we were blessed with perfect weather. It was worth every cent.

USA / Canada Border on boat tour

Upper Waterton Lake from Prince
of Wales lodge

Heading West

U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame

After hunkering down and doing more visiting for the Fourth of July week, we headed west across the U.P. of Michigan, top of Wisconsin and into Minnesota. We took our time with three stops over a week to do this. Our next planned visit was Voyageurs National Park. On our drive north on US 53 in Minnesota we made a spontaneous stop in Eveleth to see the  U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame. We didn’t know it was there but saw the sign. It is a rather small place but what they had was interesting. They seemed to have stopped adding or doing anything after about 1998 other than adding a few more members and plaques. Maybe that indicates the level of historic significance in U.S. hockey since then, or they ran out of money and resources.

Voyageurs NP view near
Ash River Visitor Center

Voyageurs NP

On to Voyageurs National Park. This park is on the U.S. and Canada border. The name comes from the days of fur trade over 200 years ago when men, called Voyageurs (French for “travelers”), paddled huge 26 foot canoes full of trade goods and furs through this waterway. We learned a lot about those days and men at the Museum of the Fur Trade a few years back so we enjoyed seeing this actual waterway that they traversed. It was much prettier than I expected as I thought it would be swampier.

Split Rock Lighthouse

We headed back southeast to get back to the Lake Superior shoreline and Split Rock Lighthouse. When we got to the lighthouse visitor center it was so crowed and expensive that we just decided we didn’t need to see another lighthouse that badly so we drove a mile to the south to a wayside and took pictures from there before driving north to Grand Marais. We stopped a couple times on this drive to enjoy the view along the Lake Superior shoreline.

Grand Marais harbor

Grand Marais harbor

We spent a day in the quaint little town of Grand Marais, MN which is right on Lake Superior. We hung out on the lake and walked around town. It was a pleasant day.

Next, we moved just 35 miles north to Grand Portage for a few days. From this base we worked around storms and enjoyed the cool weather along the lake while the rest of the country was setting heat records. 

We drove a few miles north one day to Grand Portage State Park on the Pigeon River which is the border of the U.S. and Canada. We walked a couple paths including one to an impressive water fall.

Lake Superior just north of Grand
Portage, MN - Isle Royle on horizon

The following day we visited Grand Portage National Monument. It was less than a half mile walk from our RV park. The monument is co-managed by the NPS and the local Ojibwe community. This is the site of the most prominent fur trade center and rendezvous point for the east and west Voyageurs. We started at the Heritage Center (visitor center) which had some nice exhibits and an excellent film. We then walked to the reconstructed community where people were in period clothing educating and answering questions. Everything was very well done making this a great experience. 

Big Falls at Grand Portage State Park

Pigeon River just below the Big Falls

Ojibwe Birch Bark home

Montreal canoe

Grand Portage NM

Grand Portage NM - Great Hall

Grand Portage NM