from Montana to our home in St. Catharines

 After Tony's conference in Lethbridge, Alberta, we hit the road again, driving down through Montana.  If this shot reminds you of "A River Runs Through It", the film was about this river, the Missouri.

 We stopped for the night in Bozeman, Montana, where the university is very well known for paleontology, especially of the dinosaur variety -- the Museum of the Rockies has some amazing exhibits -- there goes Tony engaging in risky activities again!

 

 We spent the entire next day in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.  Here is Old Faithful blowing it's top, right on time!

 And a beautiful boiling, hot spring pool, one of many strangely coloured geothermal sites in the park.

 

 Yellowstone also contains its own Grand Canyon - pretty spectacular!

 

 After Yellowstone, we spent a night in Cody, Wyoming, named after Buffalo Bill Cody.  Every night in the summer they have a rodeo, complete with the star attraction bucking bronco riders to ride out the evening. In this picture an official keeps tabs on the barrel racing.

 

Our final stop in Wyoming was the town of Sundance (named after the Sundance Kid, who spent 18 months in jail here).  On the way to Sundance, we went to see the Devil's Tower National Monument, a natural structure, sticking up out of nowhere.  It figured prominently in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, if you are old enough to remember that movie.

In South Dakota, two less well known figures pose along with 4 US Presidents (Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln) at Mount Rushmore National Monument.

 Near Mt. Rushmore is the unfinished, and much bigger, sculpture-in-progress, the Crazy Horse Monument. South Dakota really likes big monuments sculpted out of mountains.

 In nearby Custer, South Dakota, in the Black Hills, we visited Ray and Janice, relatives of Carolyn's (they are Carolyn's Dad's Sister's second husband's sister and her husband; get that?).  We went on a canoe trip with them many years ago with Carolyn's Dad in Killarney Provincial Park--it was great getting reunited!

We arrived at Ray and Janice's just before a good old South Dakota storm hit - hail almost the size of golf balls (not kidding!)--luckily, Ray and Janice had us put our new car in the garage before it hit.  In the above picture, Ray and Tony are doing a post-storm clean up--shoveling the hail out of the driveway.

 On our way across the rest of South Dakota, we drove through the Badlands National Park, with its stunning vistas.

 

To start getting used to an academic setting again, we stopped in two university towns between South Dakota and home.  Above is Madison, Wisconsin, which has a fantastic downtown bounded by the capital buildings on one end, and the university on the other.  Here at the main capital building, locals gather for an evening concert in the park.

 

 And Ann Arbor, Michigan.  Again, the university is incorporated into downtown, so it is very lively, full of restaurants, shops, etc, so lots of university students and faculty, along with many tourists, abound. 

Our new car is not so new anymore, at least kilometrage-wise -- this picture is the final count on our odometre as we pulled into 30 Wolseley Ave., St. Catharines!  A long, but wonderful journey.  We're now looking forward to catching up with everyone.
love, T & C

The Canadian Rockies and the Kootenays

After visiting Stephen (Carolyn’s brother) and his partner, Lauren, in Quesnel, BC, we headed into Kamloops, BC for a visit.  Here Tony surveys the scene at a downtown park on the Thompson River.    

En route to Revelstoke National park, we had a nice lunch at a scenic rest stop

 

Revelstoke National park is one of a number of Rocky Mountain national parks in eastern BC and western Alberta.  (Revelstoke is in BC.).  Some of the scenery was breathtaking, including along the Meadows in the Sky Parkway, an alpine drive leading to amazing views of Mount Revelstoke, Lake Revelstoke, and the surrounding Rocky Mountains.  

 

At the top of the drive, the hiking is great and affords amazing views of alpine meadows and jagged peaks.  The alpine flowers—just in bloom!--were lovely.  On entering the drive, Parks Canada warns: “Don’t pick the flowers, no matter how much you are tempted.”   We were tempted, but were good citizens….  

 

A boy in awe...

 

From Revelstoke, we headed south to Nelson, BC, and along the way we took a scenic drive (it is hard not to have scenic drive in this part of the country!).   Here at a secluded rest stop, a family of ducks is out for a bit of paddle.

 

Nelson, BC is in the Kootenay mountains.  The town is known for its rich mix of characters, including hippies and wealthy BC residents with summer homes in the surrounding hills.  In this picture, Carolyn surveys a local beach on Kootenay Lake.  Note the smoke in the background, as there was a fire in the region that burned for many weeks

 

Nelson was the site for the filming of the movie Roxanne with Steve Martin and Darryl Hannah, loosely based on Cyrano de Bergerac (of the long nose!)

We next headed to southern Alberta, and camped near Waterton Lakes National park. 

Waterton Lakes National Park is smaller and not as well-known as Banff but is arguably equally spectacular.  After a half hour-- mostly uphill--hike, the site at Bear’s Hump hill is, well, spectacular.   

 

Did we say spectacular?

 

The view from Cameron Lake,, a short drive from Bear's Rump.

We also did an amazing day hike to Crypt lake in the park.  The hike is listed as one of the top 10 day hikes in the world by National Geographic magazine. Justifiably so.

Along with amazing scenery along the way, the hike includes narrow trails along the edge of a mountain and bit of spelunking through a cave.  Yes, Carolyn, through there…..

At the end of the hike, you reach a beautiful alpine lake, Crypt lake.

 The lake was not only beautiful but also very cold (note the snow).  On asking about the possibility of swimming there, our campground host paused and then reflected, “well, some do…”   We did, but very briefly….

More Waterton Lakes.  Here Tony tries to get his phone out to take a picture, but Carolyn beats him to the punch.

Next we headed to Lethbridge, Alberta, where Tony had a four-day conference.  But along way we stopped in at world heritage site: Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump.  For many thousands of years the local native people would attempt to round-up and stampede buffalo over cliffs.   A fascinating but very risky way of hunting before they had guns and horses. 

Next we drive south and eastward through the U.S.  Home soon….