Going to the Sun Road: NOT!

Monday we continued our drive down the Cassier Hwy to the Yellowhead Hwy which took us down to Houston, BC.   This section of the Cassier was a much better road.  The transition to the Yellowhead brought us much heavier traffic but the road was a good one.  Cindy was able to drive a couple of hours with no problem, Forest was able to take a nap while she was driving.  We stopped for a couple of nights at the Shady Rest RV Park on the east side of Houston.  It is a nice family owned park with wide, angled gravel sites with grass separation.  Very nice park and would stay again.  We had FHU 30amp service.  Very good Indian Curry Restaurant in town and a nice grocery store.

Tuesday we spent time discussing our route and decided to skip Coeur d’Alane on this trip.  We will continue east on the Yellowhead from Prince George to the Icefields Parkway (AB Hwy 93 S) and head for Yellowstone National Park.  

World's largest fly rod

Wednesday 9/4/19

We fueled up in Houston at the Petro Canada Card Lock using our new Fuel Card.

On down the Yellowhead Hwy to Prince George BC then down Hwy 97 (the Cariboo Hwy) to the MaMaYeh RV Park (which is our first Passport America park in a LONG time).  We were pleased with the park, which is a Passport America Park.  We had a FHU 50amp Pull Thru site which was very easy in/out.

Thursday

We headed out about 10:45 for the Icefields Parkway in Alberta.  Our short drive up Hwy 97 to Prince George took us back to the Yellowhead Hwy where we would drive East to connect with Icefields Parkway just below Jasper.  About 65 miles east of Prince George is the Ancient Forest/Chun T’oh Whudujut Provincial Park.  It was a nice stop.  There are a couple of trails through the forest with one being on a boardwalk.  We opted for the boardwalk trail.  The trees were HUGE and a true test of time.  The stop was a good break on our drive and just in time for a quick lunch after our hike.  We only ran into a couple of construction areas today, the longest hold up was at the entrance to the Jasper National Park.  We sat in line about 20 minutes to get to the toll booth.  Once we hit Hwy 97 things moved along well, only a couple of “sightseers” who would not pull over to let people by.  I am alway amazed at the cyclists on these highways, brave or crazy people if you ask me.

Some of the cedars are 1000+ years old!

We should get a good nights rest.  Temperature for tonight is expected to be 0 degrees celsius!  Forest is loving it.

Friday

Drove down Hwy 93 (Icefields Parkway) to Invermere BC.  It was a very pretty drive but very challenging.  Lots of twists and turns, ups and downs with steep grades.  Forest drove the whole way!

Overnight at the Copper Point Golf Club with our Membership with RV Golf.  The stay is at no charge in their Clubhouse parking lot.  We enjoyed supper  at their restaurant.  Participating hosts with RV Golf and Harvest Host allow for a free nights stay but ask that you spend a little money at their facility.  Could be a round of golf, food, souvenirs, etc.  It was a good experience, quiet, dark and NO neighbors or yappy dogs.  This was our first stay using our membership.

The sunflowers are over 10' tall

Saturday

We headed out at 7:35am for our drive south and across the US-Canada Border.  We said good-bye to Canada today as we did to Alaska just 17 days ago.  Shortly after 10am we were back to the “Lower 48” entering in Montana.  Our stay for the night will be using our RVGolf Membership again.  We will overnight at he Glacier View Golf Course in Columbia Falls on the west side of Glacier National Park.  We arrived shortly after noon.  Once parked, we went inside and ordered a couple of burgers at their Grill.  Plenty of time for a nap before getting ready for Mass back in Columbia Falls (a short drive) at the St Richard Catholic Church which we passed coming in.

Sunday 9/8/19

A lazy morning since our drive today would be such a short one, all of 0.7 miles!  We fired up the engine about 10:30 to make our move and were parked and set up at the West Glacier RV Park in no time.  It is a very nice park with wide, angled pull thru FHU sites.  The park is new so the trees between sites are still small.  The roads are paved and the sites are gravel with grass between, fire ring and picnic tables at all sites.  There is one section with 60’ sites and another with 80’ sites.  It is walking distance to West Glacier Village with shopping and eating options.  The west entrance to Glacier National Park is only about a mile away.

The coach has been so dirty and we have not been able to give it a good cleaning in a long time.  Sunday afternoon Forest pulled out the Wash Wax All and cleaned off a ton of grime.  She looks so much better now!

Monday

Rain started late yesterday afternoon and continued all night.  So we figured it should be ending by mid morning.  After breakfast we headed out in the truck to drive the Going-to-the-Sun-Road through Glacier National Park.  Since our stop at Glacier was last minute, we had not made any plans in the area.  This was to be a very pretty drive.  WELL, we left out with very low clouds and rain and that did not end.  The entire drive had such low visibility we could not even verify there were mountains, much less glaciers, except for the up and down grades of the road.  The good thing was with the weather the traffic was not very bad.  We only stopped at one pull-over to see McDonald Falls because it was so close to the road.  We certainly did not see any at a distance.  Once in a while along the way there would be a little break in the clouds and we could see something close by.

We exited Glacier National Park on the east side in St Mary and drove on to the town of Browning were we enjoyed a good fry bread burger at Nation’s Burger Station.  After lunch we took the Hwy 2 route around the south end of Glacier back to West Glacier RV Park.  The rain continued until around 4pm.  No need to get out again since we will be leaving tomorrow.