Western Parks Trip

We returned from a great 31 day trip out West last Monday. We live in Maryland. Covered 7,700 miles, camped 22 days, 7 days with family 1 day in Motel (35th anniversary). Averaged 13.81 miles / gallon and averaged $3.27 dollars/gallon (bought 91.5 gallons in Canada - $4.31 to $4.67 / gallon). Everything in Canada was expensive - esp. gas & food.

We left MD on June 30 and spent July 4th in Rapid City, SD with family. Spent 5 nights in Yellowstone at Fishing Bridge (made reservations Feb. 4th). Great scenery. Saw eagles, one grizzly (at a distance) wolves, coyotes buffalo, moose elk and deer. Went over Beartooth Pass (I don't think it is as good as other passes in US but still nice). Went to Anaconda & Missoula Mont. to visit relatives. On to West Glacier KOA for 4 nights. Beautiful scenery especially Going to the Sun Highway. Hiked the Hidden Lake Trail and Hanging Garden trail - saw many Mt. goats and sheep. From here we traveled into Canada through Kootenay Nat. Park and Banff Nat. Park to Lake Louise and Lake Moraine for 4 nights - beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Saw black bears, one grizzly as well as elk and deer. From here up the Icefield highway through Jasper Nat. Park. Spent 3 nights at Hinton KOA. Saw wolves, elk, goats, sheep, black bear and elk. Great, great trip.

We left Hinton and it took 6 days to get back to MD. Just before we left left I noticed a small separation of sidewall rubber on street side tire. After closer inspection the sidewall of same tire was breaking down. I put on the spare tire and used this one for a spare. Lucky for us we made it home okay. Will be getting two new tires this week (I bought trailer used - 2004 3025 - and put about 15 to 17K miles on them. The bad tire had a date of 1604 on it. I drove a lot of miles without complete inflation on them). The scenery in Canada was beautiful, but I was glad to be back in the good old USA.

We stayed mostly in KOA's esp. when traveling so we could get pull-througs. We carried fold up bikes that we used twice and a fold up boat (Porta -Bote) we used once at Lake McDonald. To busy sighseeing and it was hot.

2004 3025 TM
1999 Mercury Mt. V8

John & Marion

[Keith Wire]

John that sounds fabulous!!!!!!! We have visited most of those places many years ago using a tent. We look forward to making a similar trip in our TM.

We loved Bearthooth pass. How did the Mercury Mt. do?

Keith

Keith,

The Mercury Mt. did not skip a beat.

John

I always find it interesting that to people that live on the east coast, out west means west of the Mississippi. For me, living in California, out west means west of the Continental divide.

I hope to back east some day and visit Denver.

Originally Posted by PopBeavers

I always find it interesting that to people that live on the east coast, out west means west of the Mississippi. For me, living in California, out west means west of the Continental divide.

Well, Wayne, we just returned from a 7500 trip to the "mid-west", which means we were east of the Continental Divide (several times), AND east of the Mississippi. Our trip included stops in MO, IA, MN, MI, OH before turning west and home. We traveled east on I-80 until we got to Lincoln, NE. From there we headed south to Branson, MO.

When we left OH to head home, we picked up I-90 in Austin, MN. When we arrived in Bozeman, MT, we headed south on US-191, a beautiful drive. Continuing on I-84 west to Ontario, OR, we connected with US-20 and finally US-395 to get home. I haven't named all the highways or places we visited, but this should give you an idea of how we "got east" and "returned west."

It was a great, 6-week, vacation... a mix of family and sites... some we'd seen before... some we hadn't... that applies to both family and sites.