Glacier National Park - Montana

This morning, we drove over to the west entrance of Glacier National Park...about 40 miles from the RV Park. Along the way, we made a quick stop to find one geocache that was an easy find.

We stopped at the Visitor's Center and listened to a ranger discuss the sites to see along the Going to the Sun Road. This road transverses the park from west to east and is about 51 miles long. The ranger said it takes about two hours if you don't stop...we took about six hours.

We brought our GPS and information on seven virtual caches along the route. We stopped many times and took plenty of pictures. Too many to post here, so check out our picture site. The complete round-trip was 137 miles. We arrived back at the campsite after 7:00pm, famished! We didn't stop for lunch and forgot to bring snacks for the trip. Oh!, we found seven of the eight caches!

McDonald Lake
McDonald Creek (feeds into the lake)

The Ol' Swimming Hole

Sunrift Gorge

Looking at Saint Mary Lake through the trees.

At Sun Point by ourselves...camera is perched on a rock.

Wild Goose Island in Saint Mary Lake.

Saint Mary Lake from the Sun Point Nature Trail.

Glacier Meadow RV Park - Essex, Montana

We left Great Falls this morning and made it to Glacier Meadow RV Park around 1:15pm. The park is located on the southern tip of the national park, about halfway between the east and west entrances. We will use this park as our base of operations, while we explore Glacier National Park and the surrounding area. We already found a little joint down the road that serves a good, greasy burger :)

View of the RV park
Important information!

Pompeys Pillar National Monument - Montana

Our day trip today was an 75-mile trip over to Pompey's Pillar National Monument. This is the location where Captain William Clark (of Lewis & Clark), engraved his name and date into the rock cliff. Clark made note of the engraving in his journals. While we were there, we completed two of the three geocaches in the park. The third cache would have required us to bushwhack through about a 100 feet of 3 foot high grass (with ticks and mosquitoes)...NOT!!!

On the way back we stopped in Billings for lunch at Cracker Barrel. As we left the restaurant and entered onto Interstate 90, a truck threw up a rock and cracked our windshield. *&%$^!@# We looked in the GPS for a glass repair shop that was close by. There was a Safelite AutoGlass shop within a couple of miles. The shop manager was very accommodating and had us fixed and on the road in about an hour. Oh, the cost...free, insurance covered it!

View of Yellowstone River from the top of the monument.

Local flora (unknown species?)

Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument - Garryowen, Montana

We arrived just in time for the Ranger Talk. It was quite interesting and included an account of the battle that is not in most history books or portrayed in the movies. Much has been learned as to what actually transpired on the battlefield from archaeological and forensic research. It was a very bloody battle between two armies (the U.S. 7th Calvary and the Sioux and Cheyenne Indian nations), fighting for their "way of life".

View of the location of the Indian settlement along the Little Bighorn River.

View of Last Stand Hill where George Custer and 41 soldiers lost their lives. The white markers denote the approximate locations where the soldiers were found.

A memorial marker covers the mass grave where most of the soldiers are buried. Custer's remains were later reinterred at West Point Military Academy.

The origin of the town's name...Garryowen.

¡Hasta la vista!, Black Hills - Custer, South Dakota

Well, the day finally came. We are leaving the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota. We said our "good-byes" to our friends John & Terri and left out at 10am. It was an uneventful drive, other than "mass quantities" of bugs, to Garryowen, Montana. We arrived at the 7th Ranch RV Camp at 4pm. We were greeted with free ice cream and a complimentary CD containing an audio tour of the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. The RV park is very clean and all sites are long pull-thrus. It was fairly warm, but it cooled down rapidly as the sun was setting. Tomorrow, we plan to tour the battlefield.

Winding Down - Custer, South Dakota

Things are winding down. We have really enjoyed our two months here in the Black Hills. We've seen numerous historical sites, learned a new hobby (geocaching), enjoyed some great weather, ran around with the top off the Jeep, but most of all, we have enjoyed our time with our friends John & Terri Prather. We plan on meeting up with them in Colorado, around the first of October.

We've spent the last two days putting things away, washing and waxing the Jeep and truck in preparation of pulling out in the morning. We will head toward Montana to visit Little Bighorn National Monument and Glacier National Park. From there, we head south to Yellowstone and Grand Tetons National Parks.

Our Second Attempt - Custer, South Dakota

We headed out after lunch to find the cache that had alluded us. We chose five other caches to find while out running around. The first cache was in the area of the dreaded "no-find" cache. We found it quickly.

Y with the first cache of the day.

Onto the second attempt of the Illingworth Photo Point cache. We brought 2-way radios this time, so the girls could stay in contact with John and I. We quickly climbed the hill since we knew where the cache had to be. We searched and searched, still nothing. We decided to look outside of our previous 30-foot radius. While walking back to the GPS center point, at about 40 feet, I looked down into a crevice and there it was...lying there in the open. SUCCESS!!! The log book and contents were wet. We repositioned the cache container so it was standing vertically and placed rocks around it. We climbed down the hill with big grins and chests inflated.

Finally, we found the booty!

Before continuing with the other four caches on our agenda, we stopped at the Gordon Stockade. The stockade was the location of an illegal settlement, by white settlers, in an area that was reserved for the Sioux Indians.

View of Stockade Lake from the Gordon Stockade.

Finding the final cache of the day (6 of 6), woo hoo!!!

We all decided we were hungry and tired, so we headed off to Pizza Hut, then home for showers. Later, John and Terri came over for a couple of games of cards.

Another Beautiful Day - Custer, South Dakota

It was another beautiful day in the neighborhood! We went into town for some lunch, then off to Custer State Park for some geocaching. We chose four caches to find. The first was a quick find.

The second cache we chose was at the location of one of the photo points taken during one of George Custer's expeditions. It was a steep climb. The girls decided to wait toward the base of the hill. John and I searched for thirty minutes around the location, but could not find the cache. Our first bust! We climbed down and headed over to Mount Coolidge Lookout and Fire Tower where the third cache was located.

Rick looking for the cache.The girls with the Mount Coolidge cache.

Our final find for the day...a kid-friendly cache.

Later in the evening while playing cards, we decided that tomorrow we would again attempt to find the missing cache.

Out and About - Custer, South Dakota

Though the weather forecast predicted a possibility of rain and the temperature was a little cool, we decided it was time to get back to some geocaching. We chose four to find. The first two caches were easy to find, each with a short hike.

Y finding the second cache of the day.

The third cache was at Bismark Lake. The hike was a little longer, but scenic. We had a heck of time finding the cache. Because we were so close to a large rock formation, the GPS could not pinpoint the location. We were not sure whether the cache was on top of the rock formation or below. We searched and searched. Finally, while John and I were below the rock formation, I noticed a small ledge where the weeds had been disturbed. Since the online cache logs stated someone had recently found the cache, it looked like a likely place. Sure enough, we found it

Below is the large rock formation that gave us so much trouble on the third cache. The location ended up being just to the right of the photo.

Rick finding the cache.A couple of shots of Bismark Lake.

The final cache for the day was located on Bear Mountain. I plugged in the coordinates into our Jeep's GPS and followed its directions, instead of the notes from the online log. It was a good thing we were in the Jeep and had 4-wheel drive. We ended up approaching the cache location from the opposite direction which required us to navigate an old, bumpy logging road. It was fun and John and Terri got to experience some of the Jeep's capabilities.

The girls checking out the goodies.

On the way home, we came across this family of turkeys.

Two Showers In One Day - Custer, South Dakota

Since the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is over, we decided to venture out and do some geocaching. We chose a cache that is along the Mickelson Bike Trail. It turned out to be a longer hike than we first thought...3.5 miles. We had some difficulty locating the cache, but eventually found it among some high grass. The location was the site of a Custer 1874 expedition encampment.

We stopped in town for some lunch. While eating lunch it started to rain. Oh #%#@*$, we are in the Jeep without the top. We finished lunch and decided to head for the campground before it got any worse. Too late, on the wet drive home it started pouring. We got back to the campground, threw the cover over the Jeep, and ran into the rig.

The Custer 1874 Expedition Encampment location.

John & Rick find the cache.