The Grand National Park Tour at West Yellowstone

Greetings from Big Sky Country!

First, let me express my sympathy to those of you who are stuck in the broiling heat in Kansas and elsewhere. It is about 65 degrees here with an expected low of 32. I guess the shorts go back into the suitcase tomorrow.

Today was a driving day. I am so glad we cut the extra 3 hours off of our drive by staying in Kalispell last night. It was a long drive as it was. We drove through some beautiful country today. I slept the first couple of hours because I didn't sleep well last night. I missed Missoula, a town I really wanted to see. We drove through a mountain valley most of the way. We stopped at a little rest stop for lunch and while we were there a young couple stopped and got out with their two large dogs and their black Persian cat on a leash. It was kind of funny to watch the cat. He was obviously used to the leash and used to getting out in new territory.

On our way up we decided to take a little side trip to the headwaters of the Missouri River. You remember all the snowfall I talked about up in the mountains? Well now it is all melting and most of the rivers and creeks are at flood stage. Well, guess what? We got to the headwaters and the pullout was closed due to flooding. But, as I told Ken, you could see it from the road and we did get a picture of it.

We took the scenic route to Yellowstone through a canyon with the Gallitin River running through it. It was very scenic. However, I found myself counting white crosses. In Montana, they erect white metal crosses where someone dies in an auto accident. I counted 30 in this canyon before I stopped counting. There is even a website with tributes to the people that the white crosses represent: www.montanahighwaycrosses.com .

We arrived at West Yellowstone at 4:30 and checked into our motel. I found the Alpine Motel on Trip Advisor. It is the #1 rated motel in West Yellowstone and our greeting by the managers lived up to the reviews. The Alpine is just a little mom and pop motel with about 20 units. Terry the manager walked us to our room, showed us how to use the air conditioner and the frig. Tomorrow we have to change rooms but all we have to do is pack our bags and leave them in the room and they will move them for us. I don't think they do that at the Super 8.

After a delicious dinner of pizza at the Wild West Pizzeria, where we were serenaded by the actors from the Pinewood Playhouse, we drove up into the park. Within just a few minutes we saw a herd of bison, a buffalo carcass and a grizzly bear. Pretty darn cool!

Tomorrow will be a park day. So much to see, so little time.

Stay cool!

They Closed Wally World Dad

Didya miss me?

They don't have wifi or cell access in Glacier National Park. That was worse than not having T.V. (they don't have that either). I know, I am supposed to be enjoying nature. Anyhow, I'm baaaack!!!

We left Billings, MT bright and early Sunday morning to head on north to Glacier. The countryside is very pretty and somewhat hilly. One thing is for sure, it's pretty much the same all the way north. The neatest thing I saw was a wind farm with beautiful wind turbines stretching across the prairie. I really don't think they detract from the scenery. They are tall, stately and look like modern day windmills. I had been missing Sonic and my afternoon drink stop so when we saw a Sonic in Great Falls right at lunch time I of course asked to stop there. One thing that is usually consistent at Sonic, besides Happy Hour, is a bad order taker. On the Value Menu it said they had a Jr Deluxe Cheeseburger so I had Ken order a Jr Deluxe Cheeseburger for me. The order taker actually said that the Jr Deluxe Cheeseburger doesn't come with cheese and would he like to add it? Duh! That's my Sonic.

We arrived in Glacier at the St. Mary entrance late Sunday afternoon. You are still in the flat lands at the entry gate but quickly move into the mountains as you proceed into the park. Our reservations were at the Rising Sun Motel which I knew from the website and Trip Advisor would be rustic. The room really wasn't that bad. It had a beautiful hard wood floor, two small double beds and a very basic bathroom. Rising Sun was built in 1940 and renovated in the 1950's so it doesn't have a lot of the sound insulation that newer hotels have but that's part of the charm. It is about a quarter mile from St. Mary Lake although you cannot see the lake from the motel. Another interesting thing about all of the park concessions is that the people working for them are kids from all over the United States and all over the world. What a great job to have.

Let me back up a few steps now. As I told you in my first blog of this trip, our sole purpose for coming to Glacier was to drive the Going to the Sun Road. Going to the Sun Road started as a horse trail through GNP. The land for GNP was obtained through a treaty with the Blackfeet Indian Tribe to be used as a national park. The Blackfeet were the last tribe to secede their land to the United States government. The treaty was made in 1895. In 1910, President Taft signed legislation creating Glacier National Park. The legislation was pushed along by a man named Grinell and JJ Hill, owner of the Great Northern Railroad. Hill saw GNP as a way to encourage train travel. His son, Louis, envisioned a chain of chalets or small hotels anchored by majestic lodges at the north and south ends of the park. Louis shared his idea with dad and JJ said it was all his to do. The south portal became known as Midvale (now East Glacier) and wouldn't you know it, a train station for the Great Northern was just across the road from the Midvale Lodge (now East Glacier Lodge). The chalets were exactly a day's horse ride apart. Guests flocked to GNP to see the wild west and the wonders of the United States. With the advent of car travel it became a necessity to have a way for cars to travel through the park from east to west. The Going to the Sun Road was designed and built in only 11 years. It officially opened in 1932 and was visited by FDR in 1933. Many consider it to be the most scenic highway in the world. And now, in 2011, 101 years after the park opened, Ken McLemore wanted to drive the Going to the Sun Road.

About a week and half prior to our leaving Wichita, Ken discovered the GTSR was still closed due to record snow fall. It was scheduled to open on June 17 but on that date, they still had 50 feet of snow at the top of Logan Pass. They had a handy little map showing where the plows were working and it looked like just a few miles were left. Not to worry I told Ken, we still had a week and half before we got there. We checked the map just about every day and it seemed that they weren't making any progress. Not to worry, I said, I bet the website hasn't been updated. Well, guess what? GNP had 386% more snow than normal this year. The spring has been cool and wet. The plows are working hard and the sun is beginning to melt the snow but, when we arrived, the ranger at the gate informed us that GTSR was still CLOSED! Poor Ken. The moose at the gate owes him an explanation. I wouldn't let him punch the sign.

If I gave every detail about what we did and what we saw, you'd still be reading this tomorrow so I'll just give you the highlights. First thing Monday morning, after an awful night's sleep, we took a boat tour of St. Mary Lake on a boat called the Little Chief. Little Chief is one of two original boats dating back to the 1920's that are still on the GNP lakes today. Here is what we saw:

Isn't that gorgeous? Ken took that from the boat. After lunch we drove up to Many Glacier and took a nature tour with a Ranger and saw the tiniest bird's nest in existence, that of a Calliope Hummingbird. Then we went to the Many Glacier Lodge and took a tour with a Ranger of that historic hotel. Monday night we decided to each sleep in our own bed as the double beds were quite tiny and we're not. We slept much better. Tuesday we tried to walk up GTSR to Siyeh Point. I am a wimp and didn't get very far as the road is a constant upward grade at 6000 feet altitude and up. Ken would've made it but he wouldn't go on without me. I felt bad. We stopped at a beautiful waterfall on our way down the mountain. After lunch we went drove south to Two Medicine on a road called Looking Glass Road. It was a beautiful drive and ended at a beautiful lake. That evening we took a tour on one of the Red Bus cars. It was supposed to be an evening glacier tour and it was supposed to be two and a half hours long. First, we were the last ones to be picked up and the tour guide tried to leave without us. We practically had to run after the bus. Then, we basically saw everything we'd already seen and only one glacier. The driver told great stories and it was fun to ride the red bus but it wasn't the highlight of the trip. Oh, and he dropped us off only two hours after we were picked up. Dinner on Monday and Tuesday was at a little restaurant called The Park. Everything was fresh and homemade including my favorite...pie!

Today we wanted to see the west side of the park and since GTSR is closed, the only way to get there is a three hour drive around the south end of the park. Then, tomorrow we would have to make the drive again on our way to West Yellowstone. We really didn't want to drive 6 hours extra so we got a text to our daughter asking her to find a motel for us in Kalispell, MT and she did a good job. We are staying at another Super 8 and are enjoying a little rest, a little t.v. and wifi/cell service.

I just heard Ken tell Meghan that we had a great time, even if the road was closed and indeed we did. If you want to know more history of the park or the red bus go to the GNP website. Tomorrow it's on to Yellowstone.

Day 3 Custer's Last Stand

Today was our Battle of Little Bighorn Total Immersion Day. The timing of our vacation centered on being at the Little Bighorn National Monument for the 135th anniversary of the battle on Saturday, June 25. We figured we'd better arrive early so we pulled into the monument at 8:00 a.m. There weren't many people there at that time and we wondered a bit what was going on. Not to worry, by 8:30 people were streaming into the battlefield. The Little Bighorn College offers guided tours through the battlefield and onto the Crow Reservation to the site of the Reno-Benteen battle. The guides are college students who do a very nice job.

Back at the Visitor's Center, we walked up to Last Stand Hill where Custer and his men made their final stand and where they died. The hillside is topped by a large marble pillar placed which marks the final resting place of the enlisted men who fell during the battle. On the hillside and throughout the battlefield are white markers denoting where soldiers fell. Most of them don't have names inscribed. Those that do are officers, scouts, civilians or enlisted men who did something extraordinary during the battle. Following the battle the survivors in the Reno-Benteen company quickly buried the dead in shallow graves. Around 1881, the bodies were exhumed and buried in a common grave at the top of Last Stand Hill and the marble cenotaph was erected. ( I may be a little off on my dates.)

In 1996, an Indian Memorial was commissioned and erected on the back side of Last Stand Hill. According to Enos Poor Bear, a Lakhota elder, the monument is not only to pay tribute to the Indian warriors who died at Little Big Horn but to promote power through unity of all races. Recently, red markers have been placed around the battlefield to mark where warriors fell.

The battlefield is also home to a Veterans cemetery and has graves of soldiers from all wars throughout the years. There is a red marble monument commemorating the death of soldiers and scouts of the second cavalry during the so-called Indian Wars. On the monument it mentions the hostile Indians in the narrative. Down at the base of the monument is a little marker that explains and apologizes for the use of the word "hostile". That really kind of offended me. Why does the NPS have to apologize for something written over a hundred years ago. It smacks of revisionist history to me.

We ate lunch at a picnic table at the Bighorn County Historical Museum. It is a beautiful place with about 50 restored buildings brought in from around the county. For those of you from Wichita, it is kind of a mini Cowtown only much nicer. Flowers were in bloom and they had beautiful red peonies, columbine of all colors and gorgeous roses.

We had purchased tickets for the Battle Reenactment and they were being held at the Hardin Chamber of Commerce. So, we went to pick up our tickets and walked down main street of this little town where they were having a "craft show." The craft show was a few tables with all kinds of kitchy crafts. Not much to write home about but it was a slice of western small town culture.

When we picked up our tickets, the little lady told us to be at the reenactment site at 4:00 to get a good seat and enjoy the vendors. So, we did. We were just about the first ones there. We did get good seats at the top of bleachers that are as steep as the Orpheum balcony. Since I hate steps and heights, it took a few minutes for me to be comfortable and to lose the feeling that I was going to fly off into the air. Well, I'm glad we got there early (tongue firmly planted in my cheek) because we sat for an hour and a half before the program began. It was supposed to start at 5:00 but they delayed the start to 5:30 to give folks a chance to get there and get settled. Small town life I guess.

The reenactment was interesting and fairly well done. It was told from the Indian perspective and was more a background of what led up to the battle rather than a true reenactment of the battle.

I won't go into all the history or give you a lengthy narrative of the battlefield. Basically, Custer was outnumbered, unfamiliar with the terrain and ignorant of the fighting tactics of the Plains Indians. He has been lauded as a hero and dismissed as a insufferable egotist who brought on his own death and the death of the 250 men under him due to his ignorance. The interpretation is up to historians or to you.

What did stand out to me is that there is a real effort to tell the story from the Indian perspective. Actually, to me, it is overdone. There didn't seem to be a balance between the Indian perspective and the predominant viewpoint of the federal government at that point in history. I think they've gone too far in their effort to be politically correct and have ignored the historical perceptions of that time in history.

Sunday we travel on to Glacier National Park. Another 400 mile drive and then we get to settle in for a few days.

More later.

Day 2 of the McLemore Grand National Park Tour 2011

Greetings from Wild and Woolly Sheridan, Wyoming!

Since we drove 3 hours further than planned yesterday, we had a little time to enjoy some historical stops along our journey today. As I indicated in my post for Day 1, we are following the combined Oregon/Mormon/California trail through Nebraska and Wyoming. I found some great little booklets published by the NPS that trace the trails from Independence and through Wyoming and beyond. Before we left the Super 8 today we picked a couple of places to stop to view remnants of the migration of thousands across the west.

Just outside of Guernsey, Wyoming there is a place called Register Rock. Near Register Rock is a walking trail that takes you past some very prominent wagon swales or ruts that have been preserved by the state of Wyoming. The swales are deep ruts carved into the limestone hillsides, the reminder of the difficulty and enormity of the great westward migration. Here's a photo of the deepest rut:

A mile down the road is Register Rock, a limestone outcropping at the head of the flatland river bed of the Platte River. Pioneers carved their name in the soft limestone as a record of their trek west. Of course, others have added their names to the wall, a section has been preserved bearing the inscriptions that date back to the 1840s. While we were there we met a a family from Hiawatha, KS traveling with two Corgis and a border collie ( I threw that in for Erin). We also said hello to a family from Germany. Being the history fanatic that we are, it was a fascinating stop for both of us. Now, here's a photo of Ken standing in a little arch at Register Rock:

The rest of the drive was beautiful. The little flicker of the geologist that Mrs. Jones created back in 4th grade thought the limestone hills were fascinating. Then the countryside turned into rolling green hills followed by flat, ugly plateau leading into Casper, WY. My dad's cousin Jim lived in Casper for several years and although I don't remember anything about Casper, I did spend time reliving memories that I have of Jim and his very interesting, unusual life.

Just outside Casper the clouds began to blacken and threaten. Being the Kansans that we are, we immediately pulled out my handy iphone to check the radar. There was a "Significant Weather Alert" for the area but we scooted just east of the storm. Then, as we approached Sheridan, there were more clouds, more checking of the radar and another weather alert. Again, we just missed the storm, thank goodness.

Last Sunday, I got on a tear and decided to change our reservations here in Sheridan to a less expensive hotel. I found a listing for the Mill Inn, a motel that is part of a closed flour mill and that is on the historic register. It sounded interesting and was about $30 less than the Holiday Inn. Well, it is interesting. It's clean, it's relatively cheap (although Ken still thinks every room should cost $49) but I am not a happy camper right now. We are on an inside hallway on the second floor. Our room is a "suite" which means that we have a couch, two uncomfortable chairs and a tv on the lower level and then two steps up in what I am calling a mini-loft, is the bed and bath. I know I am picky about where I stay so I think I will employ the Motel 6 mentality that every room looks the same in the dark.

Oh, I have to share a note about our dinner. There are not many restaurant choices in Sheridan. After consulting with Trip Advisor I chose the only Mexican restaurant in town. I had my tooth all set for chips and a margarita. We drove down the street only to find that Los Agave closed at 5 tonight and won't open again until Sunday. We ended up at Ole's (short for Olaf) Pizza. I should've known that Norwegians wouldn't make good spaghetti and pizza. It was passable but dinner, like the Mill Inn, was a bit of a disappointment.

Now we are back in our suite, just finished watching "The Cowboys" and just started "Cahill. U.S. Marshall" both with John Wayne. Ho hum.

Well, tomorrow is another day. Stay tuned for Day 3 of the McLemore Grand National Park Tour as we proceed to the 125th anniversary commemoration of the Battle of Little Big Horn.

We'll leave the lights on for you.

Grand National Park Tour 2011 Days 1

Greetings From Along the Great Platte River Trail,

The McLemore Family Vacation for 2011 has begun. First a little background on how this adventure came about. Last spring, 2010, Ken made the comment that he would like to drive the Going to the Sun road in Glacier National Park for our vacation in 2011. Because we will be traveling by car, many stops were added along the way. Thus, the Grand National Park Tour 2011 was born. According to Google Maps our trip by car will be 2987 miles long not counting all the little side trips. It will take us to:

• Cawker City, KS


• Athol, KS


• The Great Platte River Road Archway Monument in Kearney, NE


• Scottsbluff, NE


• Various stops along the Oregon, Mormon, California combined trailSheridan, WY


• Little Big Horn National Monument for the 125th anniversary of the Battle


• Hardin, MT for a reenactment of the Battle of Little Bighorn


• Laurel, MT


• Glacier National Park via East Glacier, MT


• Yellowstone National Park and West Yellowstone, MT


• Rock Springs,WY (laundry stop) and


• Estes Park, CO and Rocky Mountain National Park

In case you've lost count, that's 13 destinations in all and Ken will drive to all of them. Oh, sorry, I had a "19 Kids and Counting" moment.

The trip began with a bumpy start for me. If you recall my travels to Ireland from last summer, I got a case of motion sickness. Well at least that's the general thought. I still think it was a virus. Anyway, I couldn't sleep the night before we left home this week. I finally dozed off but woke up in the middle of the night with a strange feeling in my tummy. When I stood up, I was dizzy but thought that maybe I was hungry. Made a little bite to eat and that was the wrong thing to do. I will spare the details but lets just say, I made it to the bathroom in time. Then I laid awake praying that I would be well by morning or Ken was going to have to stop a lot the next day. Luckily, I didn't throw up again (thank you Lord). Just before we left I remembered that I had some Kwells left over from Ireland. Kwells is this magic pill that stops nausea in its tracks. I took one and stuck the rest in my purse. The rest of the day was just peachy

Our first stop was Cawker City, KS to see the World's Largest Ball of Twine. Any fan of the movie "Vacation" will recognize the importance of this landmark. The twine is the only claim to fame the town of Cawker City has--I think it's really the only reason to stop in Cawker City unless you live there. All I can say is it's big and it stinks. But. I can now say that I have seen the World's Largest Ball of Twine.

Notice how the twine glows in the sunshine.

A few miles west and a few miles north is Athol, KS and the birthplace of the song originally titled "My Western Home" now more commonly known as "Home on the Range." The site is a part of the Ellen Rust trust and is being administered by the Kansas Heritage Trust. A strategic plan has been launched and it is hoped that restoration and improvements to the site will begin by 2012. To read more about one of the 8 Wonders of Kansas go here: http://www.kansassampler.org/

Our major destination for the day was the Great Platte River Road Archway on I-80 in Kearney, NE. This was one cool place that I highly recommend for children and adults alike. It is a multi-media interactive retelling of the story of the trails along the Great Platte River. When you enter the Archway you are greeted by a costumed reenactor who introduces the exhibit and gives a little history. You are then given a set of radio headphones and ride an escalator up a hill to the beginning of the trail. At the top of the escalator is a video mural of a wagon train and you get the feeling that you are joining a wagon train on it's trek west. Throughout the exhibit there are stories which change as you progress through the Archway. The final room is a display dedicated to the beginnings of the Lincoln Highway now known as I-80 and the early history of travel by car. We spent about an hour at the Archway and thoroughly enjoyed it. (www.archway.org)

It was too early to stop at our original stopping place so I cancelled our reservations in North Platte and proceeded on to Scottsbluff stopping at a cute, clean Super 8 motel. I love Trip Advisor and I wasn't disappointed by this recommendation. Following dinner we returned to our room and crashed for the night. I know there was a thunderstorm sometime in the night as I heard a crack of thunder and then later woke to notice the alarm clock flashing indicating the electricity had gone off at some point. But, being sleep deprived from the night before, I just turned over and went back to sleep.

And so ends Day one of the Grand National Park Tour Day 1.