The badlands were absolutely beautiful! This National Park is yet another location where you can literally just hang your camera out of your window and snap pictures randomly and come out with fabulous scenery. Again, I'm going to let Mike's artistry cover the landscapes later, because I really want to show us having some fun!



Mike was in his element, taking beautiful, luscious photographs. I really can't wait for you all to see them! He'll be uploading them onto his FB account where you'll be able to peruse them . . . after our trip.





That map link I gave you before only seems to have the first part of our trip! Here is our trip from it's farthest point back to our home!

We were able to see some new birds here, being that it's a new kind of habitat, and we were also able to see some more prairie dogs!


I love prairie dogs! We were hoping to see some black-footed ferrets but no luck . . . our consolation sighting was that Si saw a swift fox. Cool!






After a beautiful morning in the Badlands we visited Wall Drug. Boy, this place has changed and grown a lot in the 30 years since I last visited! I think it's at least 2x the size it was. So many crazy things! We had fun (although Simon thought it was more silly than he could be).








If you've never been to Wall Drug, it's a huge store full of every kind of touristy thing you can possibly imagine. In the middle of it all, there is an actual drug store. There are also kitschy statues and stuff all over.





Simon hit the nail on the head when he said that these people have a sense of humor, and have collected all of this stuff because they know it's funny. Gotta love it!






After Wall, we were able to drive to Mitchell, SD and drive by the Corn Palace. We loved that they even have a tribute to the 100 years of Scouting and the BSA anniversary.






We found a local park in Mitchell and grilled out for dinner, which was quite nice. It was good to have some homey hotdogs instead of fancy eat-out food. I think we're tiring of restaurants, and Simon has even been saying that he's kind of tired of steak! I never thought I'd see the day.

I promised you last night that I would get around to sharing yesterday's adventures with you, and I don't want to break my promise! We woke up fairly early yesterday after a great night in the Driftwood Motel in Waterton National Park, Alberta, Canada. See the red awning in the pic? That is the entrance to our hotel. It was clean and very comfortable and one of the most reasonably priced places we've found so far.

Yesterday morning was full of fog and clouds and more rain, but Mike was up before Si and I and went outside to get some pictures. He managed to find this beautiful rainbow, and take a few other amazing shots. Like most of our days in the Rockies, it was very chilly, and it rained on and off all day.

We found a beautiful frozen lake . . . partially frozen, really. It was COLD! up there!

We had a lovely hamburger picnic for Second Breakfast - yum!

Then we drove up and down the mountain roads in the park VERY slowly, looking for wildlife. We spotted this moose right near the road, munching on bushes and leaves. He was big, and he didn't seem to care about the cars going by. Simon even got some movie footage, but we'll wait til we're home for that project. (Oh wait, maybe this was in Glacier and not Waterton)

We didn't have to look far for the Bighorn Sheep, as they were right near in the town in Waterton. They are obviously shedding their winter coats and looking rather bedraggled. I must admit that I was inclined to try to collect some of that wool and get it spun into yarn, but Simon reminded me that those sheep are most likely dangerous, not to mention protected by law, and I don't want to be knitting unlawful scarves and hats!

And speaking of the law . . . . we crossed back into the US around 1:00 or so yesterday afternoon. (I have to say the border gate is a really boring picture!) We had our passports ready for them and so on, and they opened our van and looked into our coolers and asked us questions. They seemed to ask Mike a lot of extra questions, though. Then they asked us to park and asked Mike (only Mike) to come inside. He was apparently going to be undergoing further questioning. According to Mike, there is another person with his exact name who is wanted for murder in Atlanta, GA. When the border guards looked up the file and picture, though, one guy said "Uh, I don't think this is the guy. The guy who's wanted is 6' tall, weighs 122, and is black." One of the other guards said "Well, you've been a better sport about this than most people we bring in for questioning. Thank you for playing!" Mike said it was a little nerve-wracking, but it sure makes for an interesting story! I guess that's what you get when you have such a common name! I figure since we didn't have to give them any money and Mike didn't have to be stripp-searched, it's no harm/no foul.

So we've made it to Glacier National Park. Yesterday and this morning we've been exploring, driving around, looking for wildlife. We did see some Mountain Goats way way up on the mountain through our telescope - that was really cool! It is beautiful here, and we've seen some spectacular waterfalls, but the main road, the Going-to-the-Sun road, is still closed in the middle portion because of weather. Sigh. Mike and Si are still out exploring this afternoon, and I am using this as some quiet time for myself. I do love them, but a.) this altitude is hard for me to deal with and b.) they're wearing me out and c.) we're doing so much chatting in the van I can't get my naps in!

Ok - some quick stats before we sign off. As of 2:00 this afternoon (Mountain Time):

• we'd hit 3005 miles on the trip odometer
• Mike has seen 30 new life birds
• we've seen 22 interesting new mammals
• we haven't had to call home for more money (which is a good thing because honestly, I don't know who we'd call! LOL
• we've seen license places from all US states except for, I think, 4 of them (Hawaii, Delaware, Connecticutt and Vermont are the only ones I can remember)
• we have gotten no traffic violations or any other arrests (although apparently there was a close call at the border! yipes!)
• stuff we've forgotten in hotel rooms: bottle of shampoo (big deal), Simon's retainers (ugh)

More later!

This morning we woke up in Banff and drove around some more. There are several long back roads through the valley where wildlife is often spotted. It was very cloudy and we couldn't see much of the mountains around us, but we did have fun going around some more. Simon saw a red fox, which I think was our only new mammal in Banff.



Mike was still snapping lots of pictures, though, so we saw a lot of that! LOL It was raining on and off, so some of our pictures from today in Banff are drizzly. Well, the pictures I took are drizzly . . . Mike's are probably all still gorgeous.






Oh, and isn't the waterfall pretty?








When we left Banff, we headed south towards Waterton National Park. We decided to take a side trip to Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. The name drew us in, but the views and the history were very cool. It's a museum dedicated to the First Nations and the buffalo hunting. We met a guide named Edwin Small-legs who was very friendly and we had a good talk with him.

We saw some ermines and marmots at Head-Smashed-In, and also some great views of the prairies.
The tipis you see are a group campsite they have. The woman who checked us in said that a group of students was staying the night there tonight.

We've made it to Waterton, and it is, indeed, lovely. We're all exhausted, though, so info on Waterton is going to have to wait til tomorrow. Maybe I'll be able to post before we're on the road again. This should be our last night in Canada. It's been fun, but it will be good to get back to more reasonable gas prices (and other prices, too, we hope!)

I will quote my dear husband, who said this afternoon "Wow, I think this is the best day I've had in my life, since . . . . well . . . since yesterday!" We left Drumheller this morning and drove around Calgary and up into Banff. Banff is one of those rare places on earth were you can literally drive down the road and stick your camera out the window, randomly snapping pictures, and come up with amazing shots.

The weather guys were predicting rain on and off all day today. While there was some rain early in the day, by the time we really reached the mountains the sun was peeking out and we had some lovely views. Seriously beautiful views.

We stopped in Canmore first, on the way to Banff, and found a little yarn shop called Knit and Caboodle. I found a very friendly knitter/owner, and some great yarn! I only bought a few skeins, but it is Alberta-made wool, hand-dyed and everything. Yay! One ironic tidbit is that the owner is heading to Columbus, OH this coming weekend for the big TNNA trade show! How funny is that? She goes to Cbus every year. Of course, she FLIES like a sane person.




So we got to Banff, drove around the town a little, and then headed to the Gondola. This is a suspended cable car that runs up to the peak of Sulphur Mountain. I didn't take a picture on the way because I was doing deep breathing and trying not to yak. LOL The peak, though, was beautiful (of course - I've totally run out of adjectives, haven't I?). I made Si pose with me for a pic.



Mike saw 3 new life birds just on that gondola trip - 2 of them in the same tree at the peak! In the tree he saw Clark's Nutcracker and the Grey Jay, on the way down he found the 3-toed Woodpecker. We also saw some more ground squirrels - a different species than we'd previously seen, and new chipmunks!




After all of that, we drove along the #1 Highway up through the National Park and saw a lot more wildlife. There are a lot of pull-offs for people who want to view nature, and Si and Mike did a bit of extra walking.
Mike was taking many pictures (over 1000 just today!) and Simon was looking for animals.



Si saw a Grizzly Bear, a Brown Bear, they both saw beaver, and a wolf, and all three of us saw Big Horn Sheep, Mule Deer and Elk.

Just an aside from home first! Columbus Metropolitan Library was named Library Journal's Library of the Year, and it was announced to the staff this morning. I had already planned to wear my SRC t-shirt today for the first Monday of SRC, but it was extra exciting to be able to support my peeps today!


The Royal Tyrell Museum is amazing! It was full to the brim of dinosaur and other great prehistoric fossils. The exhibits were put together very well, and the museum was laid out so that you followed a logical path through the whole thing, following evolutionary history.


There was a viewing area where you could watch the scientists working on uncovering and preparing fossil finds, too. I always wonder if they feel like they're in a zoo or something, but it was very interesting to watch them. Each one of them had an air vaccuum tube that took all the dust and debris away as they created it. Very cool!

It was doubly cool being there and seeing that so many of the specimens were obtained at Dinosaur Provincial Park, which we visited yesterday!

There is also a viewing deck outside. This is Mike and Si up on the deck. There were a lot of steps to get up there, and no handrail, so I stayed below.

We spent about 4-5 hours there. Simon was still bouncing when we left, even though he was nearly as tired as we were.



After a good rest, we went out to see the Hoodoos. These are stone towers where the stantion is eroded away but the top is solid enough to have preserved a tower-like structure. They are commonly felt to be one of the symbols of this area. Around here, you can find Hoodoo jewelry and candy as well as all the dino trinkets.



We also drove out to a pull-off called Horse Thief Canyon. It was charming, and strikingly beautiful. Mike has been in his element taking pictures! I'm only posting my own work on this blog, though, so he can do his up right when we get home.





Along the overlook there seemed to be a whole colony of ground squirrels. Simon was able to get up close and personal with them. They even came out and sniffed him, and one of them even nibbled his finger a little (skin didn't break). Aren't they adorable? These look different from the ones we saw in Moose Jaw, so we're thinking they are a different species. More research is needed to confirm.

We had dinner at a local diner in operation since 1917, Yavis. Yummy Alberta Beef! We think it might be one of the best meals we've had so far, and it was less money than several others we've had. Go figure.


Best thing about the trip? Seeing my 15-yr-old smile like this. Alot.

I feel so blessed to be here with Mike and Simon, to have them both and have the ability to take this trip together. It's been good for my soul, you know? The beautiful nature, the incredible history and science . . . and the family time are all such gifts. I'm feeling really thankful.