North to Alaska - Home Again to Iowa

We crossed the border into Iowa this morning. It's great to be back and see the corn growing high. We're not to happy with the temperature though. After spending the last 2 months in 60-75 degree temperatures with low humidity, the 90 degree temps are hard on us.


Unfortunately one of the first things we saw was the terrible flooding taking place along Iowa's western border on the Missouri River. The flooding began in June while we were in Canada and we hear the river may not be back in its banks until October.

Rather than heading directly home we stopped early this afternoon at Timberline Campground in Waukee to vi st our close and dear friends from Cincinnati. Al & Nancy Auciello lived next to us for the last 7 years we were in Cincinnati. Our families spent a great deal of time together over the years and they remain close friends despite the distance between us.

We headed to "On the Border" for a Mexican dinner this eveing.

North to Alaska - Badlands

Earlier this morning another storm blew through, once again it had high winds and heavy rains. The tenters who weren't washed away last night were busy ringing out their gear and sleeping bags and resetting their tent stakes. The badlands are known for their severe storms, and from what we heard from the ranger, this type of storm was quite typical. We have been through the Badlands a couple of times before, but I am always amazed by the ever changing rock formations.

The Badlands are the National Park Systems largest geological landscape of buttes, spires, and rolling grasslands consisting of 244,000 acres. The main road that traverses the park runs along the side of and through a section of the scenic rock formations. There are many circular trails that allow just about anyone to walk through the formations. The area has a large concentration of mammal fossils that are found in the red layers in the picture below. Billions of years ago, this area was a large sea of water that extended from the Arctic Ocean through North America, literally cutting it in half. As the water drained, 500,000 years ago, through erosion water began to cut through the rock layers, carving fantastic shapes into what had been a flat flood plain.

It was 7:30 this evening before we pulled over into a Walmart to spend the evening. We wanted a fairly short day tomorrow for our drive back to Des Moines.

North to Alaska - Devils Tower

We arrived at Devils Tower National Park late in the afternoon. The temps are in the low 90's this afternoon so we decided to hit the pool at our KOA Campground. The water was very cold, too cold for Gary, but Kathy braved it for a short period.

This morning we headed up the mountain to participate in the hike around the mountain conducted by the National Park Service.

Our guide was quite informative about the tower. Her commentary made it a lot more interesting than taking the hike on our own as most visitors do.

If you look closely at this picture below you'll see three climbers scaling the vertical surface. You can enlarge the photo by placing your cursor on it and clicking. Click on the back button to return.

The mountain is considered very sacred to the Indians. They often place these prayer cloths around the trees along the trail. The cloths are articles of clothing from the individual they are praying for.

The climbers below are part of the Parks Search & Rescue team whom are practicing their skills in anticipation of a future rescue. Annually 5000 individuals climb the Tower. The youngest to make the climb was 7 and the oldest was 80.

On the way back from our hike we came across a Prairie Dog field. There must have been a hundred or more in this field.

We headed to the Badlands National Park late this afternoon. Late this evening a strong storm blew in and pretty much leveled most of the tents pitched around us. We heard the winds were clocked at over 60 mph. They rocked our 35,000lb motorhome quite a bit.

North to Alaska - Little Bighorn

We stopped at the battlefield of Custer's Last Stand this morning. We had driven by it last May on our way to Canada but it was raining and flooding in the area.



The Battle of the Little Bighorn National Park is located on the site of the massacre. The park service has a visitors center where they have on display a number of artifacts from the battle including weapons, maps and Indian headdresses. There is also a cemetery where relatives of those involved in the battle can be buried.

Below is the hill on which Custer made his last stand. There was a series of skirmishes that took place before Custer ordered his men to shoot their horses on this hill and use them as protection form the several thousand Indians.

The 210 cavalry men who were killed in the battle were buried on this hill and this monument was erected. Custer was buried at West Point. In the end historians discovered that the cavalry scouts had not realized that so many of the Indians, almost 3,000, from various tribes had gathered to fight for their lands. The 600 men of the 7th Calvary didn't have a chance; they were terribly out numbered.

North to Alaska - Billings

This morning we cut cross country to take the Scenic Byway route to Billings, Montana. Just outside of Great Falls, we picked up US Route 89 that runs due south through the Lewis & Clark National Forest. It's a very twisting and hilly route, but enjoyable. Below is Sluice Box Canyon which got it name because the narrow canyon squeezes the creek into chutes and drops and reminded the miners of the sluice boxes used to separate the gold from gravel.

We arrived in Billings around 5pm and setup camp at Walmart once again. We were joined by 5 additional motorhomes. This evening we took in a movie at the local theater. Captain America had just come out and we think it lived up to hype.

North to Alaska - Great Falls

There are lots of things to do in the area from Banff up to Jasper. You could probably spend two weeks and not run out of activities. But today it is raining and we decided that it was time to begin our journey back to the States. We passed through Calgary once again and we took the same route back going through customs in Coutts, Canada, into Montana. We are spending the evening at a lovely WalMart campground. Kathy is busy catching up on the laundry and Gary is working on the dash air conditioning blower fan.

North to Alaska - Banff

This morning we ventured out of town to Lake Minnewanka. It is the largest lake on the Banff National Forest and a very popular recreation area. It is also the only lake on which they allow power boats. It is rather narrow, but the surrounding mountains make it a very scenic attraction. Rather than take a boat tour of the lake, we decided to hike up a mountain to an abandoned coal mine. It was a very strenuous hike and left us both realizing how out of shape we are after two months of site seeing and no exercise.

The road that we are on today winds through the National Forest. I believe that it is the original road that lead through the valley before the Trans-Canada Highway was built. It is fairly narrow and winds its way along the side of the valley. There are lots of warnings about wildlife who often venture onto the road. The first that we encountered were these big horn sheep who were grazing alongside the road. There must have been 10-12 of them but they seemed to ignore them as we drove alongside to take the picture.

Next on our agenda was a visit to the Johnston Canyon and waterfalls. It is only a 1 mile hike up a meandering path next to the canyon. Unfortunately, as we neared the top there was a series of catwalks that you had to traverse to get to the falls. They were anchored into the canyon walls and left you suspended as much as 200 feet in the air. Kathy, who doesn't like heights, decided that this was too high for her to join me to the end.

To gain access to the falls, you have to cross the catwalk that spans the gorge, which is where this picture was taken from. There is also a cave on the other side that leads to an opening within 20 feet of the falls. At this distance, the spray is so intense and you are so close, that it is difficult to take a picture, but neat to experience.

On the return ride from Johnston Canyon, we came across this male Elk also grazing along the road. During the spring, this road is closed form sundown to sunup to protect the animal who are most active then.

Here is another great hotel built by the Canadian Pacific Railroad in the early 1900's – The Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel. These beautiful resorts were built to encourage the upper crust who travel along this route to take in the magnificent Northern Rocky Mountains.

Just up the road from the Fairmont, is the Banff Hot Springs established over 100 years ago. It now feeds into a swimming pool. After a long day of hiking and touring, it felt great to relax in the mineral 105 degree water.

Directly next to the hot springs is a gondola that takes you to the top of the mountain. However, after we were all relaxed from the hot spring, we opted to go back and rest up for dinner in town.

North to Alaska - Lake Louise to Banff

We awoke to a partly sunny day and headed up the mountain to Moraine Lake. The peaks in this picture are quite famous for appearing on the back of the older versions of the Canadian $20 bill. You'll also note that the guard rail is missing on the shoulder and only splintered portions of the posts remain. I would not have wanted to be in the vehicle that went through it.


Moraine Lake is absolutely gorgeous with it turquoise blue waters, towering peaks and pine trees. Temps at this altitude are around 55-60 degrees, much colder than the 70 degrees in the valley at the campground.

Next we headed to the famous Fairmount Chateau built on the shores of Lake Louise by the Canadian Railroad in the early 1900's. The hotel has been rebuilt and remolded several times over the last 100 years. It still maintains it's grandeur with beautiful inside furnishings, marble floors and towering columns.

Lake Louise is the most famous glacial lake in the Canadian Rockies. It sits about 6,000 feet above sea level and is and extremely popular tourist destination. Kathy loved the gardens with their various colors of poppy flowers in bloom with the mountain peaks as a background.

We headed out of Lake Louise on Trans-Canada Highway 1, a fairly new 4-lane divided highway. This highway has been in the process of being upgraded for the last 20 years due to the traffic and collisions with animals. The entire highway is fenced in but has animal overpasses about every 5 miles as shown below.

Banff is the largest town in the area with many hotels, chalets and B&B's. It's a scenic resort, with pristine buildings and is by far the most popular tourist attraction around. It annually attracts 2.5 million visitors each year.

Kathy and I didn't waste anytime in heading into town to see what they have to offer. With temps down here in the valley around 72 degrees it was quite pleasant. There are three blocks of stores offering everything imaginable. We picked up a couple of gifts for the grand kids and selected a couple of restaurants for tomorrow evenings meal.

We have made our camp at the park's Tunnel Mountain Campground. It is very large with close to 1200 campsites with various amenities. The sites are very spread out so your closest neighbor is at least 75 feet away. We have full hookups, water, 50 amp electric and sewer.

North to Alaska - Lake Louise

Since we needed some exercise we decided to drive up Mt. Edith Cavell (10,000ft.) for a hike up to see the 3 glaciers in this area. It was about a 1-hour hike up the mountain via a rocky trail. Click on the panoramic picture to see it larger.


This is Angel Glacier below. It has been retreating for the last 100 years. It use to cover the area where I am taking this picture.

To the right of Angel is Cavell glacier. At times you can hear it calving as large portions of it drop into the water. You can also see several caves that have formed especially this larger one.

Gary decided to climb out onto one of the fallen glacier chucks that had drifted close to shore.

Around lunch time, we headed south on the Icefields Parkway to Athabasca Falls. It was just a short drive and hike off the parkway. It's a very popular spot, there were at least a hundred people there. I took a movie of the falls with our digital camera that shows you the entire falls but it won't load into the blog. I think our Internet service here is too slow. I'll try later.


There are a series of steps to a lower vantage point at the falls. They are carved out of some beautiful rock formations.

Once again we are seeing lots of wildlife. This bear ran out across the road in front of the motorhome and I had to break hard to avoid hitting him.

Of course, along the Icefields Parkway there is a gigantic icefield nearby. It's the Columbia Icefield, the largest icefield south of the Arctic circle. There are eight glaciers that come off of the icefield. The Athabasca Glacier, pictured in the center of this photo is accessible by a special bus that drives onto the glacier. It includes a 15 minute walk on the surrounding area. This is a panoramic photo so be sure to click on the photo to make it larger, then select the back button to return to normal.

As we head south we are entering the Banff National Park.

It seems like wherever we stop for a break we have a great view of the mountains. We'll make camp for the evening in Lake Louise at the park campground.

North to Alaska - Jasper

The drive from Grande Cache to the Big Horn Highway Hwy 40 is very scenic but twisty and some long steep grades. We headed south on the Big Horn into Jasper National Park. This park connects with Banff National Park and is considered to be the most beautiful drive in the world. There is wildlife at every turn. Kathy captured this Big Horn Sheep as we came around one of the corners.


Further down the road I saw this Caribou along the other side of the road. I quickly applied the motorhome brakes, pulled to the side, slowly walked to the other side of the road and shot this photo about 20 feet away. He never even gave me a glance.

We decided to stop in Jasper for the evening. It is was of the nicest towns we have been to on the entire trip. It is know as a real touristy town with lots to see around it. The stores are great but a little pricey.

After setting up camp, we drove to Maligne Canyon. It's actually a gorge with 6 footbridges along a self guided trail. There are some spectacular views of the canyon en route.

The trails surround the entire canyon and give you some neat views as the Maligne River carves a 165 ft. gorge through the solid limestone.

Onward and upward another 12 miles took us to Medicine Lake. Years ago the Indians believed that the spirits inhabited the lake because it fluctuates wildly sometimes drying up altogether.

Another 10 miles up the mountain and the road ends at Maligne Lake. A visit wouldn't be complete without going to the gift shop. Kathy was trying to convince Mr. Mountie, below, that he needs to watch want he eats.

Maligne Lake is one of the most beautiful we have seen in our travels.

We think this is a Mule Deer we almost hit as he was crossing the road in front of our campground. Later this evening a group of 6 of these mule deer wandered into our camp site as we where returning from town. On the conservative side, I would say that we have seen at least 25 wild animals in the last 2 days in Jasper National Forrest; Caribou, Big Horn Sheep, Mule Deer, Buffalo and Black Bears. No Grizzlies yet!