Our next road trip is in the planning stages

We are in the process of planning a  road trip for the last week in August. We'll be in the "new" car and are being joined for a portion of the trip by friends on their "new" 2009 Kawasaki Vulcan 1700. They purchased it last fall with only 7800km (4850 miles) on it.

 

Kawasaki Vulcan Classic 1700

We will be meeting up with them in Great Falls MT. From there we'll head to Laurel MT via the Kings Hill Scenic Byway.

From Laurel we'll head to Cody WY over the Beartooth Highway and Chief Joseph Scenic Byway. From Cody we'll head across Yellowstone to Ennis MT for one night.

We are still working on the tail end of the trip but do plan to stop at the Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park. Not sure yet if we are just going to head straight home from Ennis or take another couple of nights and perhaps revisit the Going to the Sun road.

Here's our proposed route...

Preliminary route for our next road trip

 

Watch this space for more details! 

If you have any suggestions regarding things to see or do along the way please share them in the comments section!

Just a little update... we've decided to head home directly from Ennis MT, with a stop at the Lewis and Clark Caverns, saving the Going to the Sun Road for another day. We will be taking the less travelled routes by avoiding the main highways if we can.

Another trip to add to the bucket list

While looking over some more road trip articles I came across another stretch of highway to add to the bucket list that's not too far from home. The Beartooth Highway is a stretch of US Highway 212 that runs from Red Lodge MT through the Absaroka-Beartooth National Wilderness, reaching elevations nearing 3350m (11,000ft), to Cooke City MT and the northern entrance of Yellowstone National Park.

Charles Kuralt called this the most beautiful highway in America. It even has its own website which features a 20 minute video.

From the Visit Yellowstone County website

Red Lodge is about nine hours south of our home in Calgary. It would be quite the trip if we first headed directly for the Beartooth and then made our return trip up through the Going To The Sun Highway and southern Alberta's Cowboy Trail both of which I've written about in earlier posts. This makes for a 2300km (1400mile) round trip. 

I'll close this post off with another Charles Kuralt quote:

"Thanks to the interstate highway system, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything."

Here's to backroads and less traveled routes! If you've driven the Beartooth please leave a comment!

Festiva in the Park: Day 13

WEDNESDAY JUNE 13th, 2012

Last night's hotel was the nicest of the trip so far. Once we had our breakfast and packed up the car we hit the road for our next destination... Yellowstone National Park. 

Welcome to Yellowstone NP

Festiva in the Park

Our first stop was the Midway Geyser Basin. There are a number of geysers and springs at this spot, the main ones being the Excelsior Geyser and the Grand Prismatic Spring.  Excelsior was once the largest geyser In the world. However, the last known major eruptions occurred during the 1880s, when there were numerous eruptions up to 300 feet. The violent eruptions of the 1880s may have caused damage to the siliceous sinter lining, allowing gas leakage and the loss of thermal energy. No observed eruptions were known until 1985 when it erupted for two days. However, it only obtained a height of 20-80 feet. Excelsior is now a productive thermal spring with temperatures reaching199°F and presently discharging 4050 gallons per minute.

B, Sharon, I and E at Excelsior... yes it was a little windy.

Color everywhere...

 

The Grand Prismatic Spring is considered the third largest in the world, after two larger ones located in New Zealand. It's cooler than Excelsior with temperatures ranging from 142-160°F.

Grand Prismatic Spring... photo sourced at NCass Yellowstone Blog

Next stop on our drive through the park was the visitor center and Old Faithful. Our timing worked out very well as the benches around the geyser were starting to fill up in anticipation of the next eruption. We only had to wait about 10 or 15 minutes and Old Faithful didn't disappoint. One of the rangers told us that we were treated to a "blow" of about 140 feet, well above the average of 130 feet.

Not quite at its peak.

I, B and E just after Old Faithful settled down.

We spent a bit of time in the visitor center and gift shop, grabbed a snack and headed east. The drive both in from the west and out to the east is worth the trip by itself. Well maintained roads and a relatively low speed limit helped us to get the best gas mileage for the entire trip. Our route took us through Cody and then south to Worland where we would stay the night with our Festiva friend Jeff and his daughter. Arrived in Worland at 6:00pm, right on schedule, and enjoyed a great meal. Spend the rest of the evening visiting with Jeff and K, as well his parents and aunt. 

B and K showing off one of their many strengths!

Tomorrow it's off to visit Buffalo Bill Cody!

CLICK HERE FOR DAY 14

Watch this space for another Festiva adventure!

In a few days we'll be leaving Calgary on another road trip in the Festiva.

Our route will take us west to Vancouver BC. From there we'll be heading south to Mount St Helen's then to Silverton OR to visit a Frank Lloyd Wright designed home. It's then on to the San Francisco area, east to Yosemite then on to the Grand Canyon. The next leg will take us to Zion and Bryce Canyon, Craters of the Moon and Yellowstone. We'll be visiting friends in north central Wyoming before heading home through Cody WY and Helena MT.

All told we'll be traveling about 7500km (4700 miles) in 15 days. That's about 2500km less than our trip last fall. Follow this link to the first blog post for that trip.



View Larger Map

We'll do our best to keep the blog up to date as we head out on this next adventure.