We're slowly making our way back home now. We started the morning with a tear-down of the tent site in the RV park we stayed at in West Yellowstone, then we showered. While Brett was able to get in and out pretty quickly, Rhonda had to wait for the other females in the showers to finish. It seemed like all the women in the campground were in the bathroom all at once.
We hit the road with a fairly relaxed day of driving to Helena, Montana to look up some campsites around there. Brett was pretty excited about the prospect of driving 70 mph down the secondary highways (it is the posted speed limit, after all), but we need to warn anyone else who does this: Montana is pretty light with their driving signs, and you need to slow down in a lot of the corners, even if there is no sign saying you should.
We hit some construction on our way to the interstate, but it was a short wait before we were moving again. We gassed up and ate in a little town east of Butte, then headed north down a secondary highway towards the interstate and Helena. This bypass saved us about a half hour of driving; go team GPS! (This team consists of really only one person- Brett.) Our lunch consisted of a KFC/A&W restaurant, with root beer on a pull tap (like real beer). Brett got his special root beer in a frosty mug, while the Pepsi drinking Rhonda had a styrofoam cup, not being part of the special club. This was our first time trying A&W in the States, and we are sad to report that while they do offer a mama and a papa burger, there is no teen burger on the menu. Brett tried the closest thing to a teen burger, but it wasn't the same. Rhonda enjoyed a KFC chicken wrap with fries and gravy. The highlight of this meal was the fact that the KFC gravy down here is much superior to the stuff in Canada. It's got a darker, smoky flavour and a good texture and consistency, while the stuff back home is sort of gray, salty and usually pretty gelatinous. Sad that this is one of the major events of our day today.
We were on the road again, and soon found ourselves in Helena. We pulled off on an exit, and parked the vehicle. Brett's original plan was to stay at a place just northeast of Helena, in Black Sands State Park. Our GPS couldn't find it, but it did find us a state park in Lincoln, Montana, about 30 minutes away. It looked like the best approach to Glacier National Park would be using state highway 200, which is what Lincoln was on. We set our destination as Lincoln, and were on our way.
Brett was pretty surprised at how small Helena was. It's really no bigger than Drayton Valley, at least from what we saw from the interstate. We took our exit, and started making our way west through some small mountains. We drove over them, and found ourselves nestled in a valley with a creek and the highway running through it. We spied some national forest campsites, but our luck with them has not been good. They're usually very rustic and unkept, with outhouses, rather than any real facilities.
We stopped at the local ranger station for some camping spots, and we encountered a ranger who does 'real' camping, way back in the wilderness. Apparently, it's perfectly legal and accepted to backcountry camp in any national forest; it's just a matter of getting out there. Our ranger suggested a couple spots that were well away from it all, and required only short hikes. We thanked him for his time, and decided to check out the local state park on the edge of Lincoln. Once again, we were greeted with a campground in need of some serious upkeep. They had flushing toilets, but they were not exactly sanitary restrooms. We decided to head into town and see what they had for RV parks.
We found an RV park on the oter side of the town, and decided to pitch the tent there for $12 a night, only $2 more than the dilapitaed state park. Once again, the RV park is the best place to set up, with well manicured lawns, showers, a fairly well treed tent area, and a babbling brook flowing right behind our tent. While Brett was napping, 3 deer came out to eat on the lawn. When Brett came out of the tent they ran away. Strangely enough, we felt no need to try to get really close to them and take pictures or try to pet them. I guess we managed to avoid the curse of Yellowstone. The only drawback to this park is the fact that we can't drive to our site. We had to haul our gear about 50 yards to our chosen spot. This is what we consider hiking to our campsite. We definitely are not ready for back country camping.
After we set up, Brett laid down for a 2 hour nap and Rhonda read in the sun. We then went into town to dine on some ribs and fried chicken. Right now, we're sitting by the fire, enjoying a slightly windy, but relaxing evening.
About 350 km's put on the truck today, and we're all still in the truck. Next (and last) stop: Glacier National Park.
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