I just returned from a two week vacation with my family and some neighbors of ours. We traveled 3000 miles, 9 campgrounds, 12 campfires, 40+ miles hiked, 1 yurt, several fish species caught and returned to the water, US/Canada boarder crossing a few times, 3 bears, lots of deer, bald eagles, mountain goats and some very beautiful weather.
We started the journey off leaving Denver and traveling north to Billings, Mt, with a quick stay at the Yellowstone River Campground in Billings before making our way to Glacier. We arrived at Two Medicine in Glacier to find a full campground, so we made our way further north to the Cutbank campground in Glacier and got the very last spot. We spent two nights here tooling around two medicine side of glacier.
We then made our way into Waterton Lakes International Peace park for 3 days, we rented a canoe one day and paddled across Cameron Lake to a really neat mountain side made up of waterfalls and glacier. We did a ton of hiking in Waterton, traveled to Goat Haunt on the International Tug Boat, got our passports stamped here and returned to Waterton in Canada. And while in Waterton, we split from our neighbors who searched out some showers and we went up to the Prince of Wales of Hotel. Wow, what a beautiful place. Checked out a few more places inside the park and did a few more Hikes before leaving Canada and heading to the west side of Glacier. Made our way up to Bowman Lake in the upper northwest corner of Glacier, fished Bowman Creek caught a ton of little west slope cutts and cuttbows, fished the Flathead and got a Bull trout. Knocked that fish off my list. Did a few hikes and spent two nights here before leaving the park and headed to Kalispell for laundry day. The girls did laundry and we took the kids to a very crappy restaurant and meet back up with the girls. After we picked the girls up we headed into the Flathead valley to find a campsite, finally found one at Holland Lake, boy what a neat, yet weird campground.
After spending the night here, we woke up had breakfast and did a 3+ mile hike to a really cool waterfall, and returned to the cars to head out to Idaho, we made our way to Salmon Idaho, where we found a campground right on the Salmon river. Jason and I headed into town to get our fishing Licenses. After two stops finally found a place to sell us a license at 7:30 at night. Made our way back to the campground where the girls where putting dinner together. Got camp set up and got the rods strung up and fished the salmon river right at the campground, caught a few salmon, whitefish, a cutbow and a few rainbows. Woke up the next morning early, everyone else was sleeping, so I slipped into my waders and fished for two hours before everyone woke up. Managed to catch a couple salmon and rainbows. We had breakfast and broke down camp and started to make our way to the Galena Lodge, but we made a one stop along the salmon river to fish a few a few hours. Caught a few white fish and a ton of rainbows here, before hoping back into the Toyotas and headed towards Galena Lodge.
Got to Galena Lodge, had some dinner, made our way up to the yurts, which was cool, first time any of us stayed in a yurt. We woke up the next morning, had breakfast, meet our hosts for an afternoon hike, did the hike came back to the lodge for some lunch, ate lunch and the girls and kids hung out at the lodge for awhile while, Jason and I headed down the Big wood River for some fishing. We fished for about 3 hours catching a ton rainbows, nothing to big, but lots of fun. Headed back to the Galena got the kids and girls and headed down to Sun Valley for dinner.
Next day checked out of the yurts, Jason's family went horseback riding, and we headed to a our next campsite, we were supposed to head to the Tetons today, but decided to stay and extra day and camped on the Bigwood river, got camp set up and I went fishing, Jen hung out with the kids. I fished for a while, catching a ton of fish, the day was cloudy, so the fishing was a bit easier today and the fish seemed much bigger today then the day before. After a few hours, I headed back to the campsite, got Quinn and Miles in the waders and took them down to the river we only had about 45 minutes before we had to be back up at the lodge for Horseback Hay rides for the kids and BBQ. After dinner we headed back down to the campsite and Jason and I quickly hit the river for some evening fishing. Got into this hole where every cast would induce a strike or fish, which was awesome. Next morning we broke camp down and started to head home. Traveled through Idaho, and Utah before making our way to Fort Bridger for a quick night on the road, last camp night before making it home. Made it home the next day about 4 o clock. Today back at work.
What a great family vacation, the kids did awesome, the parents managed to drink a few handles of whiskey and couple cases of beer. Back to reality after two weeks and 3000 miles on the road.
3 comments:
What a great trip! We did a six-week road trip and loved our time in Glacier NP. We also really liked the Hot Springs Loop in BC. My husband loves to fly fish more than most other things and he wants to come back on a guy's week to just fish.
Wow, that sounds like a fun trip. Glad that you got to do some fishing. Sometimes, it's so much better hitting the "lesser' known waters than the famous ones. Sounds like you had a ton of fun.
Sheri, We had such a great time. Glacier was a ton of fun and the kids had a great time too.
Juan, Yes it was a fun trip and I am kind of glad we hit some of the smaller streams because we had sections of the big wood and salmon rivers all to ourselves not another angler in site which was great.
Tight lines.
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