Yes, I’m back in the US of A. My second night actually. When I left you good folks a couple of days ago I was in Canmore, Alberta, Canada. I crossed back into the US that afternoon at the Chief Mountain crossing between Waterton National Park, AB and St. Mary, Montana. It’s a really nice small border crossing, sort of quaint if you will, as opposed to the larger one at Sweet Grass, MT which is a large commercial crossing, trucks and lots of tourists, etc. Chief Mountain is quieter and much more scenic.

When I left Canmore, I came down through the Kananaskas Valley. This is one of the most scenic drives of the Canadian Rockies. I can brag it up quite a bit and you’ll be disappointed that I didn’t get one painting done there. Yeah, me too, but it just didn’t work out. Not all good looking scenery will make a good painting. I’m going with the excuse that the light was very flat, there was no snow on the mountains and there surprisingly were very little in the way of turnouts along the highway. The ones that were available were gated off for some reason. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. I have to say however, that I immensely enjoyed the ride through there. Very little traffic. In fact the ride all the way to the border was very enjoyable. Wonderful country through there. I even got treated to a young adult grizzly racing across the highway in front of me as I was winding my way along just past the turn-off to Waterton, N.P.. What a thrill that was.

I had thought about staying at the KOA in St. Mary’s but became aware of a wildfire in Glacier N.P.. I google it and saw that the owner of the KOA had evacuated all of the staff, therefore I assumed they were closed. As I got closer to Glacier, it was easy to see the smoke from the fire, it apparently being on the St. Mary side of the Park. I had asked the Border Patrol officer about the fire and he said that the entrance to the park was closed but that gas was still available at St. Mary’s. Good thing because I needed to gas up there. I have two one gallon gas on top of the trailer if needed, however. Sure enough,when i crested the hill, I could see smoke high in the sky and then saw the whole valley was covered in smoke. Even if the KOA was still open, there was no way I was going to stay there.

This picture was taken from a turn out climbing back up out of the valley on the other side, through a burned out area from a couple of years ago, so they’re no strangers to wildfires there.

The rest of the ride into Great Falls was very scenic as the road winded and twisted down off of the pass and opened up to the vast plains spreading out to the east. I passed through Blackfeet country and finally got onto the interstate to get on down to Great Falls . It had been a long enough day as it was. I rolled past golden fields of grain on both side of the interstate which made for a great watercolor sketch .he KOA in Great Falls was really packed. Tourists going to and coming from Canada were stacking up. I didn’t have trouble getting a tent site but everything else was full.

I was a little tardy getting on the road this morning after grocery shopping to replenish my cooler and dry box. The options to return home were several from here so I choose one that I hadn’t done for several years. The ride from Great Falls south on Hwy 89 was better than I had remembered from years passed. Excellent, excellent choice. Very little traffic and wonderful scenery. I did a couple of sketches to paint later but the wind was really strong along the whole way. A cross wind from the west/southwest. When I fought the wind in Canada on the way up, it was a front moving in and the result was rain that cut my ride a bit short. As it was I got caught in it for a couple of days. I’m hoping I get home before this front starts producing any rain.

Looking forward to tomorrow’s ride. I think I’ll go back into the park for a bit in the AM and do a painting on the Madison River. Then I’ll head into Idaho and take a favorite route home, down through Driggs, and Alpine Junction, WY. Not sure where I’ll stay tomorrow night, possibly Flaming Gorge but it’ll depend on how early I get out here in the AM.

I should be home day after tomorrow. If I stay in Flaming Gorge, I won’t have any internet at all so there’ll likely be no post tomorrow night.

The internet here at the KOA in West Yellowstone is REALLY SLOW so I’m limiting this post to just one photo.