Last stop on Western Flying Trip

I will say, Canadian customs was a breeze....but US Customs was a little "stiff".  No worries, but it wasn't a "welcome back to the U.S." experience.

Flying over the badlands of SD...so peaceful but unforgiving looking!

We flew to Spearfish, SD -  then spent a few days touring.

Visited Sturgis, luckily a few weeks AFTER the crazy motorcycle Rally was over.....it's actually a pretty quiet town in the daytime, but alot of "biker" evidence.

The Historic Town of Deadwood was in our path for several of our adventures.  Unfortunately, they were having a huge car show - so navigating was a bit of a chore.

A long hike - had to dodge about 1000 "cow pies".....probably wouldn't do that 6 mile trail again.  

Lovely waterfall near Spearfish.  After the Canadian Rockies....some of the scenery was a bit under-whelming!

But some of it was spectacular in it's own way!

No explanation required!

The glare hides it, but the tunnels on this road actually frame Mt. Rushmore in the distance!

We did 2 different cave tours - one at Jewel Cave and one at Wind Cave.  They were a lot of fun - I took loads of photos inside the caves....but they just don't do it justice!  Good, cool fun!

Roadside goats.
 

Bison everywhere!

Antelope!

Cool drive down the Needles Parkway

The "Twin Mooney's".

Silly photo at a biker bar in Sturgis.

We had a huge thunderstorm hit when we were in Spearfish.  This is outside the hotel.  After it was mostly passed, we drove over to the airport to check the airplanes for hail damage.  They were wet, but no damage, thankfully!

More views from the Needles Parkway

And before we knew it, the 15 days was over and we were at the airport for an early start on our homeward bound flight.

Leaving Spearfish - 9 hours to Siler City!

Western Flying trip days 10-11-12

Next up.....Glacier National Park near Kalispell, MT.


The drive back to the good-ole'-USA was beautiful!

We probably passed 10,000 hay bales!

The "Going to the Sun" road across Glacier NP was lovely.

Duane pointed out the hollow tree - I had to get a photo, of course!

Lovely hikes.

Dick and Lindy relaxing on the trail.

This black beaked swan was a little far away for a good photo.  We looked for it's mate, but didn't find any.

Beautiful streams.

I think this may be the only "group shot" - overlooking Whitefish, MT.

We hiked up to the top of Whitefish Ski area - 4 miles and 2600 feet of elevation gain!  (We paid $8 to ride the ski-lift to the bottom!)

Close-up of one of the windmills.

Waterfall near Many Glacier.

Beautiful!!

Western Flying Trip Days 6, 7 and 8

Just lots more of the same - beautiful hikes and scenery!

Probably our favorite hike - this is  Parker Ridge.

I found the "panorama" setting on my camera - neat views!

Our only bighorn sheep sighting!  They are butting horns just like in the movies!

One of our hotels - this one was pretty old-fashioned - in the middle of nowhere.  But, it had everything you needed - a restaurant and a pub/grill, a gas station and a grocery store.

Lindy and I posed with the elk.....we kept seeing road signs warning us of "Elk Crossing"....it was a running joke since we never saw one in real life.

Dick and Lindy on the trail!

The original plan at this point was to  fly back to the U.S.  But, a strong cold front was coming thru and caused 35-45 knot winds.  We decided to drive 3 1/2 hours across the border to Glacier National Park....checked on the airplanes at the Calgary Airport and headed south!