Quick stops in Idaho, Montana, and Back to Yellowstone

Biking the Coeur d’Alene trail has been on our bucket of “rails to trails” for quite a while. We were very excited for our stay in Cataldo, ID, where the trail was right next to our campground. The best part was that our campsite was in the middle of this 73 mile trail, which made it easy to ride and explore the entire trail. When we arrived, it was very hazy and you could smell the smoke from nearby fires. Fortunately, Cataldo, and the surrounding area got their first rain in months that night. We woke up to blue skies and no haze or smoke. We had wonderful clear days that were great for biking and running on the trail. It got very warm near the end of our stay at this campsite, and we lost power. The campground had some issues and could not guarantee we could have power for A/C for the rest of our stay, so we decided to leave a couple days early. We found a nice campground in St. Regis, MT near the Route of the Olympian, which gave us a nice trail to ride. Next we headed back through Missoula, MT to pick up supplies and another stay at Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park. The air quality was very poor while we were in both locations, but we still managed to have fun. It has been such a tough summer in the west with fires!

We also stopped in Yellowstone National Park again; this time staying in the town of West Yellowstone. It turned out to be a really great experience, as the weather was cold and rainy. We stayed at Buffalo Crossing RV Park which is right next to the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center. Admission is good for two days, and you can go as many times as you want to see different Grizzly’s and programs. We definitely took advantage of this opportunity. We also stayed at Yellowstone Grizzly Park which was much bigger and easy to walk to the IMAX theatre, restaurants and grocery stores. The Riverside Trail can be accessed to bike or hike, without entering the nearby park entrance, which is nice for a change of pace, and no crowds. The park entrance is less than a mile away, so we enjoyed the views and were able to see a bear, bison and geysers from the road. Visiting Yellowstone from every entrance is a great way to get see as much as possible of this amazing National Park!

Next stop Grand Teton National Park to meet up with our children for a long awaited family vacation.