Recommendations - Portland - Banff - Glacier - Yellowstone

Diana, if you have never shot with a digital SLR, you gotta try it -- you can tweak the settings in the field until the image is just right, and the editing software is terrific. Many things in life today are not as good as they were in the old days, but as an experienced film photographer, I can tell you that digital is so much more flexible and fun!

profdant139 wrote:
Diana -- yes, if you want to get good photos, get a digital SLR plus a polarizing filter (very inexpensive) and a tripod. Then practice at home -- it is hard to learn on the road, as I discovered. On the other hand, the point and shoot cameras are a lot more portable and are easier to use.

I have an old film SLR, but the digital is a better idea - and bringing a tripod is an excellent idea. I have one somewhere ...

OutdoorPhotographer wrote:
You can get a DSLR for around $500 now. I shoot Nikon but Canon and Nikon both make great cameras. You are really buying into a lens system if you get serious about it.

North of fishing camp on what I would call the main road, there is a spot where a grizzly hung out last year. I'll have to see if I can look at a map for more details but it's about 5 miles from the road to your campground. There is a big hill on the left right next to the road. On the right, there are smaller hills and a plains with buffalo herds (yes, there are plenty buffalo so that alone isn't enough) Just north of this spot, the river goes under the road. If you are interested, I can send you a photo of the spot so you would recognize it.

Around dusk, there will be crowds on the hill looking for the bear. He was a good 500 yards away the night I saw him and while I wanted a good photo, I don't have a desire for a close encounter. It's worth getting there an hour before dark to see if you can spot him. I saw wolves crossing there as well although a spotting scope is really needed. I would get at least a cheap pair of binoculars before you go.

Thank you for this - we are still looking into the camera stuff, but I am bookmarking this post for future reference.

TyroneandGladys wrote:
"The RV is not easy to drive under the best of circumstance, but mountain driving was particularly scary, especially from Bakersfield to Las Vegas, and Sedona into Phoenix. We have since gotten a sway bar installed, which has improved things some, but the fact is, the Mirada is a light, underpowered low end rig, and we have to deal with that."
Lets address this statement
Have you taken this RV to a truck scale and weighed it?
IMHO the majority of handling issues are the result of a under loaded front axle. You can throw money at all you want for handling upgrades but if that front axle is not at least at 80% you will have handling issues.
Weight behind the rear axle unloads the front axle and the further back from the axle the more it unloads, think of a see saw.
In mountain driving you have to use your transmission. Downshift going up and downshift going down to control your speed. Your first downshift is turning the overdrive off.

Thank you for this - and sorry for the late acknowledgement (notices went to spam).

Clearly, there are things we could do that we didn't realize - although my husband says we don't carry a lot of water in the fresh water tank since we don't use it anyway (we have not dry camped). He says the steering isn't a problem - but I sure thought it was hard to steer when I drove it for the first time on our most recent trip - the front wheels skitter all over the place (at least compared to my 2005 FX 35 with sports suspension). I will suggest we pull into a truck scales on our next trip, if we pass one, just to see how we are balanced. Thank you for the suggestion!

BillMFl wrote:
Couple suggestions. When you are at Yellowstone you need to add Jackson Hole to your trip list. Well worth the time. Take the raft trip on the snake and the boat ride across the lake to some great hiking trails. And the ski lift up to the top is panoramic! I much prefer the East side of Glacier. Its the dry side with tremendous clear views of the peaks and lots of trail heads near the KOA in St Mary and the "going to the sun drive" is nearby. Santa Fe Skies is the place to stay in SF. I have stayed there many times. The first week of Oct is Hot Air Balloon week and reservations are hard to get. All the commercial RV parks outside Yellowstone are a fairly long drive into the park. I've stayed near West Yellowstone and also near Gardiner because my rig was too big for the park campgrounds. Its been a while so maybe the have bigger sites now. Its a huge advantage if you can stay in the park. Have you already seen most of Colorado? There are lots of great places in Co on the way to NM and there are routes n/s on both sides of the mountains and right down the middle too. I rarely pound down I25 to Santa Fe. And I only use I70 to get to the road to Leadville and down the high valley between the 14eener peaks to points south. You can spend a week in the Santa Fe/Taos area and only begin too see what it has to offer. But you really can't go wrong on the trip you are planning. Just the Yellowstone/Glacier/Canadian parks are a trip of a lifetime.

Thanks so much - and again, sorry for the late acknowledgement (notifications were going to spam).

It appears our rig can stay at ONE of the inside-the-park campgrounds at Yellowstone - IF we can commit to a date before they sell out. Which is an issue, because we don't want to be stuck sticking to a particular schedule. Perhaps if we hit Yellowstone just after Labor Day, it will be easier? And thank you for the other suggestions - though my husband's lack of interest in all things water related may shape our plans somewhat, I will try to get him to consider the rafting! But his vertigo pretty much rules out the ski lift (I am scared of heights too, but I would do it anyway).

BillMFl wrote:

TyroneandGladys wrote:
"The RV is not easy to drive under the best of circumstance, but mountain driving was particularly scary, especially from Bakersfield to Las Vegas, and Sedona into Phoenix. We have since gotten a sway bar installed, which has improved things some, but the fact is, the Mirada is a light, underpowered low end rig, and we have to deal with that."
Lets address this statement
Have you taken this RV to a truck scale and weighed it?
IMHO the majority of handling issues are the result of a under loaded front axle. You can throw money at all you want for handling upgrades but if that front axle is not at least at 80% you will have handling issues.
Weight behind the rear axle unloads the front axle and the further back from the axle the more it unloads, think of a see saw.
In mountain driving you have to use your transmission. Downshift going up and downshift going down to control your speed. Your first downshift is turning the overdrive off.

x2 If you are light on the front you lose a lot of control and constantly have to correct steering. A 60/40 front/back will do. The simplest least expensive fix is to add adjustable air bags to the rear axel. Call Camping World for a quick quote.

As I said below, I missed a bunch of email notifications! Thank you for this - I will tell my husband about this suggestion.

Also, I got another suggestion recently that we should be dumping our fresh water tanks before driving, since we are not dry camping - I think it is in the back, and that may be adding a lot of weight too.

2gypsies wrote:

dianahc wrote:
We also had just gotten a very high mileage 2003 Jeep Liberty as a toad.

But I want to get at least one more big trip out of this rig before we consider selling it and upgrading, and my heart is set on a trip roughly following this route:

• San Jose
• Portland
• Banff
• Glacier National Park
• Yellowstone
• Crazy Horse
• Santa Fe NM
• Carlsbad Caverns
• Los Angeles
• San Jose

First, we've towed our 2004 Jeep Liberty for 10 years. It has 175,000 miles on it and still runs flawlessly. If you have your Jeep checked out for belts, brakes, tires, etc. and get a clean bill of health, then don't worry about the mileage. They're wonderful cars.

The trip you're planning is very ambitious if you're not confident in your RV. Personally, I would skip Banff for another trip with your new RV. Also, Banff is o.k. but driving further north through Lake Louise and to Jasper would be a complete trip in that area.

You didn't state if you wanted to drive many secondary roads so I'm assuming you'd be more comfortable on interstates as much as possible.

Definitely purchase the Mountain Directory. We used it all the time.

So here's a possible route for you:

San Jose to Portland via I-5; I-90 east to MT93 north to Glacier and stay at the west side.

Glacier to MT93 south or 83 south for different scenery to I-90 again to Bozeman, MT. Take 191 south to West Yellowstone. You are now so close to Grand Teton Nat'l Park that you really should take it in, also. You can drive south through Yellowstone when you ready to leave and stay in the Tetons at Colter Bay RV for hookups or Colter Bay campground (next door & dry camping) or a little further south in the park at Gros Ventre campground (dry camping).

Then you want to go to Crazy Horse (another possible elimination). The easiest driving would be taking 287 out the east entrance 20/26 at Shoshoni to Casper, then north on I-25 back to I-90. This adds miles but you wouldn't like the secondary roads of 16 or 14 or 14A across the Big Horn Mtns. Then I-90 east to the Rapid City area.

Then to Santa Fe via I-25 and to Carlsbad and I-10 west to LA and north on I-5 to San Jose.

After looking at this, to me, it doesn't sound like a pleasant trip. You're driving interstates (& some will even have some tough climbs)and going through some big cities which would be a nightmare for us. We love driving secondary roads as our first choice but then, we don't mind mountains roads. So that's up to you.

I would probably rethink this big trip. Make it shorter by eliminating Canada and perhaps even Santa Fe and Carlsbad. Save them for your new motorhome. Also, it really wouldn't be enjoyable both of you driving separately. Think this trip out carefully so you're not exhausted like your previous trip.

Instead of planning this one BIG trip for 5-6 weeks, why not take some shorter trips into mountain areas to get a better feel for mountain driving? Good luck!

My apologies for not responding - I must have missed the email notice, and I just found that my email program dumped a huge number of my emails from lists in the lat couple of weeks into spam (including many that I have been getting for years with no problem). :-(

I appreciate the time and thought you put into this answer, and we will certainly take it into consideration.

My concerns are more about the ability of our RV to handle the mountains - the engine is in great shape, but it IS just a V10. So my suggestion to drive the Jeep separately was just for the steepest (or windiest) parts. And the sway bar we put in does help quite a bit. We have no problem sticking to mostly interstates, especially since we assume (and I think we should get the Mountain Directory to confirm) that they have the least steep climbs and descents.

I also need to be in places most of the time where I can get internet, since I still work part time as a patent attorney (no court appearance, just writing and filing papers electronically), and I constantly have papers due and emails from clients to field - I can do them at night or even while we're driving, so long as I have a good connection from time to time.

We were planning on staying at least 3 days in Canada, and driving to Lake Louise and Jasper in the Jeep for day trips. Your recommendation about the Tetons was already under consideration as well - thanks for the suggestions about places to stay!

The Santa Fe part is part of the reason for the trip - we are considering relocating there, based on recommendations from two friends who moved there recently, so we were going to spend 2-3 days checking it out and speaking to a local real estate agent we've connected with.

We have concluded that 300 miles is our maximum for any one day, and preferably less. And my husband is all healed up from surgery, so he won't be struggling with that. I think we need to take a couple more stops each day to stretch and "unclench" - which we can do if we would get started earlier in the morning (this is my issue, not his - I'm not a morning person, but we want to get the driving done sooner than we have been - leaving at noon is not the best way to travel).

In the meantime, I think we will take a mountain trip or two earlier this summer, perhaps to Mt. Shasta or the Trinity Mts. or Sequoia to practice. That is a very good idea.

dianahc wrote:
We also had just gotten a very high mileage 2003 Jeep Liberty as a toad.

But I want to get at least one more big trip out of this rig before we consider selling it and upgrading, and my heart is set on a trip roughly following this route:

• San Jose
• Portland
• Banff
• Glacier National Park
• Yellowstone
• Crazy Horse
• Santa Fe NM
• Carlsbad Caverns
• Los Angeles
• San Jose

First, we've towed our 2004 Jeep Liberty for 10 years. It has 175,000 miles on it and still runs flawlessly. If you have your Jeep checked out for belts, brakes, tires, etc. and get a clean bill of health, then don't worry about the mileage. They're wonderful cars.

The trip you're planning is very ambitious if you're not confident in your RV. Personally, I would skip Banff for another trip with your new RV. Also, Banff is o.k. but driving further north through Lake Louise and to Jasper would be a complete trip in that area.

You didn't state if you wanted to drive many secondary roads so I'm assuming you'd be more comfortable on interstates as much as possible.

Definitely purchase the Mountain Directory. We used it all the time.

So here's a possible route for you:

San Jose to Portland via I-5; I-90 east to MT93 north to Glacier and stay at the west side.

Glacier to MT93 south or 83 south for different scenery to I-90 again to Bozeman, MT. Take 191 south to West Yellowstone. You are now so close to Grand Teton Nat'l Park that you really should take it in, also. You can drive south through Yellowstone when you ready to leave and stay in the Tetons at Colter Bay RV for hookups or Colter Bay campground (next door & dry camping) or a little further south in the park at Gros Ventre campground (dry camping).

Then you want to go to Crazy Horse (another possible elimination). The easiest driving would be taking 287 out the east entrance 20/26 at Shoshoni to Casper, then north on I-25 back to I-90. This adds miles but you wouldn't like the secondary roads of 16 or 14 or 14A across the Big Horn Mtns. Then I-90 east to the Rapid City area.

Then to Santa Fe via I-25 and to Carlsbad and I-10 west to LA and north on I-5 to San Jose.

After looking at this, to me, it doesn't sound like a pleasant trip. You're driving interstates (& some will even have some tough climbs)and going through some big cities which would be a nightmare for us. We love driving secondary roads as our first choice but then, we don't mind mountains roads. So that's up to you.

I would probably rethink this big trip. Make it shorter by eliminating Canada and perhaps even Santa Fe and Carlsbad. Save them for your new motorhome. Also, it really wouldn't be enjoyable both of you driving separately. Think this trip out carefully so you're not exhausted like your previous trip.

Instead of planning this one BIG trip for 5-6 weeks, why not take some shorter trips into mountain areas to get a better feel for mountain driving? Good luck!

TyroneandGladys wrote:
"The RV is not easy to drive under the best of circumstance, but mountain driving was particularly scary, especially from Bakersfield to Las Vegas, and Sedona into Phoenix. We have since gotten a sway bar installed, which has improved things some, but the fact is, the Mirada is a light, underpowered low end rig, and we have to deal with that."
Lets address this statement
Have you taken this RV to a truck scale and weighed it?
IMHO the majority of handling issues are the result of a under loaded front axle. You can throw money at all you want for handling upgrades but if that front axle is not at least at 80% you will have handling issues.
Weight behind the rear axle unloads the front axle and the further back from the axle the more it unloads, think of a see saw.
In mountain driving you have to use your transmission. Downshift going up and downshift going down to control your speed. Your first downshift is turning the overdrive off.

x2 If you are light on the front you lose a lot of control and constantly have to correct steering. A 60/40 front/back will do. The simplest least expensive fix is to add adjustable air bags to the rear axel. Call Camping World for a quick quote.

Couple suggestions. When you are at Yellowstone you need to add Jackson Hole to your trip list. Well worth the time. Take the raft trip on the snake and the boat ride across the lake to some great hiking trails. And the ski lift up to the top is panoramic! I much prefer the East side of Glacier. Its the dry side with tremendous clear views of the peaks and lots of trail heads near the KOA in St Mary and the "going to the sun drive" is nearby. Santa Fe Skies is the place to stay in SF. I have stayed there many times. The first week of Oct is Hot Air Balloon week and reservations are hard to get. All the commercial RV parks outside Yellowstone are a fairly long drive into the park. I've stayed near West Yellowstone and also near Gardiner because my rig was too big for the park campgrounds. Its been a while so maybe the have bigger sites now. Its a huge advantage if you can stay in the park. Have you already seen most of Colorado? There are lots of great places in Co on the way to NM and there are routes n/s on both sides of the mountains and right down the middle too. I rarely pound down I25 to Santa Fe. And I only use I70 to get to the road to Leadville and down the high valley between the 14eener peaks to points south. You can spend a week in the Santa Fe/Taos area and only begin too see what it has to offer. But you really can't go wrong on the trip you are planning. Just the Yellowstone/Glacier/Canadian parks are a trip of a lifetime.