Unfortunately for my plans of making it to Glacier today, two articles I saw in the morning paper here changed my plans. First, the fireworks show for the Fourth of July is tonight and second, Barack Obama is going to be in Butte’s Fourth of July parade at 10am in the morning. So, plans changed, and I’ve got a tent pitched at Lowlands campground in Beaverhead – Deerlodge National Forest to crawl into after the fireworks show. My plans are to wake up at 7am and hit the road into town and clear the metal detectors to get a spot close along the route to shoot pictures from. I imagine the Secret Service will have a field day with my camera bag.

After we made that decision, we hit a couple sporting goods stores to find some hiking boots for Sarah, watched Hancock at the local cinema (loved the movie – Will Smith is definitely becoming one of my all-time favorite actors) and attempted to explore some museums around town. Sadly, it seems like most of the town had closed up shop a day early for the holiday weekend.

Rookwood Speakeasy Museum was closed, Myra Brothel Museum was closed and we couldn’t find the local art gallery. However, Charles Clark Chateau museum was open and we toured a turn of the 1900s private mansion turned museum. Cool place, octagonal rooms, library and ballroom included.

So… now, we’re sitting in a thunderstorm, two hours before the the fireworks show is scheduled to take place waiting for it to clear off and hear whether or not it will actually happen. And when I say thunderstorm… at its peak a few moments ago, I couldn’t see out the car windows.

Travel Distance: 75 miles around Butte, MT

Hit the road this morning from camp and made the trip to Old Faithful in Yellowstone (through road construction, where I met a nice older couple from West Virginia). From there, I decided to take a small detour through Bozeman, MT to get some ice cream (I should have stopped at the Cold Stone Creamery though) and continued on to Butte. Tonight, I’m spending the evening and likely into early morning holed up in a hotel room editing pictures. Nothing to exciting today really; check out flickr tomorrow for pictures.

Travel Distance: 251 miles

Sunrise was not nearly as impressive this morning as it was yesterday or the day before, unfortunately, there was a low hanging cloud that diffused most of the light. I took a few shots anyway, then headed down to the previous morning’s spot to show it to Sarah. Apparently, she’d already been there 4 years ago or so with her family.

Back to camp for a nap (is anyone noticing a trend?) and we headed into the park (for what will be my last time, this trip at least) and decided to defy the predictions of thunderstorms and go on the hike I’d been planning on doing, through Cascade Canyon.

Now, to get to Cascade Canyon, there are a couple of options. You can take a boat across the lake for $5 each way, or you can hike a few miles from the Jenny Lake Visitor Center to the mouth of the canyon. Well, you can bet on which one we did. Thirteen miles of hiking later, we came to the mutual conclusion that 13 miles at a go was too much. My knees were killing me (I only made it with the aid of my trekking poles) and she has a wonderful assortment of blisters on her feet.

And that’s how we came to pitch a tent at 6:30 in the evening, ready to call it a day in what is apparently a primo mosquito breeding ground. A hasty dinner eaten inside the Jeep and now we’re simply reading to pass the time until it is dark enough to go to sleep (and hopefully the kids in the RV parked across the campground will stop screaming by then).

No sunrise in the morning for me (at least I hope not to be awake to see it) and tomorrow when we break camp (hopefully amid fewer mosquitos, we’re passing through the southwest portion of Yellowstone on our way to Glacier. It’ll be a short traveling day as my intent is to get a hotel room mid-afternoon and get to work on editing all the photos from Yellowstone and Grand Teton (there’s a ton).

Travel Distance: 78 miles and another 13 miles on foot