Manitoba - August 2022

Link to more photos (and one video). View the photos individually to see the captions.

Polar bears, beluga whales, and aurora borealis!

With Victor's love of bears (see here and here and here), we certainly had to go to Churchill, Manitoba to see polar bears some day. When I found this warm weather tour, I signed up. And despite some rain in the forecast ahead of time, the weather was very good.

First, we flew to Winnipeg. I was annoyed that they booked us at a hotel away from the airport that didn't offer airport pick-up.

At breakfast the next day, we met two people going on our tour. I figured there would be a handful of people joining us, but when we first gathered together, I was surprised to find more than fifty people in our tour group!

We had a charter flight just for our group (!) from Winnipeg to Churchill — no security checks! — followed by a tour of the area.

The next day, we went on a boat tour to see beluga whales. They were easy to find.

The following day was open for pricey extras (kayaking, aqua-gliding) which we didn't buy. So we wandered the town, although it's not very big and there's not a lot to do or see.

Next came polar bears! We did get good views of swimming polar bears and more distant views of them on land. Here's a 13-second video of one coming ashore and shaking off water:

We saw aurora borealis briefly one night (see the photos). On a tundra tour the next morning, we saw a distant caribou, one even more distant pair of polar bears, and birds including a golden eagle.

We left Churchill on another charter flight to Winnipeg, this time staying at an airport hotel. But the next day, our first flight to return home left too early to use the included breakfast.

Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore, Dignity - July 2022

Link to more photos. View the photos individually to see the captions, several of which have more information than usual.

I have had my eye on this tour for years. In the Spring of 2019, even with the tour running almost every day during the summer, all dates were sold out. Then COVID hit, and the tour didn't run in 2020 or 2021. I was on the wait list. When it became available, I grabbed the earliest 2022 date.

Despite rain when we arrived in Rapid City, some intermittent light rain on the first full tour day, and excessive heat on the last, the weather was mostly good, and the trip went very well. We had a great time and visited many wonderful sites. 

Our initial day of travel had some problems. Flying to Rapid City, we had a connection in Las Vegas. First, we sat on the tarmac for 45 minutes in L.A. because Las Vegas was too busy. Then we left Las Vegas more than an hour late because we had a change of gate and plane. Once in Rapid City, I almost got lost trying to drive in the rain at night in a strange city.

After I saw this article, I knew I wanted to go a day early just to see the Dignity statue:

Despite having to drive most of the day to go there and back, it was worth it. Most people outside of South Dakota have still never heard of it. No one in our tour group, including the leader, knew of it. Oh, and it was the first time I've seen a highway speed limit sign saying 80 mph!

The first tour day was Mt. Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial. The next day, we had breakfast in South Dakota, lunch in Wyoming, and dinner in Montana. We stopped at Devils Tower (the first U.S. National Monument), at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West (five museums) in Cody, and at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. Somewhere along the way, I saw a variable speed limit sign (showing 75 mph) for the first time. I didn't get a photo, but here's one from the internet:

We spent the next two days in Yellowstone National Park, the world's first national park. I had visited in 2012, and was eager to return. The photos show the highlights, including a 16-second video of Old Faithful erupting (but other than that, my Yellowstone photos from 2012 are even better). The only real disappointment was that we didn't see very many animals. In 2012, I had seen large herds of bison and quite a few other animals. This time, only a handful of bison and little else. But one, walking right down the road, did cause a bison jam of scores of cars (not on our side of the road, happily). See the photos.

Leaving Yellowstone, we cruised through Grand Teton National Park and then had lunch in Jackson, Wyoming. After a night in Pocatello, Idaho, the tour ended in Salt Lake City, including a stop at This Is the Place Heritage Park.