Week Two- Proposed Itinerary

This post details the proposed itinerary for the second week of my trip. On Friday, June 12th, I'll be dropping my Dad off at the airport in Salt Lake City for his flight home. We were really lucky to find this cheap flight. It only cost a little over $100! I will head north to Idaho, stopping at City of Rocks National Reserve before camping in Twin Falls for the evening.
Saturday, I will start by visiting Minidoka, one of the National Park Service's newest sites, a World War II era internment camp. From there it I head to Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument, before spending the whole afternoon exploring Craters of the Moon National Monument. I am excited about my campground for Saturday evening, Challis Hot Springs, deep in the heart of the Bitteroot Mountains, which has pool heated by natural thermal springs.
Sunday should be one of the busiest days of the trip. The morning will be occupied with Big Hole National Monument, and two Montana State Parks, Anaconda Smoke Stack and Granite Ghost Town. In the afternoon, I'll visit the Grant-Kohrs National Historical Site, a famous ranch south of Missoula, Montana. On my way to my campsite for the evening, I'll make brief stops at Missouri Headwaters State Park and Madison Buffalo Jump State Park.
I'll be honest about Monday by saying that the sites I'm visiting are not high on my list, but need to be visited because they are National Park Sites and it's unlikely that I'll be back this way during the rest of my National Parks conquest. The first is Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area. I hope to get some pictures of the park's Yellowtail Dam. In the afternoon, I'll be making a return visit to Little Bighorn Canyon National Monument, the site of Custer's Last Stand. I visited in 2002, but didn't do a very good job photographing it. I'll be staying in Miles City, Montana for the evening.
I'll be rising early again on Tuesday, heading Northeast into Western North Dakota and two frontier forts, Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site and Fort Buford State Park. After a brief stop at the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park (another park I visited in 2002), I'll visit my third fort of the day, Fort Clark, and Knife River Indian Villages, the remains of Mandan Villages. I'm staying at Lake Sakakawea State park that evening.
Wednesday is 'Best of North Dakota' day. I start in the morning with the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center near Washburn, and the replica of Fort Mandan, Lewis & Clark's winter home in 1804-1805. A long,what is sure to be flat and boring drive of 200 miles takes me to Fort Totten, another plains fort. Gingras Trading Post is a North Dakota State Park, a reconstruction of a settlement era fur trading post near the Canadian border. That evening I will be camping just South of Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Exploring Winnipeg is how Thursday morning will be spent. Near noon I'll be heading for Lower Fort Garry, a Canadian National Historic Site North of Winnipeg. After that, I'll driving to the Northwest Angle, the Northernmost point in the 48 contiguous states, and an anomaly in that it can not be reached from road from anywhere in the U.S. After many days of camping, I'll be staying at a motel just across the American border in Warroad, Minnesota.
Friday is the last full day of this trip. In the morning, I am scheduled to do the North Canoe Tour in Voyagers National Park. From there I will be re-entering Canada for the long drive to Thunder Bay, then South to Grand Portage National Monument. I hope to be able to reach Grand Portage before the visitor's center closes at 5 P.M. so I can start the 900 mile drive home in the evening, rather than having to wait until after seeing Grand Portage on Saturday morning. If I get started home on Friday night, I should be back around 6 Saturday night, if not it will be 1 A.M or maybe not until Sunday before I get home.

Anyway it goes, the trip will probably be about 8000 miles. I hope gas stays around $2.75 a gallon, although I have been budgeting for $3.00 a gallon. This will my last post before hitting the road on Friday.