The Lechler Crew

Our summer trip this year was a dream trip. We started in Del Rio made it Banff and worked our way back to Texas in five weeks. Colorado has my heart but Lake Louise and Morian Lake in Banff National Park are in the top most beautiful places I’ve visited.

Let’s get started!

My son did a bass camp in Del Rio, we dropped him off and went to Leaky, we relaxed in the Frio River, Hiked to Old Baldi and watched the kids dance at Garner State Park.

After four nights we picked Jagger up (he won second place in the camp tournament!) and drove 83 all the way to South Dakota. There we visited Mount Rushmore, Badlands National Park and Crazy Horse. I never had a desire to go to Mount Rushmore but I am so glad we went, it was very cool. The weather was nasty, we lucked out at Rushmore but Crazy Horse was a bust, the clouds completely covered it.

Back on the road we crossed through Wyoming and Montana into Canada. We slept at a Pilot Gas Station on the way. Going through the border was eventful because we had a gun, that’s another post entirely. We eventually got through after my husband checked the gun at a local bar, seriously.

We got to Banff a day early and got a spot in the Banff National Park. I’m glad we did as I didn’t realize Lake Louise and downtown Banff are around forty minutes apart. Downtown Banff is a picturesque town with great shopping and restaurants. We circled around the historic Fairmont Banff Springs, it’s gorgeous. The mosquitoes in this area were horrid! I’d been warned but was still surprised at how bad they were, it felt like we were home in the marsh.

We had a spot a Lake Louise for four nights but only stayed three. The weather was bad and we were ready to explore our next destination. In this area we hiked to Lake Agnes Tea House for tea. The tea house was built by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1091 as a refuge for hikers and started serving tea in 1905. I was impressed at the range of people that made it the seven mile hike, it wasn’t easy. We walked around Lake Morian and the guys tried flying fishing but found that the fishing in this area wasn’t good. I downloaded the Gypsy app, we used it to drive toward Jasper National Park. It was very informative and well worth the money, it pointed out things we would not have noticed on our own (like Wolf Lake). We rode an ice explorer truck the to Athabasca Glacier, it is home to one of the most accessible glaciers. It was amazing, a true once in a lifetime experience! The trucks are insane and standing on a Glacier was rad! Derek and I snuck off for a date night at the Fairmont Banff this picture was taken around ten PM!

I’d booked St. Mary’s in Glacier National Park in February when I stated working on the trip. We got lucky and arrived the day Going to the Sun Road opened. It was stunning! The guys had a great fly fishing trip one evening, Julia and I stayed at camp and were outside when the park rangers came and said we needed to get inside because of a wild bear sighting in the area! That’s a first, we never saw the bear but the guys saw a moose while hiking to fish. I would stay on the West side of the lake next time. There is more to do in that area and Lake McDonald is very pretty.

Montana bound! We stayed in Dillon two nights at the KOA where the guys hooked up with Tom Smith’s Backcountry anglers and hired Stephen Knight and had two great fly fishing days.

Yellowstone Bound! We didn’t have a plan here and ended up staying around forty minutes outside the park for two nights then right outside the park for a night so the guys could fish and Julia and I could walk to the Wolf and Bear Sanctuary. She loved it, they have a feed the bear program where they remove the bears from their enclosed area and have the kids go in to hide food and then get to watch the bears search for the food they hid. We enjoyed seeing the wolves and watching them howl!

We loved exploring Yellowstone, we spent three days in the park and could have spent much more time. We did a quick tour and stopped at all the highlights. The Grand Prism, the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and Old Faithful were my favorite. We woke up a 5am one morning to try to see wolves in Lamar Valley but the weather was very foggy and we didn’t see any. The guys enjoyed the fishing!

Next was Grand Teton National Park, it is GORGEOUS and I would go back there. Jackson Hole is an adorable town and would be a great couples trip. We didn’t stay the night there but did drive around and checked out a few lakes.

Colorado time! We headed from Teton to Rocky Mountain National Park. We spent 21 days in 2017 in Colorado but didn’t get this far North. We drove the Trail Ridge Road to the top, it was the highest elevation of our entire trip and we could feel the altitude. It was a very pretty drive and worth doing.  We stayed at a KOA here.  Jagger was fishing and got a hook stuck in his hand, our only ER visit of the trip. We debating staying here or heading South for the fourth of the July. We got a spot in Breckenridge and decided to go!

In Breck we stayed at Tiger Run Resort, the most expensive place we camped at the entire trip. It was very nice and around 10 minutes to downtown Breckenridge. For the 4th of July we went to the parade in town, ate, shopped and enjoyed the wonderful weather. We took the kids to a rope course in Idaho Springs and it was amazing! The kids loved it, it was a little scary for me. I highly recommend it if you are in the area, here is the link https://www.raftingcolorado.com/colorado-zip-line-tours/

Finally, we headed back to Marble one of our favorites. I read about hot springs right outside Marble so we found it, it was an interesting group of people. We enjoyed a few meals at Slow Groovin BBQ one of my favorite restaurants in the world, drove our land cruiser to Marble Mine and spent lots of time fishing and relaxing. I LOVE this town. We have stayed at Meri Das Park in downtown Marble but like Bogan Flats better because of the river access.

Ouray was next it’s my MOST fav town in Colorado, the views are gorgeous and there is so much to do in the area. We are booked for four nights here this summer and I can’t wait. We are going to tent  camp at the top of a mountain pass. We found a hot springs located on the Million Dollar Highway, it was just us there as it was really difficult to find.

Durango was next, we have some friends that recently purchased a home close to Purgatory Ski Resort so we went to spend a few days with them  FRIENDS, Finally. We loved spending time with them. The guys mountain biked at the ski resort and we did the Apline Roller coaster. We saw a bear and her cub!

The last spot on our trip was Sipapu ski resort right outside of Taos, New Mexico. It’s where we’ve skied the last several years. We always enjoy seeing it in the summer and spending a few nights in this area.

We love spending time with the kids and exploring new places. Riding in a motorhome is such a luxury. If you are considering getting one I highly recommend it for some many reasons.