From Bend, Oregon to Bismark, North Dakota

On the way out of Bend, we decided to stop again at Smith's Rocks. Both of us were determined that we could actually paint this place. We allowed ourselves time to do good sketches, one line and one value. We both would have stayed to paint, but we had to make it to Spokane, WA by dinner time. We both think we have good sketches and photos. I wrote extensive color and value notes on mine. Look for it when I get back to the studio.

After two nights with family in Spokane, we headed northeast for Glacier National Park. It was a long drive, so we decided to stay the night in West Glacier before we headed over Going to the Sun Highway to our campsite in St. Mary's campground. The motel I selected had fantastic views. Tom did a great painting there. The room was very clean, very small, and very basic. It was also really pricey. For the money, we could have stayed in West Glacier itself and had stuff to do.

The next morning, we headed over Logan Pass. There is construction on the steep west side, but we were lucky to have only a six or seven minute delay. Most of the delays are 30 minutes. We decided to push on to the campground and drive back to the meadows on the top another day. The picture at the top is of our campsite and Tom's painting from the day before that he wanted to work on a bit more.

We spent the next two days exploring the park and painting. The next three paintings are pleine air pieces we did. I have decided to post Tom's paintings from the trip also.

From St. Mary's Lake

12 x 18 soft pastels on Wallis

Tom Willa

View from St. Mary's Lake

12 x 18 soft pastels on Wallis
Miki Willa

Jackson Mountain

9 x 12 soft pastels on Art Spectrum Colourfix
Miki Willa

After we left the park, we headed east on Highway 2 through Montana to Glasgow, where we found another interesting motel. It was a very hot drive. This morning, we headed southeast to pick up interstate 94. We stopped at a very cool dinosaur museum, looked at the North Dakota Badlands in Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and drove through the rain to Bismark. Tom picked this place to stay which has reliable internet access, plenty of room, a laundry (thank goodness), and very cool furniture. I am not sure how much painting will be done between now an Maine. The weather forecast is dismal so we may not be camping much until after the 16th. Hopefully, it will clear up by then. If we don't get paintings done, I will post some great photos from Glacier in the next few days.