Gorgeous pictures! I can never get enough of the mountains! Now I really can't wait till we drive out to BC this summer again! We usually take the route through Jasper too and I am in awe the whole time, no matter how often we've driven it! DH is talking about going south to Calgary (and visit some friends there) and then go to BC from there for something different, but we'll see what happens!

David, Interesting to read about your methods and results. Although I've gardened for 40 plus years I really never used containers till 2 years ago. This is my 3rd growing season with them. So far I've mainly grown tomatoes in them. Have one pepper plant in a container this year. Last year was better than the first and so far this year the plants are looking good for what they are and as late as I planted most of them. Due to the drought and my current work situation I only have plants in 11 containers. I use the 25-30 gallon feed tubs. I can get all I want for free from about any farmer/rancher around here who has cattle. They work well. I've grown in smaller containers. My personal opinion is the bigger the better and I would want at least a 5 gallon for even a smaller type tomato. I know several growers who have good results in ten gallon containers. I recycle my mix like you do. This year I added some HuMore compost and a little of the organic fertilizer I used this year. I tried a product from Fox Farms called Happy Frog for tomatoes. I've been impressed with the results. I also mixed a little in around the top and will again around Sept 1st. My plans for my container plants is I will move them from the partially shaded area they are currently in to full sun as the temps cool and then on into my lean to I put up and hope to extend my season 4-6 weeks. Some of these plants will be just starting to produce I figure about the time I move them inside. One thing I've found here in our heat that David don't have a problem with is the containers and especially the black ones will get real hot and even cook the roots. This year I put straw bales around the containers and also mulched the top well. I can tell a big difference even in the extreme heat we had this summer. I've used several potting mixes. I prefer the Ball mixes. I don't use potting soil. I have mixed in some manure compost before from my pens, some pecan hulls and some leaves if I have them. But this year it was just the HuMore mixed in with what was in there except the last 2 which got some Soil Mender I had handy and wanted to use up. Bonnie and anyone else growing okra in a container. I wonder how Stewart's Zeebest would do in a container. It is a big bushy plant so one to a container would be plenty. And one of them will usually out produce several regular plants. And a good eating variety also. In the garden I space them 3-5 feet a part. Jay

I have made the trip from Ishpeming to Redwoods and camped years ago. I would certainly leave the dogs with a friend. Its difficult being in a car with 3 kids --at least we had a motor home the last few years of camping. California and some of the Western states do not have frequent Highway rest stops or they are under repair, so you may have to rely on stopping at restaurants and that won't be helpful to the dogs. In Michigan you could stop in lots of places and let the dogs run--I wouldn't try that in the Western deserts, or the freeways. What you may want to try is what mariend suggested. Join AAA; their trip ticks and State books are wonderful. they will tell you where gas stations are and interesting places to stop. Whats even a good idea is we have a Garmin GPS. It will tell you restaurants, gas stations and give you directions vocally. We wouldn't travel anywhere without that. If your car has one built in--wonderful. I would recommend that with tent camping your options in the West are more limited than you would guess. Unless you have been here --I would suggest a KOA campground every so often so you can wash clothes, etc. Do they take dogs? Redwoods NP is okay--but consider Zion or Bryce. They have huge trees also. You would have to make reservations now (unless its too late) We just finished a 14 hour plane trip and then a 6 hour car trip with 3 kids (at least they were grandchildren) and it was Australia but it made me recall traveling with my own kids when they were younger. You yearn for peace, quiet and a shower at the end of the day. As you travel across the West,available campgrounds aren't at convenient intervals. We live in California and have sometimes hunted a long time when we didn't have reservations. With two dogs you would have very limited choices in some places.

We did stay in the park on the west side for 3 nights and it was incredibly convenient to access the trails nearby or drive a few miles early enough to get a parking spot for the others. Then we moved outside the park to Whitefish and stayed a couple of nights, then to Kalispell. A lot of moving around but we did it for convenience as we only had a little over a week that trip. The second time we went concentrated on the eas5 side. We used park lodging near Two Medicine (beds were terrible but the lodge was beautiful). I have heard they updated the rooms since 2017 and they needed it. Then we moved to a small motor lodge outside St Mary near the East entrance and it was surprisingly nice and convenient. I cannot recall the name at the moment. Then we spent 3 nights at Many Glacier Lodge which was very nice. There were several trails accessible frim the lodge. They had regular transportation over to the campground side which was also the trailhead for many nice hiking trails. Good luck with your planning. With several family members, i dont blame you a bit for staying in a VRBO if convenient to an entrance. It allows for laundry, some meal and snack prep and for everyone to spread out a little. And wifi! We didnt have bear spray but we did use Bear Bells. On almost every trail we saw a park ranger or two and they were advising hikers if they had seen bears. We never saw any except on a boat ride late one evening.