Glacier National Park

We finally made it to Glacier, it’s been a few years since we found out about a national park near us.  We first heard about Glacier watching 20/20 In An Instant on ABC about a father and daughter being attacked by a bear.  It was a riveting story and thankfully they survived and we were amazed to find out there was such a beautiful place nearby.

 

We’d reserved A site at St. Mary Campground just to make sure we had a spot the first night.

The campground itself was just ok, not much of a view and I felt a bit claustrophobic.

But… the surrounding areas and views were amazing!

We made plans to hike to St. Mary Falls the next day and wanted to capture the sunrise so we decided we’d get up around 4 a.m. After driving for 8 hours it wasn’t a problem falling asleep while the sun was still shining, we were spent.

We headed west up on the Going to the Sun Road and saw a moose who stayed long enough for us to get a quick grainy picture.

The morning was so peaceful, there was a slight breeze and on occasion the scent of wildflowers would ecompass my senses.

 

The hike was a mile long and we did our best to make sure if there were any bears around they heard us coming.  Hey bear, hey bear, hey bear was our hiking mantra.

We did encounter a deer that was more than happy to keep us company along our walk.

This area is quite famous, Forest Gump “was running” through this area.

Wild Goose Island is featured in the beginning of the Shining as is Going to The Sun Road.

Wonderful campsite, highly recommend.  we rode our bikes to the visitor center, had a snack, looked at the souvenirs and skipped some rocks in the lake.

After the storm passes we take a walk to the epiphany bench and have a real heart to heart. Although we paid to stay the night at Two Medicine Campground we were both restless and ready to head home. Neither one of us wanted to just stay and relax. It was as if we were trying to do the norm of the camping world and we’ve never been the norm.  So, we said, so what, lets go! It was around 4pm and on our way out we stopped to see another fall.

We drove for a couple of hours to make it to Lake McDonald on the West side of the park just in time to capture the sun setting.

We decided that we’d drive for a few more hours towards home until we made it to the 50,000 silver dollar store and just sleep in the lot like old times with the semi trucks. Mitch finds something soothing about sleeping with the sounds of the semi trucks running through the night, and I love to get some gas station coffee bright and early in the morning. It’s a win-win.

So we learned that we don’t really want to stay at the campsites, we want to see the sights. 

Also, we realized that just because we can make food in Harvy, we don’t really want to. We are on vacation! We want to eat the gas station nacho cheese, get iced coffees, try out the local food and just enjoy the journey.

Glacier is a hikers paradise, a picture-takin haven and a place you just gotta see to see!