Day 27

We'd heard in our few days here that the smoke was pretty clear on the west side of the park so we were anxious to take the Going-To-The-Sun road across the mountains. As I was trading Brayden for Ryan, Dave spoke with someone who was at Many Glacier just north of us and it was clear. This was the spot I really wanted to go so we went to the Visitor's Center to see what kind of hikes there were to the Grinnell Glacier. Unfortunately for us it was already 10am and the hike was 7 miles so we weren't really prepared to go, but we headed up there anyway to see the views.

It was a bit hazy along Lake Sherberne but the water was that spectacular turquoise that beckoned us to the shore. it was quite windy and the water was frigid so the girls weren't even interested in dipping their toes in. We even found a huge heart rock that we couldn't fit to take home so we took a picture to remember it.

After going through the old stone Many Glacier entrance we parked near the Many Glacier Hotel to take in the views. The hotel itself was beautiful, built in a Swiss chalet style architecture complete with staff in leiderhosen. It sat on the small Swiftcurrent Lake which was fed with the Grinnell Glacier as a backdrop. We had to get a partial family picture to remember the view. The haze was already settling into this area so we imagined just how amazing this view would be without it. And we made a note to return here next year on our trip somehow.

As we left the same way we came the view had dramatically changed due to the smoke so we were glad we'd seen it when we did. We headed back through the east entrance for our trip across the mountains to the west side. The day before I'd downloaded an audio tour of the road so we queued it up to see if we could learn a little bit along the way. We drove through Two Dog Flats, Rising Sun, Sunrise Gorge, and several more spots before we reached Logan Pass.

About 300 yards before we reached the parking area at the top I noticed people walking from their cars parked on the side of the road to the pass. This was a sure sign there would be parking issues up ahead so Dave dropped us off at the curb and joined the other 20 people casing the parking lot for a spot. We went up to the visitors center to stamp passport books and take a look at the exhibits.

I looked out the window every few minutes to see if I could spot our roof cargo carrier moving around and after about 5 minutes I couldn't spot it anymore. I figured Dave had finally decided to go back down the road a little ways to park when he walked in saying he'd gotten a spot. We'd just talked to the kids about the meaning of karma how good things happen to you when you do good things. This meant we could stay for the program and do a very cool hike to Hidden Lake.

The hike was about 3 miles and looked relatively easy along a paved and gravel path up the mountain behind the center. We enjoyed the view along the way of what we learned later were snow fields on the mountain instead of small glaciers. This hike may have been the most breathtaking we'd done so far. Even with the smoke it was just beautiful. We could only imagine how much better it would be without it!

Here is a perspective picture Dave took to show just how ginormous this place is. See those spots about 2/3 up the rocks in the front? Those are two people trying to make it up to the snow field!

We counted six small waterfalls on the way then made it to the lake where we were treated with a gorgeous view of the lake. The trail extended to the bottom by the lake, but we decided to head back to catch the program. Ryan did try out the water here along the way! Brrr!!

At the end we watched a little Columbian Ground Squirrel who'd obviously had a lot of luck begging for food here. He was definitely very cute! After Ryan bought a fox she'd had her eye on, we dropped in on a program just finishing so we had the ranger to ourselves. We were all excited to learn more about the weasels and wolverines that live in the alpine up there. We learned a little more about glaciers and headed back to the parking lot to continue.

As we were leaving we told a cruising car to meet us at the end of our row to take our parking spot. Unfortunately he was blocked by big SUV who refused to leave even after he politely asked. We discussed sitting there until the SUV lost patience and moved but just decided to leave instead. We didn't see the car again on our way out so we were all hoping he got an even better spot. This was the perfect time for a conversation about bad karma!

We made it through the rest of the drive learning quite a bit about the surveying and construction of the Going to the Sun road way back in the 1920s and 1930s. We pulled into the Apgar Visitor's Center just before Grammie and Brayden. They had all finished their junior ranger books on the first day but were waiting until today when they were all together.

Grammie had leftover gumbo thawing for us so once we got all set up we headed to her site. Dave tried his best to tune her satellite for the FSU vs Alabama game, but it seems there might just have been too many trees. He'd asked several people in the park if they knew of any places we could go to catch the game but we were in the woods far away from any kind of sports bar. We settled for text updates from Peepaw and devoured our dinner.

Once we were all cleaned up we played cards for a little while then played a game the girls had made up. It is a cross between charades and improv with teams of 2 people. They'd actually taken the time to write up rule books with paper and duct tape! Look for "Two Brains - the ultimate thinking game", coming soon to a store near you!

We ended the night with the program at the amphitheater about "Being WILD". It was a great progam about the evolution of thought about what it means to be wild and where wilderness really is. Laney even had a part in the presentation reading a quote from Lord Byron. At the end we asked the ranger for hiking suggestions as Dave found out the trail we had planned to hike would be closed due to the fire. This fire is really starting to annoy me.


We crashed after our little trek home and fell asleep to the sounds of the lake. It was almost like home with the tiny, gentle waves rolling to the shore singing me to sleep.

Day 26

We woke up to beautiful blue skies this morning so we hurried to eat and get ready to enjoy the day. Grammie was to meet us at the Visitor's Center bright and early so we headed that way. The smoke was still visible to the west and we expected it to move our way throughout the day, but at least we could enjoy the view this morning.

The kids had been excited about exploring the tee pees at the center the day before so that was first this morning!  This area of the park was exceptionally windy so it was actually very nice to step inside for a break!

This national park is pretty unique as it shares a border with the Canadian park so they have developed a partnership to manage the parks together.  You'll also notice the Blackfeet Native American flag flying there too as their partnership with NPS is important as well.

We learned all about the history and wildlife of the park, the treaties created with the native americans already here and the environmental issues the park is facing. There was a topographical display of the mountains in the park and the changes the glaciers have gone through over the last 100 years and what is expected in the next 20 years.  The lights below represent the number of glaciers in the early 1900s.

The lights in this picture below represent the number of glaciers now.

And this is what is expected by 2030. None. No glaciers. What is Glacier National Park without glaciers??

The exhibit of native american stories and legends was especially interesting, but the kids were getting restless so I didn't get to see all of it. I grabbed a trail map for our area and got all the backpacks ready while the kids put on proper shoes and had a snack.  We were able to hop on the next hiker shuttle to our trail head within a few minutes.

Our hike today was to St. Mary Falls first. This was a busy trail through the forest with beautiful view of the St Mary lake. But when kids see water and rocks, they must go in! Brave Ryan was in after a few false starts, but the other two took a little while.

They begged me to come in because I hadn't back in Jackson but conveniently I didn't have my water shoes. They didn't either but they didn't remember to mention that! I had a little friend pestering me the whole time anyway.













We returned to the trail back to the fork in the trail that moved closer to the lake toward the next waterfall. The views on this hike were even better as we hiked along a ridge next to the lake.

By the time we all got to this waterfall it was unanimous - we all needed to pee. We stayed for a picture and kept going down the trail to the gorge and the shuttle stop.   The gorge was so neat to see we all wanted to climb back there to explore but knew better. 

We decided instead to wait for the shuttle. Brayden suggested we play an animal charade game while we waited to we took turns acting out animals in the park. Guess what Ryan was acting??

A bighorn sheep of course!!

We arrived back at our campground with a few hours before dinner, so we decided to relax and enjoy playing a few games.  We are still learning Munchkin so this is Dave's view much of the time during the game! Is that not the biggest set of directions you've ever seen for a card game??


I was starting dinner just as Grammie drove up so we enjoyed broccoli soup and her delicious salad then she surprised us all with brownies for dessert! As we were cleaning up the interpretive ranger let us know the program would be starting soon so we headed over after a few minutes.

Tonight's program topic was wildflower to which I almost backed out and stayed at the campsite. I decided against it as we'd never been to a bad program and I was so glad I did. This ranger did a fantastic job educating us all about the wildflowers in Glacier. We had so much fun along with everyone else in the crowd!

She did especially well when there were a few bears walking on the rocks above our campground and the wildlife specialist was blowing air horns and the campers were all screaming to scare her and the cubs away. She just happened to be in the middle of her speech about bear safety as we watch the momma and adorable cubs climb by on the rocks up above her.  What a treat to see them!

We said goodbye to Grammie once more with a plan to meet up on the west side of the park for our next few nights. Brayden was a little nervous about the night after spotting the bear but he fell asleep before we did for sure.

Day 25

It was a pretty windy night and a couple short rain showers. We woke up a little grumpy but we had power here so everything was charged for our trip back into the woods for 4 days. We were all excited to get to Glacier National Park. It was definitely the place I was most looking forward to this year. We try to teach the kids to live in the moment and appreciate where you are but I was having a hard time doing that today!

As I made some delicious cinnamon swirl french toast, Dave got into his morning routine of packing the tent. In years past I pack my tent before I start cooking and the kids pack theirs after they eat. It's been so nice to have Dave thrown into the mix especially now that he's gotten into the groove of setup and packup.

I decided to take the interstate route today as it would be another work day for Dave. It added another 45 minutes or so to our drive, but I had a Trader Joe's on our list so it would be worth it. While the winding roads, canyon gorges, and mountain passes are so much fun to drive through, they aren't fairing to well with his internet connection. Dave spread out in the back seat of the car while I had my new navigator up front handling music. He was more of a Ninetendo DS player today though.

We were getting low on gas but I knew where there is a Trader Joe's there is a sizeable city so I decided to wait until we got off he interstate. We passed the city of Great Springs which seemed odd. When we left at our exit it looked like we were driving into a ghost town. And when the GPS announced we were at our destination I didn't even slow down. I found a gas station about a mile away while Dave tried to figure out my mistake.

In one pass of my trip planning I use the Trader Joe's website to find locations we'll be driving near and add them to my list. I'd added one for Great Falls, Montana and my GPS even had it listed. As I pumped gas Dave found this particular Trader Joe's was a fishing supply shop that was now permanently closed. And the closest one was in Spokane, Washington.  We got some travel candy to make us feel better and got back on the road headed west hoping we had enough groceries for our stay in the woods. Grammie was supposed to be stopping at some point as well so we weren't too worried.

The detour to Great Falls took us away from the mountains.  At one point I really felt like we were in Oklahoma again. But about 45 minutes before we were supposed to arrive they appeared again and the disappointment of the day was replaced with excitement for the next four.

Once we got into the Visitor's Center right inside the park I sent Grammie a text but they were quite a ways behind us. We grabbed junior ranger books for everyone and headed to our campground to check in. But as we were driving up to the ranger station there was a big, bright sign saying there had been frequent bear activity in the campground and no tent campers would be allowed to stay. We were disappointed but glad we would be safer at the new campground 5 miles down the road.

We settled into our new mountain home nicely with Dave snacking and working, the kids finding a rock to climb, and me getting things organized for our stay. We headed back up to the Visitor's Center on the chance Grammie would be close but she was still about an hour away with some crazy winding roads to go. I stopped at our general store for some beer and ice and decided to also grab some bear spray. The chances were low we would have an encounter but I really wanted the opportunity to hike and enjoy the park without worrying about bears.

Ever since we'd arrived to Wyoming we'd heard about all kinds of fires happening in Montana, Washington and Idaho that were filling the skies to the west with haze. We didn't know better so the view was fine in the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. Here we really began to see it. There was a fire in the park that had already consumed 1600 acres and the smoke was all around us. There was even small pieces of ash falling from the sky occasionally. The sun was orange and the day was already cooling off at 4pm with the smoke blocking much of the sun.  We were disappointed again, but tried our best to make the best of it.

I called Grammie to let her know our campground change and to try to figure out where to meet. She was to be camping just outside the park so we decided to meet them at our campground for our night program. Just as I was putting our veggie taco dinner on the table Grammie and Ryan pull into our campsite to join us - perfect timing!  It turns out they were actually staying the in the campground we were transferred from so Ryan got a little nervous about the reason why as she was Grammie's partner for the next 2 days.

Once we were all finished and the dishes were done we headed to the night program. We had learned the east portion of Glacier National Park originally belonged to the Blackfeet Native American community and tonight's program was a music performance of stories by a descendant of the native members of the tribe.

We laughed a lot and sang a little as we heard Native American tales and history brought to life. It was a great introduction to the park that we all enjoyed. Grammie and Ryan left us with plans to meet up at the Visitor's Center for the movie and exhibit walk through before our first day.

We were lucky enough to be visiting another International Dark Sky park these few days. The moon was beautiful low in the sky as we left the program. It was not going to be very dark this night!