Our Monday in Glacier

At the end of the day Sunday, we piled into the car and drove the first portion of the Going to the Sun road - just as far as Rising Sun and walked to a waterfall.

Dan did his best Captain Morgan... and I look wholly unimpressed with nature. 

Monday was the real deal - Going to the Sun road from beginning to end. A few highlights:

This viewpoint

and the accompanying selfies:

and since Bekah was being Bekah, 

Dan tried to be Bekah, too.

Driving along Weeping Wall:

And this one

 

This random falls (along with 100 others) were photographed out the car window:

This peek of a peak through the trees:

I loved the light reflecting off the river through this whole valley:

Making it to the continental divide and the peak of the Going to the Sun road.

Random wildlife near Logan Pass:

An impromptu stop at Red Rocks - where half the group jumped in.

and I sat and pondered:

We ended up by a lake near Apgar.

When we made it to the other end of the park, we found a sign to the take the obligatory national park selfie. 

On our way back, we hunted for this bridge -

 

making a few stops before we found it. It was late enough in the day, we had it all to ourselves (and the sun low in the sky).

We found a bear (and some cubs) on our way back to camp. 

We celebrated a great day with some carbo-loading for the long hike the next day:

Glacier National Park Days 1 and 2

I went along with friends at the last minute as they headed out for a trip to some National Parks. It came on the heels of Oregon Ag Teachers Conference in John Day so, when all was said and done, I was gone for 2 weeks.

We left at 5am on June 25 all cozied up in the Pilot. Saturday was basically all driving.

These were my roadtrippin' pals: Dan, Michaella and my backseat pal Bekah.

It was a really long drive from Oregon so we stopped for lunch - and ate all the potatoes in Washington State.

 

And here we are with the World's Largest Purple Spoon (maybe) in East Glacier.

 

Task #1 was to find a camping spot in Glacier and they are first come, first served (and they fill early). So the first night we stayed in this 200 sqft non-murdery-looking cabin in East Glacier.

And had a chance to walk around the East Glacier Lodge to stretch our legs after 13 hours in the car. Very cool old lodge made out of full-sized old growth trees that still have the bark on them.

And the next morning we set out to find a place in Many Glacier campground, inside the Park. I must say, this is not the most comforting sign to come across as you look for a campsite. In fact, as soon as we started to unpack, a ranger came by to inform us that a Grizzly and cub had been in the campground the day before we arrived.

We were instructed about storing our food in the bear-proof storage bins provided at the campsite and told not to have anything out unless preparing, consuming or cleaning up.  

We were instructed not to have toiletries in the tent with us (apparently they smell like food) and not to rinse out water bottles or spit toothpaste in the bushes. However, we were not exactly
"roughing it" either. Our campsite was awesome.

It might help to see a map. (Click to enlarge.) We entered from the East, camped in Many Glacier, and drove the "Going to the Sun road" marked in red on this map. 

Now for some scenery. Our first hike left from Many Glacier Lodge.

This is the view across Swiftcurrent lake as you walk out of the Many Glacier Lodge!

We took the trail around the lake and up towards the Grinell Glacier. And, since it was our first real adventure in Glacier, we got a little selfie happy. And don't worry mom, we had our bear spray.

Part of the trail back was boardwalk through the woods.

And I think we found Smurf village!