Glacier National Park - Red Rock Falls

Hi everyone,

I'm back again, just like I said I'd be, and this time I get to tell you about my rugged athleticism! After getting up super early in the morning and driving across the Going to the Sun Road we ended up at Many Glacier where we planned to go on a few hikes. The first one, which I will tell you about today, was a somewhat easy 3.6 miler out to Red Rock Falls. The path wasn't too rugged, fairly level, and pretty good territory for bears. We made sure to do our bear yells before we rounded any corners and there were a few other people on the trail when we hiked it so we figured we'd be okay.

Obligatory picture by the trail head sign to start our hike.

Neato tree that we happened upon on the side of the trail.

Gorgeous views as we hiked through the valley toward the falls!

Same peak as above but from a different vantage point.

Rushing Red Rock Falls (Can you see us over there on the right? We look kind of tiny!)

The water was sooooo clear! You can see the rocks underneath and that water was rushing really fast and hard!

On the return trip, you can see I'm starting to get a little antsy so I have to find ways to entertain myself.

The only wildlife we spotted on our entire hike! We couldn't even get a great picture of her because she was munching on grass and then just casually went across the trail giving us her backside. Oh well!

Until next time (when I take you on our really big hike) . . .

Glacier National Park - Going to the Sun Road

Hi everyone,

Do you know how hard it is to pick out pictures of Glacier? I know you probably think I have these posts stacked with photos but there are so many more in the file that we didn't have room to post.

We woke up the morning of our second day to beautiful blue skies and sunshine. We couldn't believe how different the peaks looked without the cloud cover. Gorgeous!

The plan was to drive all the way across the Going to the Sun Road and to go up to the northeastern section of the park (not up into Canada though because we didn't bring our passports) where we would spend the day checking out the trails and going for a hike or two. We left super early in the morning and the road was breathtaking!

Heaven's Peak

Gorgeous shot of the valley - you can see the river and the road.

That waterfall that looks so tiny but it was really huge!

 

Up at Logan Pass - What a difference a day makes!

This peak is Heavy Runner. We couldn't figure out how the name fit but when we went on a boat tour a few days later we found that many peaks (and other landforms) are named for members of the Blackfeet tribe.

Look at those peaks peeking up (do you like that play on words) behind the Many Glacier Hotel.

 

In my next post I'll actually take you on our first hike! Until next time . . .

One of those Big Deal Things

Hi everyone,

We interrupt our regularly scheduled posting of Glacier National Park recap to bring you a very special announcement. I HAVE LOST MY FIRST TOOTH! Yessiree, it has been wiggly for quite a while but I finally wiggled it out. Let me tell you a little about the whole experience.

Like I said, it's been wiggly for a while. I woke up this morning, a bit early I might add, and told Mom right away that my tooth felt extra wiggly. Mom told me to check with Dad because she can't do wiggly teeth. At all. Dad told me that he could wiggle it out for me but I wasn't quite ready for that. Instead I sat for about an hour and wiggled and wiggled and wiggled it. Finally it came out right in my fingers! I was super surprised at how big the hole in my mouth was and how small the actual tooth was.

I put it under my pillow even though I told Mom and Dad that I already knew there was no tooth fairy that it was really them. They weren't sure who filled me in on that one but they didn't say much in confirmation.

Until next time . . .

Glacier National Park - Going to the Sun in the Clouds

Hi everyone,

Wow, that was a long break! Here I said I'd see you back in a few days and it has been more like a week. I think getting back into our routine has taken a bit more after this trip than usual.

So, onto the onslaught of pictures! I think I already mentioned that the first day that we drove into Glacier it was a cloudy day so you couldn't actually see the peaks of the Rockies. It was still beautiful and it was nice to get a feel for what our plan of attack was going to be for the rest of the trip.

Look at those mountains!

Driving over the three arches . . .

The highest pass on the Going to the Sun Road - It was windy and cold up there!!

Do you see the cloud layer hanging right at the top of the pass? It was pretty neat to see past the clouds to the blue sky beyond.

St. Mary's Falls

Bighorn Sheep! Our first wildlife spotting!

Waterfalls, waterfalls, and more waterfalls!

This is the Weeping Wall, aptly named since every time we drove by it water was pouring down.

The view out the side of one of the tunnels with a small waterfall cascading over it.

Ahhhh, our first patch of blue sky!

Lake McDonald Lodge

Our second wildlife sighting, and in the same day too!

Until next time . . .

Glacier National Park - Lake McDonald Area

Hi everyone,

Glacier National Park is a pretty awesome place! As I mentioned earlier, we pulled into our campsite at about 1am. Thank goodness that there was no one else around the area we were staying otherwise we would have disturbed their rest for sure. We managed to get a site down by the river at a Bible camp just outside of Glacier, in Hungry Horse to be exact. It gave us a great base camp to operate out of and we had full hook up for about the same price as staying in the park dry camping.

That first morning we slept in a bit and had a relaxing morning. We spent some time coloring and drawing before we headed into Kalispell to pick up a few more missing supplies and replace our actual rubbermaids so we could organize our stuff.We ate dinner at a saloon that had sawdust on the floor. I was a bit unsure at first because it was pretty loud but once you got used to it it was kind of fun.

The second day we decided to head into the park so we could get the information needed to plan the rest of our trip. Ice cream cones in Apgar, checking out Lake McDonald Lodge and the fleet of red buses that you see all over the park gave us our first adventures. I saw these red buses everywhere and really wanted to go for a ride on one but the tours were expensive and the shortest one was 3 hours long. They are all over the park though so it was fun to keep an eye out for them.

 

Our first scenic viewpoint stop was at McDonald Falls. All the water was rushing pretty fast since it was still early in the snow melt season. You definitely wouldn't want to fall in this river! The ranger at the station said that the biggest cause of death was by drowning when people get too close to the edge of the waterfalls and rivers and then slip on the dirt or rocks and fall in.

I'll definitely live up to my warning from the last post, you know the one where I told you to be prepared for picture overload. Right now though, I'm going to wrap this up since the next set of pictures go together. See you in a few days!

Until next time . . .

First Road Trip of the Summer

Hi everyone,

First off, Happy 4th of July to you!

Are you all ready? You are about to enter the picture overload zone. As any of you who gets out and about knows, you can never capture the true beauty of nature through the lens of a camera, unless you are a national geographic photographer or something, but anyway . . . we headed out to Glacier National Park for our first road trip of the summer.

Wait, wait, wait, let me back up a second. It may not be time for picture overload yet. Before we got to Glacier we made a quick stop in Spokane to spend a few days with Grandpa and Nana. We were there over Mom's birthday so we ended up going out to Green Acres to buy her loose leaf tea that she has been waiting for the past 6 months to get. Then we ate dinner by the falls.

It was the next morning that was the real kicker. Many of you may already know this, but for those of you who don't, sometime during the night the back of our truck was broken into. When I say broken into it really wasn't broken into because we don't have a canopy or anything, but our tie down straps and bungees were all cut away and almost all of our camping gear (really our lives for 10 days) was stolen. We had 10 out of 11 rubbermaids stolen. The only rubbermaid left was Dad's clothes and shoes. Well, that and our big contico with our goose down comforter and pillows and the other big contico with all our bike stuff, and our bikes and bike trailer were still there too. I think they didn't take the bikes because they were either too loud to get out of the truck or they didn't have enough time. I mean, why would they have left Dad's rubbermaid when they took all the others. They probably got spooked by something.

You can imagine that we were just a bit upset and a bit in shock. We called the police but they don't send anyone for something like that. We started writing down all that was stolen and it was a really, really, really long list. It really would have been easier if they would have stolen the trailer attached to our truck because at least it would have been only one (or just a few) thing to think about. As it was we had 10 rubbermaids we had to think about. Who wants the clothes and shoes and hiking boots of a 5 year old? Who wants someone else's clothes, shoes, socks, underwear? It really is a surreal experience when you realize all of the things that you collect over 5 1/2 years (or almost 18 years in Mom and Dad's case). The little waffle maker they had gotten as a wedding present was in there, and while it wasn't sentimental or anything it is something that they have had for the past almost 18 years that they now have to replace. The most expensive single item was our Vitamix blender. Yes, as the insurance guy said, if you have a Vitamix you will know why we bring it camping with us. We use it every single day. The most valuable item to us was the rubbermaid that had our binder with our financial information in it. Yes, it was silly to leave that in the back of the truck but we really didn't think about these particular rubbermaids as being set apart from the others we brought. It was all our stuff so we didn't think about bringing in just those rubbermaids. The funny thing is that we usually bring in a rubbermaid for each of us but Mom thought she would be smart and only put our clothes for the two days in a backpack so we only had to bring in our toiletry bin. If we did things like normal at least we would still have Mom's, Dad's, and my bin plus the toiletries, and maybe we would have brought the other two important ones in. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20, right.

We had planned to head out to Glacier that morning, and amazingly after we called our bank and got all of our accounts changed and our cards cancelled we decided that there wasn't anything else we could do and we might as well continue on our road trip. We hit the road, stopped in Missoula to hit an REI, Ross, Walmart, and Costco to get the essentials for the rest of our trip, and got to our camping spot at about one on the morning. It was a LONG day.

And this has been a long post, so I think I'll leave you with one little teaser picture. I'll post about our Glacier trip every few days because as I said, I have a bazillion (is that a word) pictures to share with you.

Until next time . . .

Father's Day

Hi everyone,

We celebrated Father's Day this year by dedicating the whole day to Dad! We (and when I say we I really mean Mom) made cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Then we headed out to church. After church we went to the car show in the next little city over. After that it was all Dad. He didn't really know what he wanted to do so I suggested a picnic and a hike. Even though it was raining, Mom and Dad were okay with this idea so we threw together a quick lunch and headed out to the trailhead.

We were pretty much the only people out there on the trail so we had our entire lunch spot to ourselves! I can't even remember what we did after our hike but I know for dinner we took Dad to a new restaurant up at the golf course. It was okay, nothing to write home about though.

Until next time . . .