With two working parents and two kids in school (yeah, Jace is in Kindergarten now, can you believe it?) it seems like we are all constantly going in different directions. That's why our annual family vacation is so important to us - it gives us a chance to reconnect as a family. This year was Jeff's turn to choose the vacation destination. As a kid, his family went to Glacier National Park. He could only remember bits and pieces of it, so he decided that's where he wanted to go. We talked our friends, the Williams family, into going with us as well. We started planning this vacation in March, and chose July as the ideal time to go. That seemed FOREVER away, but suddenly we found ourselves buying a house and selling the one we were in - and before we knew it we were packing up the camp trailer and on our way to Glacier!
Day 1
The guys wanted to leave as early in the morning as possible so that the kids would (hopefully) be asleep for the majority of the 10-hour drive. So at 4:00am we hit the road. The kids slept for about 3 hours which was nice, but there wasn't much sleeping after that. I won't get into the details of the remaining 4 hours of that day's drive, but lets just say that the activity boxes that I had hid under the kids' seats in hopes of keeping the little ones entertained for a few hours only managed to keep them entertained for about 10 minutes. It was a LOOOOONG drive.
We knew we would have to find a place to stop and camp for the night. Question was, where? We ended up following a dirt road out of Augusta and just when we thought we should turn around and go back we found Willow Creek Reservoir. And it just so happened to have two open camp sites for us and our friends to camp at. Perfect!
The shore of the reservoir had a TON of crayfish claws and the kids had a ball collecting them. This was great because it gave me just enough time to put together some Café Rio Salad for dinner. We ate and then built a fire and made s'mores while we watched the sun go down.
Day 2
We still had about a 3-hour drive to get to St. Mary's, which is on the east end of Glacier National Park where we would be camping for the next 3 days. However, the drive got more and more scenic as we got closer to the Park. We could see the gorgeous mountains with snow on them and just had to take some pictures out the window of the truck.
Finally we made it to St. Mary's Campground and set up camp.
We had Taco Soup for dinner and then decided to take a drive and go check out the Park a little bit. About 3 miles away from our campground we saw this...
Yes, that is a BEAR! Now, I knew we were going to be in bear country, but I honestly didn't expect to see one within 3 miles of our campsite! But I can totally see why a bear would want to live here -
I'd want to live here too!
That, my friends, is St. Mary's Lake and it is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! So beautiful, in fact, that we had to get a picture of all of us in front of it, even though we had all been in the truck all day and didn't look camera-ready...
You can't see it in the photo above, but there is a small island out in the middle of the lake called Wild Goose Island. Here it is.
Further up the road, we stopped at Sunrift Gorge where we saw this guy...
Sunrift Gorge had a lot of pretty little waterfalls, and, again, even though we weren't particularly camera-ready, we couldn't pass up getting some pictures with the beautiful background.
One more quick shot of St. Mary's Lake on our way back to camp. These two are the best of friends and had so much fun together!
Day 3
We woke up this morning and had cereal for breakfast and then quickly packed a lunch to take on the road with us. Then we headed up Logan Pass on our way to Going-to-the-Sun Road.
First stop was this HUGE waterfall.
While we were in the area, we decided to explore Siyeh Creek that this waterfall goes into. Jon told his kids it was called Siyeh Creek because if you fall in then "See ya!" We all got quite a chuckle out of that. Jeff wasn't scared though. He loves to jump in and get his feet wet - literally.
This picture (below) is taken at the top of Logan Pass. Do you see the road that is cut along the mountain on the right? That is Going-to-the-Sun Road. It is so narrow that we had to fold our side mirrors on the truck in so that they wouldn't get clipped by the mountain or by the cars coming the other direction.
We stopped to get a family photo with the gorgeous background.
And Jaceley decided to do some yoga.
Jon and Korbin decided to join in.
Seriously, these views though...
At the bottom of Going-to-the-Sun Road, we found this little lake. The water was so clear that you could see the bottom, although it was 14-feet deep!
While we were here we found a shady spot and decided to have lunch.
Further in towards the west side of Glacier, we stopped to see the Sacred Dancing Cascades.
Then we turned around to head back up Going-to-the-Sun Road. It really is like you are going to the sun. With incredible views all along the way.
We stopped at Logan Pass Visitor Center and proceeded on a hike. We saw mountain goat.
Jaceley also became friends with a ground squirrel.
Day 4
This was my FAVORITE day of our entire trip. After a delicious breakfast of scones and hot chocolate, we packed a lunch and loaded up in the truck to head to Many Glacier.
On our way in, we saw a black bear. Unfortunately just as we saw it, the bear jumped into some bushes and was gone so I didn't get a picture. It was still very cool to see though.
We stopped at a gift shop and bought the kids some souvenir binoculars. Then made it to the trail head and decided to go on one of the many hikes that Glacier has to offer.
Since we had very small kids with us, we decided to hike to Redrock Lake. 1.3 miles seemed very do-able. And so with the bear-spray in tow we headed on our way.
The kids and I played a game on the way where we would start telling a story and then we would all take turns making up what happened next in the story. That kept them entertained for most of the way. I also warned them early-on in the hike that the first person to start whining would be the first person that gets fed to the bears... so there was very little complaining on the hike which made it very enjoyable.
We knew we were getting close to the lake when we crossed this creek.
Sure enough, about 150 yards up the trail we were looking at this.
The lake was absolutely GORGEOUS! And an added bonus - can you see the waterfall feeding into the lake?
Of course we had to hike over to the waterfall and check it out. And of course Jeff was climbing all over it.
We could tell that a storm was coming in and that it was going to rain soon, so we headed back. It did start to sprinkle on us a little bit, but only enough to keep us cool on the hike back.
On the way back, we decided to go check out Fishercap Lake. I'm so glad that we did, because when we got to the lake we saw this lovely lady just enjoying the water.
So just in the space of a few short hours, we saw a bear, a stunning lake with a waterfall, a moose, and even some little otter swimming around. LOVED THIS DAY! And what a way to end it... the Williams' made us some Dutch Oven chicken and potatoes when we got back to camp!
If you ever get the chance to go to Glacier, I would highly suggest going on the hikes. Even if you don't enjoy hiking or are afraid of bears or just hate fun... DO IT! You will not regret it!
Day 5
There was a group of boy scouts from Washington state camping just a few spots away from us. Now, if you know Jeff, you know that he loves to meet people and make new friends. Well, he ended up becoming friends with the scouts and their leaders. Before I knew it he had made plans to go on a hike with them to a Ptarmigan Tunnel. So he and Jon and the boy scouts headed out around 7:00 in the morning. This is what his day looked like:
Can you see the photo bomber in the picture below?
Jeff calls this picture (below) "The Great Cornholio."
On their way back they stopped at Iceberg Lake. And of course they just had to jump in it. BRRR!
As for Mandi, me, and the kids, this is what our day looked like.
Day 6
The idea was to drive to a corner of the park called "Two Medicine" and find a spot to camp at the campground there.
But when we got there, it was completely full. So we ended up finding an abandoned campground a few miles away. It seemed really weird to us that there was this campground right next to the reservoir, complete with fire pits and everything, but there wasn't a soul around. Oh well. That's where we camped and it worked out fine. Once we got everything set up we drove back up to Two Medicine and spent the day at the lake.
Then we headed back to our lonely campground and had some spaghetti for dinner and sat around the campfire listening to music, talking, and enjoying our final evening at Glacier.
Day 7
I don't have a whole lot to say about this day except that it was a LOOOOONG drive. We stopped in Missoula and camped with Yogi Bear at Jellystone.
Which was fine with the kids because there was a pool!
So that was our adventure at Glacier National Park. Jeff is already planning a trip back there next year. Although we saw and did a lot of things, there is still SO MUCH that we didn't get to do this time around. I'm looking forward to exploring Lake McDonald, going down the Trail of the Cedars, and hiking the Garden Wall.
Anyways, if you ever get the chance to go to Glacier National Park, do it! It's definitely worth the drive!
