Glacier National Park--Montana

Even though it's been almost a month since our visit to Glacier, thought I'd post some pics and tell you a little about our time there. Have to admit it was hard to pick which pics to post since there were so many good ones, that's my excuse for procrastination anyway. So these are all from the area of Glacier Park called Many Glacier. The glacial lakes are a stunning shade of blue! Unfortunately, we didn't make it here until the last day and liked it so much we added another day in a cabin with no bathroom (this was only for 1 night though and the bathrooms were super close, not a big deal at all). The other parts of the park pale in comparison and don't seem like they should be part of Glacier Nat'l Park.

While still in Yellowstone, we heard about the fires at Glacier and were wondering if we'd have to cut our trip short. Upon arrival, the fires really limited visibility but on the higher hikes you couldn't tell as much and on the bright side, it made for killer sunsets. The famous Going to the Sun road was gorgeous with views of huge cliff drops and stunning scenery some of which was obscured due to the fires. We also saw quite a lot of wildlife here too: mountain goats, bighorn sheep, bear cubs way off in the distance (binoculars and others helped us to see this) and my favorite: a female moose literally 10 feet away eating. And was she ever noisy! Then she crossed right in front of our path. I didn't want to tear myself away but Ryan had to get a picture of me, isn't my expression hysterical?

The best hike I've ever done (even including boonie stomps) was up to Grinnell Glacier, the most "accessible" glacier in the US. It was 6 miles uphill! And every step kept getting better and better: trail switchbacks, dramatic scenery changes, and walking through a waterfall. There were bighorn sheep all over and marmots too. The way down was another story, my knees were killing me so much that the next day I couldn't hike :-(. Good thing there was a boat so we saved ourselves about a mile walking back.

Overall, I was very impressed with Montana. The people are liberal and laid back. We went to a bunch of independent little restaurants and coffee shops in Whitefish, Kalispell, and Missoula. Our very last day we went to Canada as the land from Glacier abuts their national park, called Waterton. It was very interesting explaining to Canadian customs that we're moving from Mississippi to Seattle and stopping for a daytrip to Canada, ha. Great way to end our national parks trip and head to real life in Seattle.....