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.....

Yellowstone Nat'l Park

Here are some pics from our 3 days here: the first is from the Geyser part of the park. This portion of the park seemed so otherworldly: like Mars with water!! Of course, had to see Old Faithful and it wasn't the biggest or best geyser but it did erupt as predicted unlike the Riverside Geyser which we waited for almost an hour in the rain, I might add! The geysers stink like rotten eggs due to the sulfur, couldn't wait to shower.... Other cool features were the mud pots, loved their splattering!

The second day we spent around the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone area, lots of waterfalls too....really gorgeous, how Yellowstone got its' name (2nd pic). We saw the most wildlife this day as well....grizzly bear with 2 cubs!!!, 2 bald eagles and a baby, bear tracks on a hike, and a huge herd of buffalo crossing the road. In fact, 1 buffalo hit a car very close to us, road rage??? Crazy enough the best wildlife was not on any of our daily hikes but from the road. As we are not adept at wildlife spotting we relied on other cars parking and assumed it was a sighting, which almost always worked.

So here's my "scary" buffalo story. We sought out an area that was known to have bears, I was nervous and was using the park ranger's advice of making loud noises, etc. Well, of course, we didn't see any bears but there was a huge herd of buffalo way off in the distance. It was about 3 miles across a meadow and forested area when we came upon this herd on the trail (see last pic). They were loud, the males were grunting but they weren't agitated as their tails weren't sticking way up. I was getting nervous anyway but not Ryan. We were just hanging out in their territory for a while and they kept grunting and looking at us, I just couldn't take it much longer. I am most definitely a city slicker.

Overall, really enjoyed Yellowstone. We stayed in West Yellowstone, Montana, a 5 min. drive to the park (which is in Wyoming). Just the driving to hikes was scenic and wildlife was spotted. It'd be fun to go back and visit with friends/family!! Out of all of the parks we visited, it had the most to offer even if it was a bit crowded in certain places.

Grand Tetons--Jackson Hole, Wyoming

I don't know if it was because Grand Tetons was the first of the national parks but it was jaw dropping beautiful with its' huge peaks and glacial waters. The first day we took a boat to Jenny Lake and then hiked to Inspiration Point where we saw our first moose in the (very large) flesh! The downside was there were a ton of people on this hike so the next day we went on a quieter trail and were rewarded with this view!!! Unfortunately, I got burned badly and also messed up my knee--old high school track/soccer injury so I've been icing ever since.

Just driving to these hikes we saw wildlife like elk, deer, and my new favorite: buffalo!! (Stay tuned for my buffalo encounter pic/story in Yellowstone post.)

We stayed in Teton Village, a ski resort village in a hotel called Hostelx. It definitely felt like a hostel and was priced accordingly. This should have been my first clue but we couldn't pass up this deal. We had our own dimly lit room with 4 bunkbeds but after 2 nights of near sleeplessness and hearing actual conversations through the walls even with ear plugs, we left a day early and headed to Yellowstone. Of course, this didn't bother Ryan...how aggravating:-)

Anyway, I loved everything about Jackson Hole except our lodging...even had organic deli/general store....right up my alley. Also drove through Jackson and ate at a great little restaurant for breakfast on Bon Appetit's top 10 places to eat breakfast in the country! And I thought they'd only have steak and potatoes in this part of the country! (Knew I'd add some food comments in there, didn't you? )

Black Hills of South Dakota

Tatanka! If you've seen Dances with Wolves this might sound familiar: it's buffalo in the Lakota language. I had no idea Kevin Costner developed a site to tell the story of bison and not the white man's version. We saw buffalo in the wild as well--those things are so massive! We also ate some...in the form of burgers and brisket. Tastes like...chicken, ha. Actually much leaner than beef. Other wildlife sightings were of pronghorn antelope, prairie dogs, and even burros (sort of look like donkeys) right at our car window.

It's hot here! And very dry but surprisingly has a varied landscape--sagebrush, pines, rock formations, and red clay. So we saw the must see sights: Mount Rushmore (at night) and the Crazy Horse Memorial which I saw in high school and seems barely farther along in its' completion.

We also visited Deadwood, home of the Wild West (I didn't know this before this trip.) Apparently, Wild Bill Hickok was shot dead at Saloon no. 10. We did the very touristy thing of watching a reenactment of his death and Ryan got to play the bartender!! Ironic, right?

Covered wagons

Here's a picture of our friends Shawn (R's best man) and Jessie in Loup City, NE on the farm Jessie grew up on. Aren't those signs classic?

Anyway, driving through Western Nebraska was pretty even in its' desolation. Drove through a number of towns with populations of only 200 or 300! And I thought Columbus was small...but Wyoming is even more sparsely populated: the town of Lost Springs only has 1 and another town had 10. And of course, no cell phone service. Many sections felt as if we were on another planet! But back to Nebraska.... Wide open spaces, sand hills, corn taller than us, and rolling hills, much prettier than the landscape in Omaha. I have to say I still think the nicest people I've ever met are from Nebraska.