Our Adventure Out West this Summer Part Two of Three

 

On Sunday morning, July 30th, after nearly a week away from home, we drove a few miles up the road from our cabin in Coram, Montana and entered Glacier National Park. Often considered the “Crown Jewel” of the National Park system, Glacier has grown so popular in recent years that reservations are required to use its famed “Going to the Sun Road.”

Thanks to the wisdom of our eventual cabin-mate, however–Dirk Bohnhoff–we had reserved the coveted digital ticket back in April. (900 vehicle tickets went on sale at 8:00 A.M. on April 1st for this trek. All 900 of them sold out within ten minutes! The price is negligible–just a couple dollars–but their importance is not.)

We were novices, of course, so we didn’t really know what to do. Dirk had offered us a few suggestions, however, so we spent most of the morning exploring the north-east shore of Lake McDonald. The kids skipped stones and posed for pictures. We rented a kayak for an hour, and then enjoyed a short boat ride up and down the lake. After disembarking we stopped by a few waterfalls within walking distance of the road; the kids put on their water shoes and waded around. We ate a picnic, then prepared for our first real challenge: a five mile hike up to Avalanche Lake.

            At first we strolled along a boardwalk through a forest of old-growth trees reminiscent of the Pacific Northwest. Once we walked a half mile into the woods, however, the actual hiking began.

            One of the more unnerving aspects of walking around the woods in this part of the state was all the bear signs. Hikers are constantly reminded, “Hey, there are bears here.” Under most circumstances, these signs would be tantamount to “Do not enter,” but here they were more of, “Try not to get mauled.”

            The best anti-mauling strategy is to walk in groups and make noise. Bears are not fond of humans, and so if they do hear you they will almost always walk the other way and pretend you’re the person in Wal-Mart they want to avoid. You will rarely see bears. We didn’t, but that didn’t stop us from practicing the other anti-mauling strategy, which is to carry around bear spray. We never went more than a few minutes without meeting fellow hikers on their way back down the mountain, and they, like us, were armed with a can of super-mace clipped somewhere within reach.

 Once we reached the top after a good hour of walking, the kids tiptoed into the frigid lake. We watched and took pictures, enjoying our front row seat to a postcard. Icy little brooks laced down the side of the mountains like wedding ribbons. Dozens of chipmunks scampered around the edges of the shore, scavenging for crumbs left by exhausted hikers. After a half-hour, we convinced the kids to get their dry clothes back on so we could return to our truck before dark. Fortunately, the hike back down the mountain moved quicker than going up. Daylight had begun to fade, especially on the forest floor, and by the time we made it back to the truck it was twilight.

            When we made it “home” we discovered that our cabin mates, the Bohnhoffs, had arrived in our absence. They had ventured out to explore on their own, though, so we made a quick supper and settled in for the evening. Once they returned we swapped stories and made plans for the next day.

            On Monday, July 31st, the nine of us in two vehicles ventured east to Two Medicine Lake. Since this lake is nestled on the south-east side of the park, we drove along the southern edge of Glacier to reach it. Although we didn't have a reservation for this particular road, we were allowed entrance into the park because of a boat tour we had scheduled for later that morning. We went on a very short walk, and then embarked on our second boat ride in as many days, this one taking us to the other side of the lake.

            Some of the folks stayed on the boat; others began exploring in various directions. We chose a one-hour hike to Twin Falls with the hope of making it back to the dock for the 11:15 return trip. This didn’t pan out; we missed the boat by a good twenty-minutes. However, the pebbly beach was ideal for swimming and the dock provided the perfect spot for the kids to jump into the cold water. Eventually, around 1:00 in the afternoon, we saw the ferry puttering our way, and enough explorers got out for us to find a return seat. Once back on the more populated side we devoured our picnic lunches, and then left Two Medicine.

To get back to the cabin, instead of retracing our path around the southern edge of the park, we decided to drive through Glacier from the east via the “Going to the Sun” Road. Because it was after 3:00 by the time we entered at the St. Mary entrance (after a pit stop for ice cream and sandwiches, of course) we didn’t need a reservation. The highway hugged the north shore of Saint Mary Lake for close to ten miles before climbing up to Logan Pass, the highest spot on the road. We took another break for a short hike around the visitor center, saw some wildlife - mountain goats and bighorn sheep - and then decided it was time to call it a day.

After an intense half-hour of creeping down from Logan Pass to the valley, the jagged edges of the mountain often just inches from our rear-view mirror, we sighed and enjoyed the relatively wide highway that led us to the west entrance of the park. The evening back at the cabin was relaxed. We all enjoyed a spaghetti supper followed by a Texas Hold’ Em tutorial from Laurie.

            The next day, Tuesday August 2nd, Dirk and I left the cabin early to try and find the correct place to dump our garbage. We failed, but then stopped by the little village of Apgar near the west entrance of the park to grab some coffee and watch in disbelief as a set of young people leapt into frigid Lake McDonald and immediately started screeching. We returned to the cabin for pancakes and eggs, and then we all geared up for the big event of the day: white water rafting!

            We had all rafted together last summer in Tennessee, but that had been more of a relaxing float trip. This adventure was longer and more intense in spots, with a few class three rapids that required focus. We eventually came to a spot in the river that was calm enough for the kids and the dumber adult - me - to hop off the raft and soak. The water was too cold for soaking, though, and once I stopped sputtering I quickly latched back onto the raft and allowed JaLana and Laurie to unceremoniously plop me back onto the boat.

            We returned to the cabin for lunch, then went back into Glacier, this time from the west side, and headed once more up to Logan’s Pass. Once we left the valley floor the road quickly narrowed. Special care had been made when designing this part of the trek to blend the highway with the natural landscape as much as possible. Thus, there is only one scratchy-looking switchback. The rest of the ascent (or descent, depending on which way you’re driving) hugs the mountain on one side and offers a vertigo-inducing drop on the other. 

             Some curves swayed casually, with the bends offering drivers a few moments to gather their wits before passing within inches of oncoming traffic. Other curves jerked back and forth, like awkward dancers at a junior high sock hop.

            We were on such a curve when a truck cut in.

(To be concluded…)

           

           

 

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Our Adventure Out West This Summer Part One of Three

We started our journey early on Monday, July 24th and drove all the way to Sioux Falls, South Dakota in plenty of time to check into our hotel, enjoy a meal, and swim. The next morning we made a quick stop in Mitchell, SD to visit the famed Corn Palace, which is a real place and worth the slight detour on our way to Badlands National Park.

Badlands was beautiful but, like most of America that week, scorching! We went on a few brief hikes but mostly just enjoyed the scenery from the comfort of our air-conditioned vehicle while listening to our enthusiastic tour guide. (JaLana had wisely downloaded an App that offered insight as we traveled through multiple national parks.)

We stayed in Rapid City, South Dakota on the evening of the 25th, which gave us a great start for exploring the Black Hills region for most of the next day. We visited the Crazy Horse exhibit and drove through the winding roads and narrow tunnels of Custer State Park before checking out Mount Rushmore. Because all of this exploring wasn’t quite enough, though, we then headed west again for another six-hour trek to reach our hotel in Cody, Wyoming.

The logic behind driving so much on Wednesday was to give us time on Thursday to explore Yellowstone, the Disney World of the National Park System. Despite the crowds, though, we enjoyed a few of the “must see” attractions:  the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, the Grand Prismatic hot springs and, of course, Old Faithful.

Thursday evening was spent at a hotel in West Yellowstone, a town just outside the park across the border in Montana. On Friday morning the 27th, after a delicious but overpriced breakfast, we returned to Yellowstone to look at more gurgling earth vents and other amazing geological phenomena. The day took a turn for the worse, however, when a rental RV backed into and shattered our left tail light! Fortunately the driver was from Mattoon, Illinois, believe it or not, and so we got along just fine and quickly discovered we knew the same person.

Small world, huh? Small parking lot, too, especially for a giant rental camper! I guess that’s why God invented taillight insurance. (We had borrowed my dad’s extended cab Silverado pick-up truck for the journey, as it sat all five of us comfortably and offered plenty of easily accessible cargo space. I like to think dad would have appreciated his final farm truck making a journey to parts of America he had visited during his lifetime. I also think he would appreciate the small irony in me once again finding a way to damage - even inadvertently - one of his vehicles, just like old times.)

Or maybe not.

Regardless, after finding some lens tape to Band-Aid the tail light damage in the short term, we continued making our way north and spent the evening of Friday the 28th in Helena, Montana. The next morning, after our fifth hotel breakfast in a row, we packed up and took what we thought would be a relaxing visit to their state capital building just up the road.

It was a Saturday, so the building was mostly empty. We explored the inside rotunda area for a short while, then decided to go get pictures from the outside. We kept hearing squealing tires from the other side of the building, but dismissed the noise as a hurried motorist. As we walked around, however, we realized the squealing was coming from near the entrance itself. Some excited Montana citizen was trying to climb up the state capitol steps in his truck!

 

A confused guard came out to investigate and then began to shout. As the driver began his “escape,” - squealing, struggling and then snapping through security chains - we realized that we were in the potential area of his likely-inebriated path.

“Get out of the way!” the guard shouted, so we began to scamper toward the side of the building like startled chipmunks. Before our heart rates got too high, however, we realized the moron was driving away so we slowed down and quickly tried to make light of the unexpected drama.

The rest of our drive north was relatively calm and scenic. Despite packing a crazy amount of food and cooking gear for Annaka - a toaster, for example; an air fryer; a griddle - we had scheduled a pickup at the Kalispell Wal-Mart to get even more food and supplies. Adequately prepped, we made the final leg of the journey to our rental cabin in Coram, Montana, just outside of Glacier National Park.

The cabin came with two bathrooms, three bedrooms, and about a dozen animal faces hanging on the wall, welcoming us to their home.

“This seems creepy right now because you’re tired and it’s new.” I wisely explained to my nervous children. “Twenty four hours from now, that elk will look completely cool.”

This was a lie, as it turns out. That elk never did look cool because it was dead, but the cabin itself was perfect and the kids slept just fine, which was important, as the next day we would begin exploring the “Crown Jewel” of the National Park System - Glacier National Park!