If we had the extra time, staying in the area of Seeley/Swan/Flathead Lakes would make for a great way to spend a few days. We didn't realize that when laying out our schedule, so we must move on. Moving on wasn't so bad though, as our next stop was Glacier National Park!
We entered Glacier on the west side, knowing that our time would be spent mostly on the east.
We wanted to get a sense of it all, so we stayed at Apgar for 2 nights. The campground was very nice, but our research said the west side was more congested, and it was. It was very, very busy.
Here's our site at Apgar, which you can see did offer privacy and a feeling that the crowds were kept at bay.
While there, we had a few repairs to do. I try to involve the boys as much as I can in this side of camping. They spend a lot of their year either in school or on electronic devices, so our summer is quite a shift, in many ways. Here's Owen helping to put plumbers tape on our hose joints.
While on the west side, we toured a bit around Lake McDonald and visited the lodge.
We then travelled around the south side of the park to our destination for the next 6 nights, St. Mary's Campground. It was a great drive. When we arrived, we couldn't believe this would be home for awhile! We prefer to not be around the crowds and amenities...this was more like it!
That's us in the picture!
The way the camper was positioned (shoehorned), we had 100% privacy and a view to kill for.
Being in bear country, it was a little concerning that we could be snuck up on easily. But we lived. We did see some wildlife from the site though. Here is a bald eagle (which happily, is not all that rare to see. Even back home.) that flew above our site often through the week.
We also had a fox that used our site as a thoroughfare. I was standing at the back of the truck and he walked within 5' of me heading one way...10 minutes later, he came right back through but with a ground squirrel in his mouth. We were apparently staying on his hunting ground.
Of course, we drove "Going to the Sun" on our very first day! It was amazing. Fortunately, it had opened just 4-5 days before we arrived.
We hiked as far as we could to the "Hidden Falls" from the visitor center at Logan Pass. The trail was blocked at a certain point due to snow. We could see dozens of falls in every direction anyway, so we didn't feel much loss.
While at the top of Logan Pass, we had our first bear experience in Glacier. We were watching a group of sheep on the mountainside, can you see them?
When, suddenly, the group got up and ran a few hundred feet higher. It was strange and we couldn't see why. Well, not 30 seconds later, momma and her cub come out of the tree line. She did make a short run for the sheep, but didn't try to hard. I guess she knew the sheep had the advantage.
The bears didn't have lunch, but we did get to watch them for 20 minutes or so.
In hind sight, I wish we had pushed ourselves to hike more. This year, we did more relaxing than hiking. We did manage to get in one lengthy hike at Glacier, and it was one of our all-time favorites! We did the trail up to Grinnell Glacier. Again, the trail was blocked by snow just before the Glacier (which was upsetting), but the trail was still amazing up to that point.
The whole trip, we were aware of the risks hiking in bear country, but seeing these signs that bear are active in the area puts an extra skip in your step.
The wildflowers were everywhere, the weather was PERFECT. With scenery like this, I believe I could hike twice as far as I normally might.
The entire hike, we were running into people saying they saw "digs" on the trail, etc. So we made sure to make lots of noise. None the less, we still turned the corner and were faced by momma and cub.
They were up the hill from us by a hundred feet or so. We paused for a second, we were already singing, so I told everyone to keep moving like we were and keep singing. I figured she knew we were there before we saw her and since she was not bothering to stop foraging, we must have been "okay". The cub did show too much curiosity for my taste. But luckily didn't move from momma.
It was an amazing experience to meet up like that. It is such a different experience than a zoo. Us and them...cohabiting a space, even for just a moment. It was an adrenaline rush for all of us and a memory we'll always have.
At the end of the trail, we did give out a few extra hugs. We were thankful that it was a positive experience and knew that it could have gone any number of other ways.
For a lot of our visit, the wind was viscous. It was too much to enjoy being outside on a day or two. So, we had some slow days. We enjoyed being at camp, which wasn't so bad.
The boys got to practice at a few other chores. Learning how the generator works for one. You can see here that I keep the generator in the truck. It is cable locked to a tie down and the cap locks, so I figure it is safest there. It also makes it convenient to not have to move it to use it. We drag it out on the tailgate and pull the cord.
They also learned how to keep up with the plumbing and water system.
By the end of our stay, we were ready to leave, but knew we were in a very special place. I doubt we will return, at least while the kids are with us. It is such a drive for us to get there. At this point, we were the furthest from home that we would be on the trip, and over the next few weeks we would come to realize just how far that was.
Thank you Glacier for a wonderful experience!
