Glacier, day 1:

Posted on | September 2, 2011 | 1 Comment

Can I tell you about our Glacier trip? Pretty please?

See, I loved the way I told you about Yellowstone last September. Of course, that would require four posts all about Glacier - can you handle it? If not, at least pause to check out the photographic grandeur. Here we go!

Day 1, arriving to Glacier:

We get up at 5:30 in the morning at B's folks house - see, they only live five hours from Glacier and have generously offered to watch our dogs (dogs + national parks don't mix). We leave by about 6 am and travel through Idaho and Montana, defying our Tom Tom's horrible navigational skills by paving our own path. We drive through the blackfoot Indian reservation where it's open hills and grass, grass, grass.

We get to the park around noon (hey, we lost an hour - darn time zone!). You see, the park is first come, first serve camping and most fill up by 2, if not by noon. We'd be camping five nights and wanted to find a campground with less RV's and more nature. Alas, we make it to Sprague Creek (my first choice), a no generator/no RV campground, with only 20'ish sites and many along Lake Mcdonald. There are three sites left (surprisingly!) - all three small and near the bathrooms - but it'll do, for the first night at least.

Checking out the new digs!

Just a 30 second walk from our campsite!

We hung around camp for an hour or two, simply enjoying the nature there. B of course took a dip in the glacier fed lake... brrr!

Later we decided to drive part of the going to the sun road! We got stopped in the never-ending road construction that the park service must provide due to the nature of this teeny road along a mountain ridge - so I took advantage and snapped some photos.

After about an hour we made it to the top o' the mountain range - Logan Pass. After having a quick snack and hitting up a port-a-potty we happened to spot a herd of bighorn sheep grazing away. Of course I went nuts with my telephoto lens.

After my love affair with the bighorn sheep, we started up a widely traveled trail to Hidden Lake, still at Logan Pass. There was a boardwalk that is used, however it was a bit hidden under snow. Little did I know this when I set off in my Keane sandals (great hiking shoes, just not in snow!) and shorts. Either way, it was an epic hike. Some mountain goats even joined in on the fun.

The views from hidden lake were outstanding!

Cute guy with a broken horn

Of course you must sneak a belly photo in, seeing that we haven't missed a week yet! 16 weeks exactly!

We arrived back to camp shortly before sunset. I boiled myself up a bit of hot chocolate (being my only caffeine source these days - I didn't think I could stay up for dinner!). For dinner we made some local pasta and soy burgers (mmm - you can imagine who's choice that was).