Seeing Glaciers (before they melt)

Wow - life is good.  Here's one of the places we went last month:

Spending time visiting beautiful, remote places in the world should be a mandatory part of human development.  I can feel myself becoming more mellow and tolerant already (which is a good thing since it turns out that patiently homeschooling three children is harder than I expected...).

Our trip to Glacier was the first time we tried Vacation Rentals By Owner.  We stayed in a unique log cabin not far from the park entrance, with an enormous moose head looking down at us as we entered, bear skins and head mounted on the wall, and various other pelts and antlers used in every imaginable way. Most surprising: a large koi pond right in the living room.  The sheer volume of American kitsch was a bit overwhelming, but the kids announced that it was the coolest place they'd ever stayed, so we just enjoyed.

We arrived in Montana at 3 am (poor party planning), so we took it easy the first day, sleeping in, then literally stuffing ourselves at a local diner until we could barely move or even see straight.

Finally we got up the energy to visit Hungry Horse Dam:

though I mostly just sat on my hands to prevent myself from throwing the orange in my pocket over the dam wall.  It would have been so cool to see it bounce down 564 feet, pulp exploding all over the concrete... but Kevin kept reminding me that "setting an example for the kids" was important (he's such a spoil sport).

We finished off the day at Glacier, where we enjoyed lovely Lake MacDonald, which was so clear and beautiful it almost didn't seem real:

Scout and Henry threw and skipped rocks:

but Sage felt the need to reorganize the rocks (color, size, overall aesthetic appeal):

 



















Sadly, there's a rule against taking rocks home from national parks ("Wait, Mom, doesn't the park belong to me, as a citizen?"). So Sage cleared a patch on the lake floor:

to provide a resting place for the most attractive rocks she found (I admit, they were pretty):

Then we could move on.

The next day our mission was to hike to a glacier - the US Geological Survey says there will be no more glaciers in the national park by 2020, so it seemed like an important thing to do.  We chose a gorgeous 11.5 mile (round trip) hike to Grinnell Glacier - here we are starting out down at lake level:

We rose quickly on the 1800 ft ascent, and pretty soon the views were like this:

The weather and scenery (and the company) were so spectacular that it was one of my favorite hikes ever, which is saying a lot.  Here are a few pictures that demonstrate why,
like the gorgeous trail of lakes left by old glaciers:  



or the waterfalls and clouds flowing down the mountains wherever we looked:

Maybe the excellent people in the hiking party made it great:

and I'm always a sucker for cool dead trees:

 




 






Plus, we saw a ton of wildlife.  Actually, before we began the hike, we pulled over to the side of a road in the park where we saw a number of people with binoculars.  We joined them in watching a black bear eating berries about 200 yards up the slope.  We were having fun watching him, handing the binoculars back and forth, when I happened to glance over to my left - there was a huge grizzly bear watching us and moving through the bushes only 20 yards away!  Sorry, was too busy gawking to take a picture.

But during our hike we saw (and handled) snakes:

and a moose (look closely):

as well as woodpeckers, a mole, rabbits, squirrels and lots of chipmunks, one of which kissed Sage's boot.

About a half mile from our final glacier destination, we found a lovely spot where there were actually rough log benches and even a pit toilet not too far off the trail.  The kids, after hiking a little more than 5 miles at this point, and seeing that the last stretch went straight uphill, decided to enjoy the view of the glacier from there and snack and rest while Kevin and I ran up to the top and back.

On our way up, we passed a few hikers coming down who told us there were 3 grizzly bears also coming down, not too far away.  Decision time... do we go back with the kids, or continue up to see the iceberg-filled lake at the foot of the glacier?   We asked the hikers to warn our kids (who by this point were experts at making loud noises to scare away bears - actually I think they were born to make loud bear-scaring noises) and kept on going.

I'm glad we did because it was really cool:

You can't tell because of the clouds, but the mountain and the waterfall in front of Kevin were 3x as tall as what you see here. 

And then there was the lake with floating ice:

which was hard to capture in photos but very cool nonetheless:

By the time we got back to the kids, the skies were looking pretty dark and we literally ran the last several miles down the mountain:

The rain started about a mile and a half before we reached the trailhead - perfect motivation to keep us moving after a long day.  It was pouring and we were soaked, bedraggled and hobo-like by the time we reached our car, but the kids had set a new hiking record for themselves and we all felt great. 

As we drove back through the park in the dark, we came within an inch (literally) of hitting an enormous black bear who appeared in front of us as we rounded a corner.  It was a miracle that the car stopped/swerved sufficiently and we didn't even brush his fur in the end, but it was very cool to see a huge bear so close!

We took it easy on our last day, hiking a modest 6 miles round trip to see Avalanche Lake:

We then drove the amazing "Going to the Sun" Road, an engineering marvel (you're literally driving on a tiny lip on the side of huge cliffs):

that spans more than 50 miles, taking you over waterfalls:

and past goats :)   (If I were a goat, I'd want to live here too!):

As we drove past a visitor's center that was under construction, the kids got to visit with a little confused goat who was trying to eat gravel:

It reminded me of "Are You My Mother?", one of my favorite books.  We eventually left the little goat in the care of a friendly backhoe and moved on:

The Going to the Sun Road is considered one of the most scenic drives in the world (a river runs through it) and I agree:

I can't think of a better place than Glacier National Park for majestic scenery and incredible hiking opportunities without the crowds - but you'd better go soon if you want to see glaciers...  We'll definitely be back one summer to try out a few swimming holes we discovered - let us know if you want to come with us!