8/7

Leaving Glacier. Our coldest day yet! It’s finally consistently feeling like the kind of mountain summer I was expecting. It rained late last night and we had already started packing up, including the awning, so I awoke in a start and scrambled to bring our shoes inside so we wouldn’t have soggy feet in the morning. We are heading back south today hoping to make it to north Yellowstone. Trekking all the way from north to south Montana is a long haul for us but we have reservations at a private campground for one night so we’re not scrambling for a place late in the day.

8/8

We got our laundry done at the private place (minus a load of dry since they had a strict no hanging clothes to dry policy 🙄), and headed south to Yellowstone’s northern entrance. We made a stop in Emigrant for some of the best breakfast burritos, coffee, and pastries to go. If you’re ever in that area we highly recommend Wild Flour Bakery and Cafe, if we’re ever through there again we will definitely stop for their lunch or dinner menu too.

The drive through the northeastern route in Yellowstone was full of bison traffic jams and we finally saw the big herds vs. the lone handful we’d seen on the southern end of the park three weeks prior. We made a beeline to some high altitude camping just outside of Cooke City and found an ample choice of places in the Soda Butte campground (first time in a month of having this kind of campsite luck!).

Since we were set up before noon, we had time to go back into the park to do a hike. While I’m certainly glad we saw the geothermal side of Yellowstone a few weeks ago, this side seems to be much more our pace with far less traffic and plenty of opportunity for exploration and solitude (with bear spray of course!). Since we’re finally camping above 8k feet it actually cools off at night and we can bust out the layering clothes and campfires.

8/4

We got a later start this morning because everyone needed to sleep in. One really great perk to this trip is that we can do this without fear of missing something. Want a later start? Go somewhere more remote in the park to still get away from people and see some beautiful sights. We did a requisite stop in Polebridge, on our way up we saw yet another bear, this one running across the dirt road at a pretty decent clip. The nicest people were in Polebridge and at this northernmost park entry gate, and the 100yo mercantile store was super charming. We got our provisions and headed up to Lake Kintla. The kids have been jonesing for more Lake time so we packed swimsuits and started hiking. This water was Caribbean blue/green but frigid cold (it is Glacier after all), so a quick dip was all that was needed. I never anticipated being lake people, but we are for sure embracing the water as a means for cooling off from the mid-day heat.

8/5 Lake McDonald

Today we did another lake day, swapping a hike for a paddleboard. It was a calm day on the water and this lake’s temperatures were a little warmer so you could stand being in the water much longer. Zach went off in search of rocks for his RC car while the three of us took turns on the board. A lot of people were there too, but once again it was easy enough to carve out your own space if you were willing to walk down the rocky beach a little ways where people are less inclined to go. It seemed that motorized boat travel was very limited so we had calm waters and very little motor sound echoing around our portion of this paradise. The views from the paddleboard were breathtaking (but no photos because duh, we’re on a paddleboard!)

8/6 Hidden meadow trail, Logging creek, etc.

We hiked the west side of Glacier NP on our last full day. Having a full week here has been a blessing that has allowed us to fully experience all of the offerings aside from maybe some remote backcountry backpacking. Which, given the number of bears we’ve seen and heard about from others on the trails is completely okay by me. It was also a mostly overcast day, so the weather was perfect. Rather than one long hike in and out we chose two that were out and back in less than 3 miles, then a two mile loop. It was a great way to see a diversity of trails throughout the day. The kids kept trucking along powered up by endless bars and snacks. By day’s end we had gone almost ten miles.

8/3 all the encounters

We woke early and ready to have a full day in Glacier. We decided to hike the Avalanche Lake trail first thing and were able to get on the trail before 8am. It was still busy, but we took masks and everyone stayed a respectable distance from one another pulling to the side to allow faster groups to pass and such. We made quick time up the trail only stopping for a picture and adjustment or two. About 3/4 the way up we stopped to let a large group pass. We waited a moment more and a black bear came ambling down it’s own trail only feet from us! It was a magic moment shared with maybe five other hikers. Zach said his finger was ready on the bear spray, but judging by the bear’s movements, it wanted nothing to do with us or any hikers and was on a mission to find its breakfast.

The approach to Avalanche Lake was very jungle like, the way the landscape revealed itself was something out of a storybook. An almost fully risen sun cut diagonally across our view so we sat, ate a packed breakfast snack, and watched the sun come all the way up over the highest peak to fully light the area. The waterfalls here were breathtaking. What more could you do but sit and marvel and take it all in.

We got back to the car before 11 and continued on to the Going to the Sun Road. The main feature through Glacier National Park,…words are not sufficient to describe this amazing drive so here’s a bunch of pictures:

Tired and filled with a beautiful day we headed back from whence we came. On one of the last turns before the main entrance we spotted yet another black bear, this one on the side of the road on its hind legs getting berries out of a tree.

After an ice cream stop and FaceTime with the parents in West Glacier, we headed back to camp to rest.

Our final wildlife encounter for the day was a buck mule dear encroaching on our camping spot for the fresh greenery. We watched him for well over an hour taking a nap nearby then continually approaching the greens at the edge of our site. He made our camp rest time peaceful and interesting. It was finally a cool enough day for another fire so the day ended late with a big pasta dinner topped with s’mores.

8/1

Our northernmost National Park for the summer leg our our journey. We got some good insight from a Denver friend about where to find ample places to camp so we headed north of Columbia Falls up a washboard dirt road. It was a little tough going at first, we are very gently with Flossie on the dirt roads, so lots of cars were passing us all the way up. We pulled into the Big Creek campgrounds a little before noon and it looked like the 20ish places were already occupied, we weren’t worried though because there was ample places to boondock along the way (only downside there is having no easy access to water). We found the camp host to ask for suggestions and very similarly to Yellowstone, he told us to sit tight, meet him in the overflow, and he’d find us a space. Unlike Yellowstone though, this guy ran a much tighter ship, we camped one night in the overflow with only two other trailer campers (no tents), then were able to secure a dedicated spot once some people cleared out on the other side on Sunday morning. Do people always camp like this? It’s physically and emotionally exhausting!

Once settled, (the first day still 🤪), we ventured over to the northwest entrance to Glacier and hiked a little ways on the Bowman lake trail. This glacial mountain lake was unreal. It was completely calm and crystal clear with no watercraft allowed, and the surrounding huge mountains looked too perfect, almost like a fake backdrop for an 80’s photoshoot. There were also less people along this portion of the park than what we had experienced in Yellowstone so the signs were good for a longer stay.

8/2 after moving a second time to our longer term permanent spot (we’re getting good at it at least), we made a good breakfast then headed 20 miles back into town for groceries. Later we took a backroad into the main portion of Glacier and made a beeline to McDonald Lake. We found a dirt road on the backside after sifting through the regular park traffic. Drove up a ways then back to some shore to get our feet cooled off. Skipping stones is becoming a current favorite pastime so finding perfect flat stones in crystal clear lakes is key. Camden spotted a tiny snake in the water and we did some glassing behind his new binoculars as well. We came home and made a gourmet steak dinner and tried for an earlier bedtime to get an early start hiking on Monday

July 31after Swinging Bridge

Having fully explored northwestern Montana we started heading back east towards Glacier NP. Being Friday, we didn’t anticipate getting all the way to Glacier to scope out camping, it would have been too competitive and a really long driving day, instead we were hoping for somewhere along the way between Eureka and Kalispell. As we drove along however, the exciting moving day mood dissipated as the outdoor temperature slowly crept up to 100 degrees. We were shocked, we were likely on some of the northernmost roads in Montana (many jokes about Canada taking us in were floating around in the car), yet no cooler temps to be found anywhere. As we drove back south on the highway past many, most likely available camping spots, we knew we’d had it. It was time to find a hotel. We were in Whitefish at this point and looked for a couple of places there but they wanted close to $300 for one night, sticker shock since that’s what we’ve paid in total for lodging for the whole month of July. We settled for a Hampton Inn in Kalispell which had a more budget friendly price tag. The kids about lost their minds going to a place. We haven’t been to a hotel since….well, I actually can’t remember. We’ve stayed in Airbnb’s for much of our recent travel, and with the pandemic, haven’t stayed anywhere since last fall. So to say this was a treat for them is a huge understatement. Packing for an overnight from a travel trailer was super easy, kids got to swim briefly, we cranked the A/C down to freeze ourselves, slept in a regular sized bed, got our laundry done, and we even gave our vintage fridge the night off to defrost completely and put our food in the hotel mini fridge. This was a reprieve for all and just the break that was needed to face the next month on the road.