We arrived in Glacier National Park at our campsite in Apgar around 6pm or so and got busy setting up our tent and settling in. Seth was eager to help out.
Before bed we took a little stroll around the campground and Seth took his first of several headers into the asphalt. Gave himself a nice little goose egg that you can see poking out from his dinosaur suit. He woke up crying that night every hour or so until after midnight and then slept through until about 6:30 Montana time. Ugh. We delivered him to Nana and Grandpa in the motor home and Eric went back to bed while I went for a run around the campground.
After breakfast we took a walk over to Apgar Village. Seth was loving running down the little trail but of course couldn't quite stay on his feet 100% of the time.
First family picture of the trip, Lake McDonald in the background.
Seth learning about one of the few times it is appropriate to throw rocks -- into the water!
After our spin around Apgar Village we left Seth and Grandpa behind and hiked up to Avalanche Lake. This is a very popular and fairly easy hike so the trail was pretty crowded. But it was worth it, there were some pretty spectacular sights along the way. The first section is along Avalanche gorge and there was a TON of water flowing down. The pictures I took really don't do it justice, it was incredible.
About 2 miles up we made it to the lake and it was COLD up there, the wind whipping across the lake. We took a little break and ate some snacks before heading back down.
The chipmunks were not skittish at all, I am guessing they are used to getting some crumbs from silly people and their granola bars.
On the way back down we did spot a black bear on the mountain side opposite the trail. It was extremely far away but we could see it cruising around doing its thing. In the picture below there is a tree right in the middle, at the base of the tree just to the right that little black blob is the bear. Too bad we did not have our binoculars because that was basically the only bear we saw the whole trip.
Here is Seth back at camp practicing his mountain goat moves. At one point he was jumping up and down on those rocks yelling "Nana, Nana!" Or at least it sounded like it.
Friday night Seth woke up around 10 or 11pm and was inconsolable for a good 30-45 minutes, which is really unusual. Normally just replacing his pacifier does the trick and he goes right back to sleep. Eric and I were in detective mode trying to figure out what was up. He was clearly tired and trying to get comfortable but just not happy. I gave him some ibuprofen and we completely stripped him naked and changed his clothes to make sure there were no ants in his pants (so to speak). Eventually he calmed down and went back to sleep in bed with us, and we were a little shaken but relieved.
Saturday we took a drive up the Going to the Sun Road and saw some beautiful scenery. The road just opened about two days before we showed up, there was so much snow at the top. The view behind Seth and Grandpa Haynes I believe is Heaven's Peak.
At the Logan Pass visitors center was just a giant snow field. This was my first trip to Glacier so I don't know any different but I heard a lot of people around commenting about the amount of snow and how amazing it was. My understanding is that beyond Seth and Eric in this picture normally there is a boardwalk trail leading up the mountainside but it is still covered in snow obviously.
The sun reflecting off the snow was so bright it hurt my eyes so I took Seth back down to the car so he wouldn't get snow blindness. I can only imagine what it was like for him not even having sunglasses on.
But going back to the parking lot ended up being a lucky break for us because we got to see this.
The Glacier brochures sometimes refer to the "exhibitionist" mountain goats and I can see why. This one apparently smelled some tourist's Fritos left on the ground and came RIGHT UP to the sidewalk to snag them off the ground. Then he just waltzed up and down staring people down, I'm sure hoping they would be dumb enough to throw him some more salty goodness.
He had wandered away by the time Eric took this picture but at one point I literally could have reached out and grabbed him by the horns. Seth was completely fascinated.
After Logan pass we kept going down the mountain to St. Mary and Seth got a really close encounter with a black bear at the lodge. This got some good giggles out of him.
I don't like to post a lot of pictures of just scenery without people but some of the views on the way back over were just spectacular. Most of them I took out the window of our moving car, and I'm sure my camera doesn't even do them justice. You'll just have to take my word for it.
There were several areas where the snow runoff was right on the side of the car and Eric had fun trying to get his dad a nice little shower in places.
Almost like going through the car wash!
There were a few delays due to the perpetual road construction but I think the whole day we only had to stop 3 times. This was on one of the longer delays.
Saturday night was brutal. Seth again went to sleep initially but woke up a few hours in just beside himself. He cried and fussed off and on until about 4am and none of us got much sleep which was a real bummer since I was scheduled to get up at 6:15am to make it to my 7:45am horseback ride. Luckily I did get a solid 2 hours nap otherwise I think I might have just skipped it completely.
Jen and I made it to the horseback ride on time and got our own private trail ride since there were no other tourists who had signed up. We weren't allowed to bring cameras so no pictures of that but it was really fun and beautiful even though for some reason they gave me the slowest horse available, so slow that the gal leading our ride had to actually pull my horse along behind hers for the entire 2 hours. Under other circumstances I would have been really annoyed but I was too exhausted from the night before to spend the whole ride kicking the crap out of my horse. So as it was I got to just relax and enjoy the scenery.
Later that afternoon Eric, Jen, and I went on a monster hike. We wanted to go at least 6 miles so we chose the Snyder Lake trail which is actually almost 9 miles round trip but we figured we probably wouldn't go all the way. It was a really beautiful hike with lots of views along the way but it was tough. I thought Eric and Jenny were going to die, but I surprised myself. Who knew I was in such great shape?
There were lots of places where mountain streams were crossing the trail and wouldn't you know it, 3 miles up we ran into this monster creek blocking the way. I monkey swung through the trees to get across and we could have kept going but we were running low on water and ready to head back anyway. On the way up we had to step over a big pile of bear doo doo that was so fresh I am sure that bear was nearby, probably keeping a close eye on us. Later on we did hear that some other hikers ahead of us had seen him.
Sunday night Seth slept about 9 uninterrupted hours which was a blessing for all of us. We packed up camp and loaded the car to head home. Before we left we wanted to go on one last hike and we had chosen John's Lake loop which was a huge mistake, the first of a few lapses in judgement that day. I don't know if we just took a wrong turn or what, but the hike was supposed to be 3 miles although it was only about 1/2 mile to the actual lake. We went around the lake and ended up on McDonald Creek, which Jen and I had ridden along on our trail ride. It was really pretty so we ended up just walking the horse trail again back around to where we had parked and still only went 2 miles total.
About halfway through Seth crashed out and missed a lot of the great views of the forest and Lake McDonald from the bridge over the creek. The half mile back to the car from where we took this picture was a constant swarm of mosquitoes. I think I got more bites in that 20 minutes than I did the rest of the trip, it was completely miserable.
After the hike Jen and I went down and took a little swim in Lake McDonald. It was cold but not nearly as cold as the snow runoff and I think the Pend Orielle river the week before the 4th of July was colder as well. But it was nice to rinse off a layer of grime before getting back in the car for what we thought would be the 6 hour drive home. Day 5 in the park and we had only had two 5 minute cursory motor home showers, it was getting pretty ugly.
Seth was SO good on what turned out to be a 9 hour car ride home. MT highway 135 South was closed when we got there due to a fire causing poor visibility. So we got adventurous and tried to take a dirt road across Cooper pass. Big mistake. Maybe the sign warning us that the road was not suitable for passenger cars should have been a clue but we pressed on anyway. It took us at least 45 minutes to go 5 miles, made it almost all the way up to the top before we had to stop to let the Saturn cool down since the temperature gauge was almost maxed out. While we were hanging around there a couple of people came down the road on their ATVs and warned us that there was still 2 feet of snow at the top and we would probably get stuck if we tried to make it over. So we reluctantly turned around with our tails between our legs and took a normal route home, one meant for families with small children. Oops.
We did make it home safely around 9pm and crashed into bed after a long luxurious shower. My hair has never been so soft. I should do a Pantene commercial. Oh, and Seth's sleepless nights were apparently the result of his lower right molar which has since made its appearance. Glad he chose vacation to cut a new tooth! But we survived and had a lot of fun.
1 comment:
Wow, what a great post! And gorgeous pictures. I love seeing all the family adventures you three take together. We still have yet to camp with our kids ... given Emma's sleep issues, we've never been brave enough. :) And Manda ... you look AWESOME. So fit, so healthy, so happy. If you were here, I'd ask you to teach me to be a better hiker because you make it look so fun. And I'm not in shape at all so I need the motivation. :) Miss ya.
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