Three Glacier

Not a bad campsite that Raya and Josh found!  

This was our view from the tent.  

Of course they had to wait in line at 3am in order to get it.  But the camp hosts knock on your window at check-in time (8am), so you don't have to pull an all-nighter.  Early camper gets the worm!

We are not looking for worms... just inspecting bear poop.

Our hike today was Grinell Glacier Trail (13 miles round trip from Many Glacier Campground with a 1,600 foot elevation gain).   The hike was a mile longer than usual because the north side trail along Lake Josephine was closed due to bear activity.  Obviously the bears roam freely but when they frequent an area regularly, the National Park Service will close the trails, so bears can be bears, bears that aren't attacking people.

Danger is my middle name.

Lunch time!

The views are spectacular, as you can see.

Huckleberry picking- a favorite activity of ours.  

There aren't very many places where you can hike and get free snacks along the route, at least not in California.  I guess danger is all of our middle names, we are competing with bears for their food.  Looking back, I am not sure if it is a good idea.

More icebergs!  I love iceberg lakes (once again, I am not happy that the glaciers are melting, but it sure looks neat).

This is the baby toe polar bear plunge.  It is a challenge to get in at all, let alone wait for a picture.  So I am much tougher than I look. 

Cold water hurts.

Raya is tough too.  Handling ice is no joke.

Eric and Raya are standing on a bed of stromatolite fossils.  The rock formation is cool.  Stromatolites are produced by cyanobacteria under shallow water.

Curly fries!  (As Raya and Josh would say.)

There was a group of five big horn sheep that were hanging out beyond the trail, out of sight of virtually every other hiker.

Glacier travel is not recommended by the Park, but it is recommended by me.

It was difficult to get to the glacier without getting our shoes wet in that painful water.  

We traversed four crossings with little issues; having poles helped a lot.

It was so worth it.  Eric and I have never walked on a glacier before!  It is so cool (not a pun) to see the ice buried below all of the rocks and dirt.  We can attest that glacial erosion exists, and it is amazing.

As we started our descent the 80% chance of rain in the forecast quickly became 100%.  The majority of our return was in the rain, which means no pictures.

There is a restaurant within the campground so we gave all of our wet bags to Josh to take back to camp and went straight to the Swiftcurrent Restaurant.  Their food is good, for descent prices, and it is obviously very convenient.  

(Don't order the grilled cheese.  I realized on this trip that Montana cannot make a satisfactory grilled cheese, because they don't understand the concept.  Everyone traveling to Montana should start their trip with this knowledge.)

Two Glacier

I didn't sleep well last night thanks to Josh's little comment about bear attacks in campsites occurring when bears rip drowsy campers right out of their sleeping bags; regardless we were ready for our first official hike in Glacier.  We walked straight from our campsite at Many Glacier Campground to the trail head for Iceberg Lake.

Ptarmigans!  

Aren't these little snow chickens adorable?  They are big but they are stealth. 

The number of wildflowers (regarding to both quantity and different species) is astounding.  I have never in my life seen more wildflowers than in Glacier. 

We reached our destination just five miles later.  

I know it is called Iceberg Lake but I wasn't expecting icebergs in a lake.  These are the last remnants of what used to be a glacier, the glacier that carved this cirque (the bowl-shaped depression in the mountain).  As sad as it is that the glaciers are melting the icebergs look really cool (no pun intended) in the lake.

We saw three grizzlies on the way back to camp (I can only guess they are waiting until nightfall, when they may or may not have a bear jamboree in our tent).  

There was a sudden storm that rolled through (fortunately the 70% chance of rain, which was supposed to start at 3pm held off until we returned from our hike), sending us all, while frantically grabbing out things, running into Raya and Josh's trailer.  Luckily it subsided enough for Raya to cook us dinner (thanks, Raya!).  

We are so lucky to be here.

One Glacier

Having never been to Glacier National Park I didn't know quite what to expect.  I just knew that I had to get there before the name changes to Formally Known as Glacier National Park (or something comparable).

This trip has been on the calendar for a year, and since I have only heard wonderful things about Glacier National Park I have been excited since the trip was just an embryo.   

Okay, so there are whole books written on deaths in Glacier, but dead men tell no tales (thank you, Voice in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride) so I don't have to think about the accidents nor the foolhardiness if I don't want to.

During my El Salvador trip last year, I randomly thought that I just had to visit Glacier National Park.  Come to find out, upon my return, that Raya was there and had said I was the only person she knew that she was confident would come visit before it was too late (before the possible name change).

And so a trip was born.

Josh and Raya picked us up at Glacier Park International Airport in Kalispell, which is quite a trek from East Glacier where we are spending our first 6 nights (about a three hour drive each way).  Luckily it is summer time so even though it was late we got to enjoy the Going-to-the-Sun road lit up by the sun, and got a glimpse of what we had in store for us.

Just before the Logan Pass Visitor Center we stopped at a turnout and were surrounded by mountain goats, wildflowers, and gorgeous topography.  

And this is just the beginning...