One of the highlights (at least for me, because I actually
got to tag along) of my parents two week trip out to see us, was our trip to
Glacier National Park. I have since
learned that we lucked out with a crowded, but not insane, number of people at
the park. It was certainly stark
contrast to Libby, where the mountains are pretty darn gorgeous but the crowds
are about 1/16th of those at the park.
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| Picnic spot at Avalanche |
Anyway, we got going a bit late and arrived at the park
around 11 am (after a stop at a mom and pop coffee drive through… a very common
sight in Montana…. And one of my favorite things about this place). We decided
to take the free shuttle up the mountain instead of driving, especially after
having the park rangers tell us we wouldn’t find any parking along the way…
ugh. So we waited in line for about an hour for the shuttle, which actually
passed pretty quickly because the girls did their junior ranger books while we
waited. Our first stop was at Avalanche area, where we found a beautiful spot
for a picnic lunch.
After lunch we hopped on another bus and headed up the
mountain to Logan Pass. The drive was truly stunning, and just a little
intimidating for folks on the left-hand side of the shuttle because of the
straight and steep drop off on that side.
At Logan Pass, the highest point in
the park, we got off the shuttle and went for a little hike on the highline
trail, which still had snow across it. This was pretty novel for all of us, not
to mention a refreshing cool change from Libby, which has been so darn hot. The
hike was pretty darn cliff-side and intimidating, so we didn’t go too far.
We did,
however, go far enough to walk behind a big snowdrift (at every snow drift Izzy
asked me… Mom, is this a glacier? What about this, is this a glacier?
Unfortunately I didn’t find a single actual glacier to show her…) and tip-toe
along the side of the mountain while hanging onto a rope. After that mini-hike
we went up another full of snow for just a bit and then took the shuttle back
down the mountain.
We hit a delicious dinner of BBQ in a town outside of
Glacier and made it home just after sunset (aka around 10 pm :)
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