I would visit 4 more big National Parks before the wrap up of my wonderful 5 month journey across this country. There would be Glacier National Park, Olympic National Park, Yosemite National Park, and the grand finale of the Grand Canyon National Park.
It took me no more than 3 days into my trip to realize how beautiful this country is. Sadly it took me the entire 5 months, to realize how much I missed because I was too busy looking down at my phone. This is my home. This is my country I live in. This is the land that my cousins, friends, and many others fight for. Why was I so busy always wanting to travel outside of this place?
If you have the time to explore and travel, try to do it within our lands. You will be surprised at the things you will come across, the magnitude of people you will meet, the different means of life within every state you enter, the hospitality you will come across, and most of all the beauty of a place you call your home.
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| Glacier National Park South Entrance |
Glacier NP would be one of the 3 national parks we would arrive at without camping reservations. There is a few national parks that do not take reservations for camping, this being one of them we showed up in hopes for a spot! As we pulled up to the entrance gate and handed them our pass, we noticed the campground we wanted to get a spot in, was already full. So, with luck we fond a campground with a spot, this one being a little further into the park than we wanted, but it worked.
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| View from our campsite. |
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| Hilleberg Keron 4GT; Our home. |
We didn't have much time here in the park. Just a few days. We tried to gather as much info as we could in just the few days we were there. We would explore one day, hike the next and boot scoot out and on to the next part of our journey.
We had an event scheduled our first day in the park, so we decided to find a spot along one of the many gorgeous rivers and sit there, and bask in the sun. We did this twice, while staying in the park. Glacier NP had some of the most beautiful waters I had ever seen in my life, next to the Caribbean. I could not believe how blue the water was here.
While exploring on our first day, and driving around to see what we could find. We found a very large bright blue swimming hole. As we made our way to the visitor center to gather more information on some hiking trails, I told myself that swimming hole will be the place where I make my first jump off a rock and into water. I've jumped off bridges before, and it scares the heck out of me, but this was it. YOLO? Is that the famous phrase people love so much?
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| The spot I would jump into frigid waters. |
We drove all the way to the ranger station. This road up, was called "Going to the Sun Road". It was spectacular, steep, and scary in some spots. We stopped along the way several times to take some photos and take in the gorgeous mountain views that surrounded us.
We finally made it to the Ranger station and asked all the questions we needed in order to make our plans for the next day for our hike. However, the weather was not going to be in our favor for the greatest of days. We opted out of a long difficult hike for a shorter more populated hike. Thankfully we did, because not only was the weather not going to be in our favor, but neither was the day. We set our alarms to be up at 5:00am, get an early start and be down and out before the weather moved in. Well, we realized as soon as we zipped our tent up to go to bed, we had locked both our sets of keys in the car. Woops, haha. In 5 months, it was bound to happen at least once.
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| Ranger to the Rescue |
After, waking around 7:30am we found our campground Host and she contacted Park Services for us, because we did not have cell service. The ranger showed up quickly, and unlocked our doors within 5 minutes. We packed our stuff in, and headed for a later start than we had originally planned. We decided to hike the Highline Trail all the way across, and pick up the shuttle bus at the other end to get back to our car. Yes, a shuttle bus! This is something I think all large parks should offer, even at a small fee. Yellowstone is one.
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| Looking back at the scariest part of the trail (left) and the Go to the Sun Road (right) |
The Highline Trail starts at the Visitor Center, and starts off on a very steep cliff with a large drop off on one side, with very little room to pass others. There is a fixed cable run through a hose for you to hold on to if need be. This section is not for those who do not like heights or faint of heart. We trekked along and came across gorgeous alpine flowers, and exceptional views.
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| "Go to the Sun Road" |
About half way into our hike, we ran into the first and only snow field we would have to cross on this 12 mile day hike. It was amazing. It was almost august and we were hiking in snow?! I love the mountains. As we approached the snow field, I just had to get a photo walking across and making snowballs! Then I asked Becca if I could get her photo. This photo, ended in quite a good memory and laugh. Luckily did not end tragically.
As Becca ran full speed ahead up the snow field to then turn and get a photo, she nor I realized she was running full speed ahead at a Mountain Goat laying within 50 feet of her. He blended well into the snow. At the time, she turned, I took the photo, and she ran back down to the trail. We turn to keep walking and 2 older gentleman yell to us, "the goat! Did you see the goat?" We laughed and looked back, and laughed. Quickly pulling the camera back out to see if I had taken the photo of her and had captured the goat laying there as well. I did. It made for quite the laugh.
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| Becca running up the snow field. (Notice goat to the left of her) |
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| Yup, that's a Mountain Goat. |
We continued our trek until we hit the last 3 miles. Which were all switch backs. Let me express to you how much I do NOT enjoy switch backs. I live in the Northeast, we like our trails straight up and back down and right to the point. There is no joy in ending your hike with seeing your car and how close you are, to then walk 2.5 miles in the opposite direction, and then .5 miles back to your car... So, the last three miles were a brutal steep descent away from and then back towards our shuttle bus. We made the best of it and had some fun along the way.
After our 12 mile day hike, which started off not as early as we'd planned. We were hot and sweaty, and had no shower to go back to. So we changed in the car, put our swim suits on and headed to the swimming hole that we had seen the day before and took a couple dives in. Believe me when I say it was frigid, and literally took your breath away the moment you hit the water, but it was amazing.
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| Ready, set, JUMP! |
Hike Safe & Keep on Trekking
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