Month: July 2019

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Glacier National Park Day

Amy Kline

Exploration day in Glacier National Park. Amazing! That is the word to describe this park. Book your trip now if you haven’t been there yet. We decided to take the Going-To-The-Sun Road. We pulled off at a spot by Lake McDonald and had a great time skipping stones and taking pictures by this beautiful glacial lake with barely any other people around. Then we headed up to Logan Pass and took the Hidden Lake Trail to the Outlook-about 1.5 miles at a steady climbing path. It was definitely worth the hike because the scenery was beautiful every step of the way and we got to see mountain goats, waterfalls, and many different types of wildflowers.

  • Lake MacDonald is 500 feet deep. It is so clear that I bet you could almost see all the way to the bottom in the deepest part!
  • The rocks are so cool at this beach. So many different colors and textures. Amy couldn’t stop taking pictures of them because the water was so clear.
  • Skipping rocks took many different strategies. This was an overhand attempt.
  • Jeff skipped a stone that skipped over 20 times!
  • Carson wanted to give his hands the “spa treatment”. Glacial water is cold!
  • My boys! They had so much fun skipping stones.
  • Beach/mountain selfie!
  • We made another pull off at a rapids. The water was blue and it was such a cool sound. Reminded us of the Boundary Waters. Except all the people that ignored the “stay on the path” signs and kept getting in the way of my pictures, grr.
  • Amazing scenery at every turn!
  • A cool tunnel with some lookouts. No parking available so we just keep driving.
  • This was the only barrier between us and the possibility of falling off the side of the mountain. Amy leaned in towards the center of the truck to “help” keep it on the road. The boys thought that was hilarious!
  • Epic views
  • This bridge did a great job of blending in to the natural rocks.
  • Snow! At the end of July.
  • The wildflowers are gorgeous!
  • Glaciers! No people in this photo, but if we would have been 90 degrees in either direction, you would see a never ending line of people on this trail. So many people. There are signs everywhere to stay on the path though, so that helps keep the nature undisturbed.
  • Columbia’s ground squirrel. There were tons of them around the Logan Pass Visitor Center. Cute!
  • I love these red flowers!
  • Mountain Goats were not paying attention to us, but they did get really close to us as they were grazing.
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Driving day-Teddy Roosevelt to Glacier

Amy Kline

We spent today driving from Theodore Roosevelt National Park to a campground in West Glacier, Montana. 10 hours in the car, mostly driving on Hwy 2. We saw lots of trains today and even got to see the Amtrak arrive in Havre just as we drove through it. So of course Jeff stopped to grab some photos. We made it to the campground about 5:40 and successfully set up the camper on the most uneven campsite ever. Then relaxed and watched the Lodge Pole Pines sway in the breeze.

  • One last buffalo sighting at the edge of the campground.
  • A long day of driving. Both kids sleeping? This is our 5th long road trip around the country and the first time both kids fell asleep at the same time!
  • Jeff loves trains.
  • After climbing in altitude all day, we actually were driving downhill most of the way through the mountain pass on the way to West Glacier.
  • Gorgeous views!!
  • So uneven! But Jeff got it level!
  • It is mesmerizing to watch the Lodgepole Pines sway in the breeze.
  • To save time during this trip, we just keep the boys sleeping bags laid out on their bed and lay out sleeping bags down on the bench beds. We have a 3” mattress topper on our side so there isn’t room to leave our laid out on our bed. We also put all our duffle bags and pillows in the floor spaces. Works like a charm and saves tons of time hauling everything out of the back of the truck!
  • The Empire Builder line of Amtrak was pulling into the station as we were passing through Havre. Jeff was loving this quick pitstop!
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Theodore Roosevelt National Park Exploration Day

Amy Kline

Jeff made a delicious breakfast, then we went into town to get ice. We got back into the Park and drove the Scenic Drive and stopped at all the pullouts. Photos can’t do justice to the layers of the land in the distance. We hiked about a mile out to a prairie dog town, then back to the campsite to relax. The campground host stopped by and visited for at least an hour and we got to play with his cute doggy. Also, Amy went to the ranger talk which was about cowboys and ranching in this area. What a fun day!!

  • So many layers of rock! And none of it is old enough to hold dinosaur fossils in this area.
  • One of the CCC projects.
  • This guy was grazing along the side of the roars all by himself. He was probably the same bison that has wandered near the edge of the campground an hour earlier.
  • National Park selfie!
  • This is the Little Missouri River. You can see the floodplain from here. As the river changes course, the silt it leaves behind include cottonwood seeds so there are bands of same age cottonwoods in a lot of areas. That is one way scientist can track the path of the river over the years.
  • CCC project. It is amazing that these structure hold up so well in the windy and cold climate here.
  • You can see the blue-black layer very easily around the park. The color stands out.
  • Amy loves taking flower photos.
  • A buffalo was posing for the motorists.
  • Watch where you walk when on the paths. You never know when a buffalo had just been through.
  • Trying out Daddy’s binoculars.
  • Prickly pear cactus
  • The prairie dogs were so cute!
  • My boys!
  • These are cannonball concretions. No one knows how they form, but the rock is more solid than the surrounding rock so it stays intact as the land around it erodes. Then eventually they roll down the butte. These were about 3 feet in diameter.