Glacier National Park

No matter where we live, we always try to tour the surrounding areas and visit the national parks. A few weeks ago, Adam and I decided to go camping at Glacier National Park (most likely our last time camping alone for at least the next 18 years!). Glacier NP is in far northwest Montana, about 13 hours away from us. Being the pregnant lady that I am, I brought a roll of TP for the car ride, knowing that driving through MT is like driving through the middle of nowhere for hours....because you are driving through the middle of nowhere for hours. Needless to say, there were a few times I had to create my own little stall between the car doors...lol.

We stayed at the Air Force Base in Great Falls, MT Friday on the way up to the park so we wouldn't be driving so much in one day. We made it to the park Saturday morning, and as we were approaching the main entrance, a black bear ran across the road! It was pretty cool. I was glad it wasn't a grizzly...those guys freak me out! We set up our little campsite, which I reserved online by finding the closest available site to the bathroom (as seen in the background :) ). The weather was pretty rainy off and on, but that didn't stop us!

After we set up camp, we went searching for firewood. Adam, the Eagle Scout that he is, found us some wild raspberries that were pretty delicious. (The baby thought they were pretty good too ; ) ).

That evening, we enjoyed some yummy foil dinners on the campfire along with roasted marshmallows. We slept pretty well that night on our air mattress. I brought about 10 blankets that we piled on top to keep us warm. I still ended up wearing 3 shirts, a sweatshirt/hoodie, two pairs of socks, and two pairs of pants to bed. I learned after our camping trip to Yellowstone a few years ago that it gets COLD at night - even in August! Heidi snuggled up in between us, and we all slept pretty well.


The next day we toured the park along the most popular road, called the "Going-to-the-Sun Road." I think Adam said the road took us up 3,000 feet. We were both kind of glad that we were so high up in the clouds that we couldn't really see just how high we were.

There were a lot of spots along the road to pull over and see various sights.

The picture of the gulch below was one of my favorite spots along the road. I thought it was so gorgeous! We also decided to capture an illustration of Heidi's rebellious behavior.

The picture of the glacier below is the one that is best seen from the road. The others can be reached by hiking up to them - unfortunately, we didn't have the time or the energy. Adam was making fun of me because I pictured a glacier in my head as looking more like an iceberg floating in the water. I thought we were going to get to touch one and slide down it or something...drrr.

Here is a picture of Lake McDonald. You can see how clear and beautiful the water was. In the picture at the very beginning of this post, you can see how blue the water was too. Adam read that the sediments from the glaciers give the water its blue-ish tint.

This picture was taken along the drive, and I love how it shows just how clear the water was there. Even the rocks in the lakes were red, yellow, and blue colored. Every time I saw the water I just wanted to roll around in it and slurp it up. (Of course, we all know that I think everything looks delicious these days).

Here is a picture of St. Mary Lake near the end of the road:

We headed home after driving the main road. We both couldn't believe how gorgeous everything was there. Our trip was short and full of driving, but it was all worth it!