Stallwart
Weekend Adventurer
My wife and I have a tradition of visiting a new location every year. Most of these are national parks, but can be anywhere really. This year we chose Glacier National Park in Montana, and my wife's parents joined. We made all of the necessary plans with set dates for backpacking and white water rafting, but left everything else open. I even acquired my mom's beloved 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee as my car didn't have enough room for the 4 of us with and all our gear. It turns out the Jeep didn't either.
My wife and I loaded up all of our gear, and just in case we didn't have enough room for my in-laws' gear inside the Jeep we brought a tarp and a receiver hitch cargo basket. We left Utah on a Saturday in August. We had decided beforehand that to get to Glacier we would drive up the west side of Montana in the Rockies and for the return trip we would drive on the East side of the Rockies in the flat lands. The West side of Montana was beautiful, which made the 10 hour drive doable. We broke the drive up into 2 days and stayed in Butte Saturday night.
We arrived at Glacier NP around 2:00 p.m. Sunday afternoon. After a quick stop at the Apgar Visitor Center we headed to our campsite in the Fish Creek Campground. While the campsites were quite close together, it was a nice area in the trees that would do fine as our base camp for the next three days. We quickly made camp and placed our food and other scented items in the bear box at the campsite. It was about 4:00 and we needed to pick up my in-laws at the Kalispell airport at 5:15. Everything went as planned and we were back at camp in time to have a fire and talk about the adventures that lay ahead.
Monday morning we drove most of Going to the Sun road to get to our big hike for the day. It was a great drive with amazing alpine views. Just doing this drive and stopping at the viewpoints would have made the whole trip worth it, but there were much greater things to come. We reached the trail head to Piegan Pass around 9 a.m. The trail is just over 9 miles with an 1850 ft elevation gain, and can be done as a one way through hike or an out and back hike. Since we only had one vehicle we did the out and back trip.
It was a beautiful trail with plenty of wildlife and wild flowers.
At the top of the pass you are treated with an astounding view of the glacier-formed valley you just hiked out of, as well as a panoramic view of the Rocky Mountains overlooking a small milky turquoise colored lake on the other side.
My wife and I take a photo of her on my shoulders everywhere we go.
We spent 45 minutes at the top of the pass eating lunch and enjoying the views, but now it was time to return. When we reached the Jeep we noticed some snow on the cliff side that seemed to have drawn the attention of those around us. Knowing that there was probably an animal up there of some sort, I got out the binoculars and video camera with a 40x zoom so that we could look at it. Sure enough it was a mountain goat, and the only one we would see for the whole trip.
It was getting close to dinner time so we returned back to camp, built a small fire, and started cooking dinner.
My wife had made soup a few days before the trip and froze it so that all we needed to do was heat it up. It was an excellent idea as it made for a quick, easy, and delicious dinner - my mother-in-law and I prepping dinner.
My wife and I loaded up all of our gear, and just in case we didn't have enough room for my in-laws' gear inside the Jeep we brought a tarp and a receiver hitch cargo basket. We left Utah on a Saturday in August. We had decided beforehand that to get to Glacier we would drive up the west side of Montana in the Rockies and for the return trip we would drive on the East side of the Rockies in the flat lands. The West side of Montana was beautiful, which made the 10 hour drive doable. We broke the drive up into 2 days and stayed in Butte Saturday night.
We arrived at Glacier NP around 2:00 p.m. Sunday afternoon. After a quick stop at the Apgar Visitor Center we headed to our campsite in the Fish Creek Campground. While the campsites were quite close together, it was a nice area in the trees that would do fine as our base camp for the next three days. We quickly made camp and placed our food and other scented items in the bear box at the campsite. It was about 4:00 and we needed to pick up my in-laws at the Kalispell airport at 5:15. Everything went as planned and we were back at camp in time to have a fire and talk about the adventures that lay ahead.
Monday morning we drove most of Going to the Sun road to get to our big hike for the day. It was a great drive with amazing alpine views. Just doing this drive and stopping at the viewpoints would have made the whole trip worth it, but there were much greater things to come. We reached the trail head to Piegan Pass around 9 a.m. The trail is just over 9 miles with an 1850 ft elevation gain, and can be done as a one way through hike or an out and back hike. Since we only had one vehicle we did the out and back trip.
It was a beautiful trail with plenty of wildlife and wild flowers.
At the top of the pass you are treated with an astounding view of the glacier-formed valley you just hiked out of, as well as a panoramic view of the Rocky Mountains overlooking a small milky turquoise colored lake on the other side.
My wife and I take a photo of her on my shoulders everywhere we go.
We spent 45 minutes at the top of the pass eating lunch and enjoying the views, but now it was time to return. When we reached the Jeep we noticed some snow on the cliff side that seemed to have drawn the attention of those around us. Knowing that there was probably an animal up there of some sort, I got out the binoculars and video camera with a 40x zoom so that we could look at it. Sure enough it was a mountain goat, and the only one we would see for the whole trip.
It was getting close to dinner time so we returned back to camp, built a small fire, and started cooking dinner.
My wife had made soup a few days before the trip and froze it so that all we needed to do was heat it up. It was an excellent idea as it made for a quick, easy, and delicious dinner - my mother-in-law and I prepping dinner.
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