The Great Northwest: Glacier National Park

 

The centerpiece park for this trip is Glacier National Park.  We have never been here before and wanted to see it before the glaciers are all gone.  Our four days here have been wonderful.  We started in the southeast corner in a hidden gem that many Glacier visitors miss—Two Medicine valley.  Lush forests and flowers fill the landscape.

 

Running Eagle Falls is named in honor of a famous medicine woman warrior of the local Pikuni or Blackfeet people. 

 

Two Medicine Lake in the southeast corner of Glacier

 

Bear Grass is one of the more unusual of the many wildflowers in full bloom right now.

 

You can’t beat the atmosphere at dinner when you park your own condo-on-wheels in scenic parks.

 

Going to the Sun Road through Glacier NP lived up to its reputation as one of the most spectacular roads in the world.  Our big truck took the mountains as though it was flat, but not so my quivering insides as I clung to the road with only a low rock border between me and the valley 1000 feet below.  Going up was just as bad, trying to stay in my lane without scraping the rock walls that the road had been carved from. These small falls of the weeping wall ran right onto the road.

 

Enormous glaciers once covered most of the area and gouged out U shaped valleys, narrow ridges, and high angular peaks.  Today’s glaciers move slowly down the mountainsides and feed rushing icy streams and high waterfalls everywhere.

 

Jackson and Blackfoot Glaciers used to be much bigger and piled together.  Scientists are predicting that the remaining 34 glaciers in this park will be gone by 2030.

 This is a more typical view.

We were surprised to learn that the continental divide which reaches through the park is actually a three-way divide.  One triangular mountain splits watersheds going to the Columbia River and the Pacific in the west; the Missouri, Mississippi, Gulf and Atlantic in the east and Hudson Bay and the Arctic Ocean in the north.

 Don is doing so well with the hiking, as long as we are on trails that are not too rough with rocks and roots.  I try to steer him around on trails to the smoothest paths.  I do well—98% of the time.  That 2% that I miss because I am looking at flowers or waterfalls causes some stress.  But he is a trooper.

Logan Pass at 6646 feet let us enjoy the warm temps in the eighties while trudging through snow. 

 

Birdwoman Falls

 

 

 

Glacial ice does not float in fresh water because it has so much silt in it.  This glacial “flour” flows down in the glacial melt water and remains suspended in the rivers and lakes, giving the waters the lovely azure color.  Simple snow melt does not look the same. 

Lake McDonald is the large lake at the west side of Glacier.  We had a lovely steak lunch at McDonald Lodge before returning over the Going to the Sun Road to our campground in St. Mary on the east.  When the park was first promoted by the Great Northern Railway, several rustic lodges, luxurious for the time, were built.  They are still beautiful places to visit.

 

 

 Don holds a root beer bottle featuring the restored 1930's Red Jammer busses still used for tours throughout the park.

 

 

As with most mountainous places in the west, the eastern side of the range is drier because the humid Pacific air hits the mountains and rains on the west side.   Glacier is no exception.  This park has a variety of ecosystems.   As people who know me can attest, I love, love, love trees. 

 

The Trail of the Cedars on the west side with its enormous red cedars and other trees was a solemn, almost cathedral-like place in which to praise God for His creation.

 

 

 

 

We spent most of our last day at the Many Glacier area with breakfast at the lodge there and a two part boat journey with a quarter mile walk over the hill between the two lakes and two boats. 

 

 

 

Then we hiked out to Grinnell Lake.  This is the swaying-est hanging bridge I have ever been on.

Grinnell Lake is so lovely with the waterfalls coming down from Grinnell Glacier in braided ribbons of white.  Look at that water color.

 

 

Don soaked his feet in the icy waters of Grinnell Lake after our hike.

 

Glacier NP is at the meeting of mountains and plains.  Sunset from our campsite.

 “Few places in the world are more dangerous than home.  Fear not, therefore, to try the mountain passes.  They kill care, save you from deadly apathy, and call forth every faculty into vigorous, enthusiastic action.”  John Muir on visiting Glacier.

 

The Great Northwest: Teddy Roosevelt National Park

 

 

Teddy Roosevelt National Park was a wonderful interlude on our long drive west.  The park features the North Dakota Badlands where a young, skinny, bespectacled Roosevelt went hunting buffalo.  He was enthralled with the area and returned many times, buying a ranch refuge where he said he spent his happiest times.  The Badlands were also what fueled his intense desire to preserve America’s wild lands as America’s greatest conservationist President.

Veins of coal sometimes catch fire and burn for years baking the surrounding sand and clay into hard red scoria that resists erosion.   

 

On the 36 mile loop drive we saw three separate bands of wild horses and a herd of buffalo that owned the road.

 

 

I loved hiking around the layers of rock weathered into fantastical shapes.   

 

In the evening we took in the Medora Musical, an entertaining mix of country music, humor and Teddy Roosevelt lore.

 

 

 

Where have we been lately?

 

I have not done any travel blogs for a while, even though we have been getting around some.  Dealing with our son-in-law, Stephen’s cancer fight and passing and then helping Tara and the boys cope with the new reality has been all-consuming.  We thank God that we are retired and able to help her through all of this.  In keeping with the travel blog theme, I would like to share a few highlights of the last year and a half.

Stephen, bald but still strong in spring of 2012

 

Our son Troy put on a Beer Fest in Madison, and I helped.  What fun!  We also attended a couple of Troy's tattoo conventions.  

  I may be spoiling Enigma's image, but he can be really a nice guy.

 

 We stayed at their house with the boys while Stephen and Tara went to Germany six times for 10-14 days each time for cancer treatment.  We have also had the boys at our place in Palm Valley in Oviedo a lot since we bought our little house there. 

 

Basil loved the butterfly encounter at Lukas nursery.  Levi was not so sure.

When my sister Carol visited, we went biking in Mt. Dora, a charming little town near Orlando.

 

 

Stephen was very determined to beat the cancer.  He inspired so many people with his courage and faith.  He decided to run a marathon before the year was up of learning about his stage IV stomach cancer.  Seventeen marathoners from Orlando registered to run that race at Kiawa Island with him in early December 2012.  Stephen finished his race in heaven on October 8^th.    His friends decided to run as a memorial tribute in matching shirts with the words "I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith" around his picture.  They said they could feel Stephen running with them as he had so many times before.  Here is Tara finishing the race.

 

 

 

 

We went along and spent the weekend on Kiawah Island,  It was cold, but the boys played in the ocean anyway.

We had made reservations to camp between Christmas and New Year’s, 2011, with Tara, Stephen and the boys at Fort Desoto Park on an island in Tampa Bay.  That is when Stephen had heart problems that led to removal of the pericardium around his heart and the discovery of the cancer.  We had to cancel the trip, but a year later we did it two months after his death as a memory tribute to him.  His brother Jim and their family came for one day.

 

Sunset on the Gulf takes your breath away.

 

The boys love camping, so we took just them to Kelly Park once last year and once this year.  It is a wonderful county park north of Orlando with a lovely spring, swimming hole and hiking trails.  We learned hiking skills:  checking the trail map often, watching for blazes and trail markers to stay on the right trail, carrying your own snack and drink. 

 

 

Levi loves the water.

 

 We cooked over the fire most meals. 

 

They boys colored camping pillowcases at a ranger led activity.

Troy and his girlfriend Meghan came to Tampa for a tattoo show, so we met them for the Sarasota Aquarium and dinner.

 

 

We discovered an egret rookery in Winter Park.  There had to be 100 egrets in the area, building nests in the live oaks, then squawking and bringing food to the babies.

 

 

We had a lot of guests over the winter, but I seem to have neglected to take very many pictures. 

Fred, Elaine, Me, Don

 

Elaine and I at the Morse Museum in Winter Park with a Tiffany window  

 

Don and his sister Darlene in Lake Eola Park, downtown Orlando

 

We have done a of couple trips that deserve their own stories.  Stay tuned. 

It has been a very difficult year and a half, but we have all managed with God’s love and the support of family and friends.  We have grown very close to Tara and our grandsons which has been a blessing.  We have learned that things and possessions and pursuit of pleasure don’t rank high at all.  Trust in the Lord and love shared with family and friends are what really matter.