2022 Grand Adventure, Part 2: Glacier!

Leaving Raymond, we took the scenic route to get to Oregon: through Glacier National Park. We planned this trip months ago, planning to drive Going-To-The-Sun Road. As we got closer, it became doubtful if the road would be open. The day arrived, and indeed, the road was not fully open. We decided to do as much as we could anyway.

We started with a quick trip into the visitor's center. 

Outside the center, we found our first Oregon license plate of the trip! I got rather excited. 

Also exciting: seeing all the beautiful mountains.

Calista said it looked and felt like being in Alberta and at Waterton. 

She was surprised to see the Alberta wild rose!

We had a discussion about natural vs man-made borders and international peace parks. 

In short, there's a reason this all seems so familiar to us!

We drove along Going-To-The-Sun Road, stopping whenever we wanted to look at a viewpoint.

We did a little hike to Sun Point

Which, true to its name, had lots of sun.

You could see forever in a couple of different directions.

It was a bit windy, though, so we didn't get too close to the edge of the cliff.

We then kept walking straight from Sun Point 

to Baring Falls.

We could get up close to the falls, so of course, we did.

We had a nice little rest by Baring Falls,

Explored a bit, and then continued our hike, on our way to Sunrift Gorge.

The kiddos got a little tired and began to revolt a bit.

So they and I waited under the road overpass while Kyler ran back down the trail to get the car and bring it closer to us. Whimpy children.

Too tired to hike, but not too tired to dance, eh?

And then, finally, we walked to Sunrift Gorge. 

The furthest we could get on Going-To-The-Sun Road in this direction was Jackson Glacier Overlook. 

So we turned around and drove around to the other side of Glacier via Highway 2. 

Of course, this meant we got to see things like the Silver Staircase Waterfall!

A nice man offered to take a picture of the whole family, although the boys were slightly less than cooperative.
Then it was back onto Going-To-The-Sun-Road, going as far as we were allowed in this direction.

Which was to the Trail of the Cedars. 

This was a beautiful, shady hike.

And we found a deer right by the path!

We took our time on the trail,

Stopping by the creek multiple times

and pausing to climb on logs. 

It was lovely, and made my Pacific Northwest heart happy.

Fun fact: this grove of cedars is one of the most eastern in North America!

The only downside of this trail was Calista had a moment of not quite paying attention

and slipped off the raised boardwalk. Ouch.

On our way back down Going-To-The-Sun Road, we stopped at McDonald Falls.

It was beautiful. I don't quite understand some people, though.

There was a sign saying not to go past the fencing because, you know, falling into the falls could be deadly. People went past the signs and fencing to get that perfect instagram shot anyway. Sigh.

Our final stop in Glacier National Park was Lake McDonald itself. Once I took off my shoes and put my feet in the water, all the kiddos decided they had to, as well.

I didn't mind. It was a lovely end to a beautiful day.

Once our feet were dry

And our shoes back on we left the park and headed to our hotel in Kalispell for the night.

Kalispell was not kind to us. The hotel we'd booked didn't have A/C: it was broken. So we switched to a new hotel, more expensive and stressful. By the time we went to get dinner, I was too exhausted to really think so I made Kyler order for me. And after dinner came the thunderstorms warning... Which was valid and resulted in our van getting pummeled by hail. Dents all over the hood and roof as well as several craters and cracks in our windshield. Sigh. Oh well. On with the trip!