Glacier National Park

I spent the last weekend in September in Montana with my parents in Glacier National Park. Sadly, Jay needs his vacation time for our two week vacation planned in November when we head back to SE Asia to visit spots in Indonesia we missed when we were there before. So Jay didn't join me on this trip; although he was missed, I had a great time with my parents.  Anytime with family is special and to be on vacation for a few days with my parents was heaps of fun! Here we are at Logan Pass, the highest point along the crazy Going-to-the-Sun Rd. in the park.

 

 Lake McDonald

During our first full day in the park my parents headed up on a helicopter flight - I declined that option (can't say I love helicopters or the price) and I sat in the sun outside hoping the helicopter would return with my parents. Thankfully it did and we took off to spend the day along the western half of Going-to-the-Sun Rd. The famous road was closed in the middle for road work because it was the end of the season here; in fact, a ton of stuff was closed for the end of the season.  This was disappointing to my Mom, but I was happy because it meant no crowds and that is how I like my national parks. We were able to see huge Lake McDonald and grab lunch at the historic Lake McDonald Lodge. Then we did a short walk through the cedar trees at the spot where the road closed for construction. After living in Washington for a few years, you get adjusted the tree size. The cedars here looked so tiny to me!
Once we finished playing tourists for the day, we checked into my parent's timeshare - which turned out to be our own cabin with our own private hot tub on the porch! Awesome!  And it had a real fireplace. These cabins were nestled under the mountains about 15 minutes from the western park entrance, but they were totally isolated. I loved the cabin!

Forest and Fire Trail

The next day was great! We decided to head up the western side of the park to some lakes that were pretty off the beaten track. We started with a hike along the Forest and Fire Nature Trail which had been burnt in a large forest fire in 2003 (?). It is always a treat to see an ecosystem recovering from a major natural disturbance. The park had been hit pretty hard by forest fires in 2003 and other surrounding years, so it was quite common while driving to be surrounded by burnt matchsticks and recovering primary succession species. Rather than finding this disappointing, I thought it was neat and my parents did too.  My parents are posing above with the great views through the burnt trees and all the little seedlings sprouting up as a result of the burn.

We left the park briefly to head further north, and were forced to stop to take in this view.  It is a bit hazy due to some forest fires that were burning somewhere in the area, but you get the idea. The mountains are big and we are tiny. Golden aspen were blanketing the hillsides....it was gorgeous.

 Bowman Lake

After leaving Bowman Lake, where we had a yummy lunch with some gray jays and Dad went fishing, we headed north just a little ways to check out this big grassland area in the park (above). On our way home we stopped at the fantastic Polebridge Mercantile to stock up on very tasty homemade huckleberry pastries. This little outpost had some seriously good treats and really nice people. The town atmosphere reminded me of Gustavus, but on a much smaller scale (30 people instead of a few hundred).

 The Flathead River and aspen

The next day was a big driving day to the east side of the park.  Since Going-to-the-Sun Rd. was closed in the middle, we had to drive around the southern end of the park and then back north to get to the eastern side of the park. We pulled over to the side of a scary narrow and windy road to take in the view looking up into Two Medicine valley. Gorgeous!

Our first major stop along the eastern side of Going-to-the-Sun Rd. was to take in this view of St. Mary Lake. It is, for obvious reasons, one of the most photographed areas in the park. Here is my attempt! Look at how windy it was! We thought we were going to be blown away.... by the wind. The views did blow your mind.

Here is a shot of the famous road looking up at Logan Pass. The road wasn't half as scary as I expected it to be, in fact, some of the non-park roads were more hair-raising.

Once we were at Logan Pass we headed up the Hidden Lake Nature Trail a short distance in order to take in this view. The lenticular clouds that formed over the mountains made it even more impressive, although they are not super obvious in this photo.

 Mom and Julie at Logan Pass

On the way home we marveled at all the aspen. Although Washington has some deciduous trees that change color, it seems like we go from all green to a darker winter green with a tiny bit of damp yellow in fall. I've really missed autumn and all the fall colors. Thus, it was a real treat to be somewhere with crispy cold fall mornings and warm afternoons.

My flight back to Seattle was later in the afternoon the next day, so we took advantage of the morning to drive the Inside North Fork Rd. back towards Polebridge (we really just wanted those huckleberry bearclaws at the Merc again). This was a totally different road from the Outside road we took to Polebridge the other day. The Inside Rd. stayed inside park boundaries and was narrow and unpaved. We drove through burns and over small streams....and then we spotted a black bear! We pulled over to the side of the road and just watched the bear munching away on something (grass?).

This would have been a great shot if I hadn't screwed up the focus! Sigh. I should have had my aperture wide-open for big depth of field, but noooooo I didn't think of that. Damn. You still get the point.

After I flew home, my parents stayed on in Glacier for the remainder of the week and then took off to Yellowstone NP. In between parks, they stopped and spent the night in Bozeman. Jay and I were totally jealous of this because they were able to visit out friend Matt's newly (a year?) opened brewery!  Matt has been working for a long time at opening his brewery and we are so stoked for him that is has finally happened! So if you are ever in Bozeman, go here: 406 Brewing Company! Sadly, Matt wasn't around because he was at an Oktoberfest, but my parents still helped put some money into Matt's business. We are so proud.

More photos from the awesome trip are here:  https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/111221596171793333099/albums/5795302095856307345?authkey=CIa7o_bo19DXrQE