Glacier, part deux

Well, it's definitely been a few days since the last post, and that always means that things are going well. We were on the east side (the side with all of the huge, expansive views) for six days, and are now on the west side (the side with the thick pine and cedar forests) for the rest of our time here.

Monday, July 11. Our annoyingly inconsistent and wet weather has continued. The east side of the park is suppose to be the dry and warm side of the park. The continental divide and multiple lines of mountains run through the Glacier, and it causes the west side to be wetter and cooler, because the storm systems tend to get turned back at that point. But our while time here has been raining on and off. Sunday, we gave up on doing anything after a certain time of day because of the apocalyptic storm that was coming. But it never came. Just a few little showers. And Monday was the same. Finally, in the afternoon, the grown-ups went without the kids to St. Mary and Virginia Falls. And it was amazing. We do this hike every time we are here, and this time was maybe the best time we've had. First of all, a fire swept through last year, which - despite the appearance of burned out forest – means that views have opened up and wildflowers are everywhere. It was also the first time that Liz hasn't stayed back which a kid who couldn't make it all the way to the top, and we are also in much better hiking shape than usual, meaning that this was a fun, easy walk and not a gasping, wheezing uphill slog.

At St. Mary Falls, one of our favorite photo spots

At Virginia Falls

Bonus: If you start hiking in the rain, then it's seems like bonus time when it stops raining. If you start hiking dry and hopeful, then it's never any good once it starts raining.

Bonus #2: Hiking without kids means huh-larious adult humor on the trail.

Bonus #3: Saw a grizzly! After the hike, from the car.

Tuesday, July 12: Iceberg Lake. This is my new all-time favorite hike at Glacier. Although it's deemed “family friendly”, this hike is 10 miles long with 1,400 feet of elevation gain, and it is one that we had never done due to children's ages/abilities and other factors. But it is an amazing hike, despite the number of people on the trail. I really thought I had seen just about all of this park, but this hike took it to another level. My word of advice if you come here: Don't start with this trail. You'll be disappointed everywhere else. Even if there hadn't been a big payoff at the end, this would have been incredible. But Iceberg Lake is this color that you just can't believe, and it is surrounded by cliffs and mountains, and it has icebergs floating in it in the middle of July.

And here we have the most incredible photos ever to be posted on this blog, except that after 13 hours of trying to upload them, I still have nothing. This sucks.

Wednesday, July 13: Despite having just done a ten-mile hike, Liz and I planned (and got the kids to agree to) what is generally considered the best hike in the park: An 11.5 mile hike from Logan Pass, on the Highline Trail along the Garden Wall, to Granite Park, and back via The Loop to Going-to-the-Sun Road. We were all excited and got up early to drive to Logan Pass, the visitor center located on the Continental Divide. We even brought the backcountry stove for hot lunch along the way! But when we got there, the weather and the forecast was much different than it had been off of the mountain. Logan Pass was buried inside a thick cloud. (“How thick was it?”) It was so thick... that a seasonal ranger told us that this was her 15th summer, and she had never seen anything like it. We could barely find our way to Logan or into the parking lot. Please keep in mind at this point that we are driving on a road that has 1,500' cliffs on the side of it. It soon became obvious that the incredible views that make this hike what it is weren't going to had today. But on entering the visitor center/ ranger station, we learned that storm clouds would be moving in at any time above the cloud we were in. In other words, our exposed trail was likely to be hit by a thunderstorm, but we wouldn't be able to see it coming. And so we sadly came down off of the mountain.

Ditto.

But as we approached our home base of St. Mary, we temporarily had a cell signal, and learned that Kathy and Jerry hadn't yet left on their hike. So we joined them on the Beaver Pond Loop, which was harder than we thought it was going to be. But it was immersed in wildflowers. And we still had that hot lunch.

Nope, no pictures here. They were good ones, too, of the beaver pond where we had lunch, with two side-by-side lodges that looked like dam beaver condominiums. (See what I did there?) And an osprey that was checking us out.

And then it rained.

Thursday, July 14. Despite having one day left on the east side, the rain and cold and wind has gotten to some of us, and we moved to the west side a day early. We thought we would gain a day of west-side adventure, but spent the entire day grocery shopping, getting kayaks inspected, etc.

I don't think I actually have any pics to go here, so, like, whatevs.

Friday, July 15. Every single time we come to Glacier, we do the hike to Avalanche Lake. And have lunch at this beautiful spot, and take a family picture on the same rock that sits out in the water. Our first hike here was with two-year-old Gabriel, and I can watch my family grow and grow up in the pictures on this rock. Despite being very crowded, it is a very special place to us.

Oh my gosh these photos are so beautiful and so freaking touching. You should really see them. And I have the old ones with Lil' Baby Gabey to compare. Better get a tissue.

Today is Saturday, July 16, and we are in the midst of our first all-day rain, which was not predicted. Not the worst thing in the world as we relaxed and had pancakes this morning while watching Planet Earth videos, and now I am getting caught up on blogging, camper repairs, and some professional work. But we were supposed to camp in the backcountry tonight.

Nope, didn't happen. Went to the Glacier Distillery for whiskey tasting instead.

Tomorrow we will kayak Bowman Lake and camp in the backcountry there. If we are lucky enough to be cloud free, we may actually have the dark skies needed to see the stars as we have hoped to see them this summer. But right now there is still light on the horizon at midnight, so you never know.

And we will hopefully have some pictures to share.