On the Way to Glacier

 So, since our dude ranch was on the East side of Yellowstone, we had to travel through the park again to get on to Glacier.  At first I was a little frustrated at myself that I didn’t really put this together and have us stay our last night on the West side of the park (although I remember searching for a place a year ago and let me tell you it was already slim pickings for a family our size at a reasonable price even then!).  Anyways, it all worked out great because as we made our drive through the park we got to see a grizzly for the first time!

We also got to see some huge elk really close up with fuzzy velvety antlers!

We completed our drive through Yellowstone and I counted up all of our animal tally marks.  What a phenomenal amount!!  I love that we have so many bison and elk and managed to see both a black bear and a grizzly bear!

The drive to Glacier was absolutely stunning.  Long, about 9 hours, but 70% of it was just so beautiful, the time flew by.  And then we were greeted with this view when we arrived at our AirBNB in West Glacier.  Very satisfying!  

Glacier Day 1

Glacier National Park is the farthest West and North we will travel.  It also marks the turning point in our trip when after this we will head East towards home.  Fitting that this spot on our journey is actually called the “crown of the continent” because of the Continental Divide coming through it and at one point there are three points to it, the only place where that occurs…water flows East to the Mississippi and the Gulf, water flows to the West to the Pacific and thirdly, water flows North to Canada and the Hudson Bay.  This national park for me was certainly the crown park of the trip.  Spectacular!  But wait, I’m getting ahead of myself!

This four days in Glacier we are sharing with my cousin, Lydia, and her boys, Cam and Coop.  Over the last five years we have developed an annual tradition of seeing each other every summer.  This year we are being especially adventurous!  And after dreaming this up last year during our time together, it’s so exciting to finally be here together.

On our first day in Glacier we actually drove East to the Two Medicine Lake entrance.  But only after Lydia and Doug got some coffees in West Glacier Village.  Koen totally scored a free huckleberry shake because the barista messed someone’s order up.  How fun!  Huckleberries are the rage here for the tourists and the bear cubs, so there are huckleberry everythings…honey, jam, compote, syrup, salt water taffy and pretty much anything else you can imagine.

Glacier is a little tricky because of vehicle registrations you have to make months in advance in order to access different quadrants of the park.  Our vehicle registration was to start the next day, so we explored an area that didn’t require one.  Even still the entrance was initially turning people away because parking lots were full, but we found a place along the river to picnic and explore until the entrance re-opened.  The timing worked out perfectly and we got in!  But first, a picture at the entrance for a few cousins (we just call them cousins even though they are the sons of my cousin…I mean what is that called anyways?).

We did the Running Eagle Falls trail first.  It’s a super easy walk/hike to an incredible waterfall that comes out from under a sheath of rock.  The volume of water crashing through the opening was amazing.  Lots of people were swimming in the deep hole beneath the falls. Some of the kids gave it a try.  But mostly we took pictures and just took it all in.

 

Next we headed on to a hike right off the lakeside that takes you around to another beautiful spot on the lake…the Paradise Point Trail.  Absolutely fitting…wait for it…first we had to get there and Doug is such a champ always willing to throw Jansen on his shoulders.  These two are quite the hiking pals!

Look at this view!!!

And how clear the water is.  Again, it has me missing New Hampshire.  I think I’ve felt most at home in this national park, the mountains and green forests feel a lot more like New Hampshire than anything else we’ve experienced.  

Penn Rye LOVES this adventure.  He never complains.  He is just as happy to hike as to ride, to stay put as to go.  Such an easy guy to have along.  And not only that, amidst every adventure he embraces it.  I mean, look at him.

It’s fun having Lydia along as a personal photographer…ha!  We got more family and couple photos at this national park than anywhere else!

The hike was warm, but at Paradise Point the wind was whipping!  These boys just couldn’t resist the water (I mean, we all dipped our toes in, but just wait).

They went all in!  These lakes are frigid!  They are all from snow melt…still in July!

Proud dudes after the fact.  My guys are looking so grown up and manly these days!  

We eventually pulled ourselves away from paradise and hiked back to the trailhead.  I mean, these kids do need dinner, right?  It was so pleasant though, if we didn’t have so many boys to feed, we could’ve hung out there for hours!  Lydia got this cute picture of Penn Rye experiencing a pay phone in the parking lot.  Practically a glacial relic itself!

The drive back was going to be about an hour and a half and Lydia and Doug are so sweet (ha, ha, no pun intended) and though it would be nice to get the boys ice cream in East Glacier on the way out.  I was pretty ready to beat it home, but hey, we’re on vacation, right?  Anyways, while we were at the village horses that had escaped from a local trail riding corral walked past on the street escorted by a park ranger vehicle.  We got a real kick out of it!  There was more than what’s on the video even.  Made for great entertainment!

All in all, we were so pleased with what we accomplished on Day 1.  And the views are just incredible to take in, a great first day!

Yellowstone Day 3

With all the driving and sightseeing we were looking for a different activity to start our third day.  Our dude ranch was full for rides on this day, but we found that Pahaska Teepee even closer to the park entrance had trail rides available.  It’s so fun that our family as a whole enjoys horses and riding and also fun to play cowboy out here in the West!

Here’s Jansen getting acclimated to his horse, Chase.  He’s so brave on these big animals and on rough terrain!

We had some great photo opportunities…

And then a very exciting element…a river crossing!  The river was deeper (and very strong!) than we anticipated.  The boys were all brave and didn’t flinch at all.  They listened well to the instructions, kicking their horses on the downstream side and leading them with the reins upstream to keep the horses motivated to get straight across and not wander with the current.

We wound upwards through the Shoshone National Forest until we got to the Wilderness marker (another photo opp).  

Our cowboy trail guide told us the difference between the national forest and the wilderness.  Do you know?  In the wilderness you can only walk in or ride horseback in, no vehicles.  Also, to break trail, you can only use hand tools, no motorized tools like chainsaws.  So cool to be in such a preserved wild land!  

In addition, we learned about Pahaska Teepee which is the historical site of Buffalo Bill’s hunting lodge!  It’s listed on the US historical register.  Also interesting is that we stopped at a marker on the trail where they had a plaque about King Albert I of Monaco’s visit/hunting expedition with Buffalo Bill.  They named the place Camp Monaco where they set up their hunting camp.  Cool to be amidst so much history! Here’s a few more pics from the ride.

On the first half of the ride, my horse, Preston, was a little pokey.  It was cute and funny.  But then on the second half when we were winding uphill he seemed to like to jump into a trot to get uphill.  Then, when we were going through some long grass I think he got spooked because he reared up and took off at what was at least a canter or more!  Surprising, exciting and thankfully I had both hands on the reins and pulled him to a stop eventually!  After that it was like he had woken up to the day and he was spritely and would often break into a trot to get uphill, downhill or catch up.  So funny!  And definitely made the ride engaging as I really felt like I had to handle the horse!

So after our lovely morning on horseback it was time sit our sore bums back in the minivan and get back into Yellowstone.  The big attraction today was Old Faithful, but on the way there and afterwards too we checked out many geothermal elements the park offers.  (And of course we also kept our eyes peeled for wildlife…so, so much!)

We started at West Thumb Geyser Basin and took in the hot springs here.  They even are in the lake!!

Then we made a quick stop to see the Kepler Cascades on our way to the Upper Geyser Basin where Old Faithful resides.  The geothermal activity here in the park is incredible for sure, but man, I LOVE waterfalls and water features.  So, we definitely stopped these past few days for quite a few of these views.

And then on to Old Faithful!  So excited!

Although Old Faithful is true to its name, you don’t know the schedule until you get to the parking area where there is a placard with the next approximate eruption time posted.  But then it can be a 20 minute swing either way from that time.  Well, we hit the jackpot.  We pulled up and it was 14 minutes until go time!  And she blew right on time.  We had a great spot on the platform and enjoyed watching the teasing splashes and all the steam for the minutes leading up to it.  

And then show time was very impressive and it lasts for a good minute or more.  Very satisfying.  The boys were super impressed.  Loved showing them this marvel!

We could see steam and small eruptions of other geysers in that same basin, but due to the time chose to move on to some more sights on our way back up to the cut over to the East entrance so we would eventually make it to our dinner spot before it was too late.

We did take a quick look in the Old Faithful Visitor’s Center…

First they checked out some elk teeth & jaw bones.

Then they loved seeing if they were as tall as a bison which can be six feet! Koen is getting close, he has surpassed my height on this trip (but not quite yet the bison).

Tav is trying so hard! But we did discover he’s only about an inch less tall than me now!

Next we stepped into the Old Faithful Inn.  So beautiful!!  Wished we could have sat down for dinner there and gone to bed, ha!!

We drove past the Midway Geyser Basin which has the amazing Prismatic Spring running from the geyser and hot spring spouts colorfully down into the rushing Firehole River.  It was a beautiful sight!

Now on to the Upper Geyser Basin!  Hot springs, mud volcanoes, geysers, fumadores…all four geothermal types.  Impressive and interesting!

Here’s a video of the mud…

And here’s some funny geyser/Penn footage…

As we walked to the van from the boardwalk (enjoying sulphur smells & hot breezes from the springs) we caught this glimpse of the geyser spewing more.

Next up another waterfall to break up the sulphur smells and naughty minivan shenanigans (yet again!).  This one is Firehole Falls.

We opted to drive past Norris Geyser Basin despite our tour guide “George” from the GypsyGuide app telling us it was incredible.  We had taken in quite a few geothermal for one day and our stomachs were growling!  We felt we had satisfied our geothermal education for the day and needed to satisfy our appetites!

It seemed to take forever to get out of the park.  We hit some traffic and then it soon became evident why…the Yellowstone search and rescue team was on the side of the road and an ambulance was there.  We would find out later that a rock climber on Avalanche Peak had to be rescued via helicopter.  This wild land is humbling, definitely makes you feel a healthy scare for the risk here in the park.  Between the sulphur and heat running underground to the wild animals to the elements and the high slopes.  I certainly have a healthy fear.

We actually returned to Pahaska Teepee for our dinner as we spotted their menu that morning and we knew we wouldn’t make it to the ranch for dinner.  I took the boys out to the original hunting lodge for a picture while we waited for our orders.  Plus, they needed to be moving and get more fresh air!

We got back to the ranch and sped through bedtime prep and packing up.  The next day (Saturday, the 23rd) we would do our final traverse of the park and on to Glacier National Park in Montana!