The travel spirit lives on - Glacier National Park

And we thought we were through!  This is the first of a two-part series of our most recent international (barely) excursion to Glacier National Park in MT, and Banff National Park in Canada
Our vacation was awesome!  We first went to Glacier National Park in Montana on Friday the 16^th, leaving work early so we could make the 7 hour drive up there.  Once we arrived, we found our accommodations –

"Ahhhh Teepee, sweet teepee" we would say to ourselves and chuckle.

a Teepee!  I’d been wanting to stay in one since our honeymoon, and since this was a birthday trip for me, Melanie said OK!  It was actually pretty awesome, like camping, but there was an actual bed, we didn’t have to hassle with a tent, and we could actually stand up while inside it.  We were at this crazy place that had motel rooms, teepees, tents, RV spots, basically all types of accommodations. The top of the teepee actually was open sky, and as we lay there looking at the stars couldn’t help but wonder what would happen to us if it started raining – fortunately we never had to find out.   

Saturday morning (my birthday!), we were up bright and early and got our first glimpse at the craziness we were in for.  The motel/campsite/whatever offered a basic breakfast with a TV playing a park DVD of animals/scenery/etc., and when we went to get breakfast, a guy was taking pictures of the TV showing animals.  Whaaaa???  “And here’s a picture of a movie of animals we could have seen at the park…”  weird, but there was a lot of weird in NW Montana.   

So we went to the park and discovered that the park is really only two segments – a road called “Going to the Sun Road” and a remote section that you had to leave the park to get to.  The main road was serviced by a shuttle system, but not a very good one.  We decided to do the first half of the park on Saturday and the rest when we passed through on Monday.  After a crazy beautiful ride up a narrow mountain road, the shuttle dropped us off at the midway point, a visitor center on top of a huge pass.   

Ohhhhh yeaaaahhhhh - Bring on the Rockies!

We did a few hikes around there and had a great time.  The hikes and weather were beautiful, we hiked to a viewpoint that overlooked a lake and another hike that led through some serious cliffs.  It looked like they just dynamited the trail straight out of the side of the cliff, and the trail was rock on one side, a several hundred foot drop on the other, with a 5 or 6 foot wide trail in the middle.  We even (appropriately) saw some a family of 3 mountain goats, first on the way down the trail and then they kinda ambushed us by being on the cliff right above the trail, so we had to sneak right under them.  Fun!   
 

Hidden Lake overlook - awesome!

"Doh de doh" thinks Melanie, I assume.  Not a bad hike!

First sighting of the Goats - "Can't you read?!!?!?!" I wanted to heckle them...

Murderous beasts plot their next brutal attack - LOOKOUT!!!

We told a guy we ran into that they were there on the cliff, and he said “where? Up there?” while motioning with his trekking poles, and almost hit the goats!  Another example of the strange type of people drawn to the remote and beautiful Glacier National Park.  Using the strange, unpredictable, and not-coordinated shuttle system (in the company of some more strange people), we headed back, doing a short trail through some beautiful ancient cedars with moss everywhere.  We went to the grocery store to buy food for Sunday, and got our first taste of some Canadian accent when the checkout girl asked if we wanted some “begs” for our food.  Hehe!  Sunday we went to church and ran into one of Melanie’s former roommates parents, who invited us over for dinner, which was super random and nice!  We got to have an actual hot meal instead of the prepackaged nonsense we were prepared for and had grown so used to while traveling.   

Monday we left our fine teepee, and packed the car to travel the entire park.  We stopped along the way to see some beautiful mountain peaks, waterfalls, and lakes and had a really fun drive.  
 

Am I seeing double?

 Eventually making our way to the more remote section of the park, we were driving in to do some more hiking, and noticed a crowd stopped and gathering at the side of the road.  What could it be?  

Uh-oh... here comes trouble!

 BEARS!  There were two black bears, one way up on a mountain side, and another on the other side of the river from the crowd that we were part of, maybe 50 ft. away!  They are an incredible creature to behold when there is a barrier between you and them, and we were fortunate to be standing on a tall rock formation watching him.  Well, for whatever reason he crossed the river and disappeared into the brush.  There were some tense moments where we didn’t see him, and then we saw this big bear head pop out of the brush, maybe 25 feet away, but still down the hill.  That was enough for us, and I’m proud to say that we and most of the crowd high-tailed it right outta there back to the car.  

 We drove on to a campsite/store/trailhead area for our next hike, called Ptarmagan Trail.  It was a beautiful 3 mile hike on the side of a mountain with beautiful views of the valley, mountains, and evens some glaciers!  We made it to the waterfall we were going to see and on the way back saw the strange Ptarmagans and almost literally ran into a deer!  We were hiking along, doing our thing, and noticed a deer like 15 feet off the side of the trail.  Normally you don’t get within a mile of deer, so we stopped to take pictures of him up close.  While we were taking pictures, he wandered up to the trail, and I got a crazy idea to see how close I could get.   

The answer -> VERY!  I probably could have petted that dang thing!  Why didn’t I?  Because I’ve seen the “When Animals Attack” that shows a dude getting beat up by one, that’s why!   

Even in French...oops.  It was such a cool experience and a great way to finish up.  Monday night we stayed at a KOA on the far (east) side of the park, and went “Glamping” which is Glamorous-Camping.  We had soundly mocked it for about the last month when we first heard about it – how sissy can you get, right?  Well, we are officially converted now, having done it.  It was a canvas stick-frame tent set on a wood pad, with a porch, and inside a super comfortable, timber-frame bed.   
 

We contemplated stealing it...

Additionally, there were tent-style zip-up windows, electricity, wifi, and oh-yeah, possibly the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in in my life.  We slept soooooo soundly and almost bagged the rest of our vacation so we could just stay in that bed.  But Canada and Banff beckoned, and we could not resist the chance to travel in (yet) another foreign country.  But that is another story for a different Beasley to tell, so stay tuned!