Glacier

Glacier National Park is the wildest, most rugged place we have stayed on this trip. We spent six nights in the park with no hookups, no internet, no electricity except our batteries and no water except what I filled in our tanks.

It was bear country; keep all your food locked in your camper. We joked that if Yogi Bear was written today, the ranger wouldn't be after Yogi but after the campers who leave food out.

But what an incredible place. After seeing so much, you start to lose words to describe it all. Glacier is a little bit canyon - like the Grand Canyon, but formed by Glaciers so different. It is a little bit like Rocky Mountain - but not really. It has lakes and mountains like the Tetons, and yet it isn't really like them, either. It is its own place and quite dramatic.

One day, we did a five mile round trip hike to a lake in the mountains. You could look up and see five waterfalls. They were fed by snow melt and a glacier that was hidden over the top of the mountains. On another day, we went along the Going to the Sun road up to Logan Pass. We hiked in a meadow and saw two kinds of Marmots, Ground Squirrels, and some kind of animal we couldn't identify; maybe a rare Fisher. When we got back, a Bighorn Sheep walked within about 100 yards of us.

On our last day, we rented a rowboat just to get out on Lake McDonald. What fun. Andres is pretty good at rowing, too.

The local specialty is huckleberry. No, not the cartoon character, but a berry that looks similar to a blueberry. We saw them growing wild along the trail - and tried huckleberry cobbler, huckleberry ice cream, and even huckleberry beer (well, Erling tried that one anyway).

It was a long drive to get to Glacier and well worth it. As we left, we began our journey East toward home. We still have a few stops along the way. Hope to have internet soon so we can keep you posted.

More pictures.

Erling