It feels great to accomplish a goal we set: taking a road trip to Glacier and Yellowstone National Park. Glacier was an inspirational place to enjoy for the past few days. We were unable to take the shuttle to Logan Pass to begin our hike, because they can only hold about 15 passengers. We were far back in line so we drove instead. The Going to the Sun Road was treachous and not fun due to construction, high traffic congestion, and narrow roads. We were lucky to find a parking spot just as the rangers turned the sign saying the parking lot was full. We hiked 13 miles on the Highline trail, hiking with a mountain goat for part of the way and seeing Grinnell Glacier from a viewpoint. We enjoyed amazing views while hiking the trail to Granite Park Chalet, a hostel-type place where only hikers can stay. It looked like a nice place of solitude in heaven. After our hike we were exhausted as we made our way back to Fish Creek Campground and slept well that night. I was really sore the next day and did not want to do much. We walked on the boardwalk nature trail at Avalanche Creek, enjoyed the narrow waterfall right at the junction where the real trail starts. Afterwards we visited Lake McDonald where we ate lunch, mailed some postcards and took a boat ride tour. I was so tired I fell asleep. We spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying a huckleberry shake at Apgar Village, then swimming in Lake McDonald by our campground. We topped off our experience in Glacier with a really good ranger talk about glaciers.
The highlights of our long arduous 14 hour drive through Yellowstone and to Jackson include seeing Mammoth Hot Springs and a bear cub, singing at the top of our lungs to our favorite songs as we slowly drove through construction and bison traffic jams, feeling the spray from Upper Yellowstone Falls, and watching Zooey turn 100,000 as we passed by the Tetons, which I took as a good omen on this memorable road trip.
