We arrived at our camp sight in time for dinner. It was nice to get out of our truck. We stayed at Fish Creek Campground. Beautiful, wet, sheltered. (huge difference from the east side of the park that we stayed at later in the trip). Our friends had recently moved to North Dakota with a work change so we met them there and had a great double family trip.
Our first hike adventure was breathtaking. 4.5 miles RT to Avalanche Lake. It was drizzly day which turned out to be a blessing. We got up to the lake and had a ton of waterfalls everywhere. It was breathtaking. The lighting was amazing and it was quiet and peaceful.
St Marys Falls
Virginia Falls
We stopped at Logan Pass and wanted to do the Hidden Lake Overlook Trail but the parking lot was so full we couldn't stop until later in the afternoon. The kids threw some snowballs and we realized we couldn't have hiked anyway since some of us had on open toed shoes. That would have been some cold snow hiking. We had driven the famous "Road to the Sun" on our way up to this point. Lots of slow traffic and crazy curves. We didn't want to do that road again. Darren did ride it on his bike the next day. I was worried for him the whole time. He ended up coming down the road in the pouring rain. He had to head straight into the storm. and ride through it. Pulling over to the side and finding shelter just meant he could be there for hours or 30 minutes so he rode through a huge storm and made it back to the tent and a hot shower.
We decided to pick up our tent and move to the east side of Glacier. It was so surprising. We went from Green lush to dry Utah looking scenery. But it was so neat and I would recommend it to anyone. We stayed a few more nights at Two Medicine Lake. Our first hike there was to Twin Falls. We hiked all the way around two Medicine Lake. Beautiful. We thought we saw a bear once and that was scary. Carrying bear spray is scary enough... just thinking you might run into one. The kids were tired so I just did a quick jog up to Upper Two medicine Lake. Amazing. Beautiful. And peaceful. (but that might have been the face that I didn't have 6 kids with me to entertain and distract as they hiked) We took a fun boat ride back across the lake after our 7 miles hike.
The next day we drove up to Canada. We want to one day make it to Banff national Park but we only made it to Waterton this time. Would I say to do it again... no probably not. It was super cold and rainy. pretty... but not worth the time that day to sit in traffic to cross the border and then be freezing cold when we got out of the car. A sunny day would have been better. But the border between Canada and the US was cool. You can see the tree line cut right through.
We had a really good meal... not cooked on a stove! Abby ate fries and ketchup. And then we all got a treat. I chose the grizzlie delite. An apple cooked inside a pie crust. relish!
The last day we let the kids just play and have fun at the lake. Mike McBride and Darren and I all ran up to Aster Falls. But these two athletic boys didn't want to stop at a waterfall. So we hiked/scrambled to the top of a cliff area and tried to not get blown over at the top. We started at the bottom of the picture on the right and made it to the top of the mountain behind us. Great views.
Abby did pretty well sleeping in a pack and play for a week. She loved having everyone right there with her. I was ready for a solid good night of sleep by the time we got home. Waking up to cover her and the kids many times a night got tiring!
It had been a great week. But it was time to go. Glacier was amazing. We loved that we took a whole week to see it. 3 days would have been rushed. 6 days was relaxing and rewarding. Thanks McBrides for the great trip. We stopped on the way out of town and got food. Real food. Not heated over the stop food. Oh we were happy!
