Glacier National Park

We left Yellowstone (reluctantly) and headed for Glacier National Park.

As usual when we were in “driving mode” we packed a picnic lunch before heading out. We would pick a spot along the way to stop and take a break from driving, and enjoy the fresh new scenery.

On this particular day, it was a little warm outside. When we decided to stop for lunch we found a little park in a town on the way to Glacier.

Thinking I would be smart, I suggested Frank pull under a row of trees to shade the truck while we ate our lunch. He agreed, thought it was a good idea. (if I hadn’t said anything I am sure he would have done it anyways, he was always thinking of things like that, in fact I might have said it just to impress him that I too could come up with good ideas).

We enjoyed our lunch, watched a few local kids playing in the park.

When we got back into the truck and started to pull out, we heard a deafening horrendous sound, like the top of the RV had just been ripped off.

The kids in the park were looking over at us and pointing, bent over from laughing their heads off. Hmmm.

Frank stopped, and we both got out to see what had happened. The trees, the ones I had suggested he pull under for shade, had snagged on our refrigerator vent boxes on the roof, broke several limbs off, and of course damaged our boxes.

We cleaned off the debris and salvaged what we could of our mutilated refrigerator vent boxes. Frank then carefully backed up the RV from the trees to avoid anymore damage to our roof.

Lesson learned: remember to check the height before pulling under trees!

When we started our great adventure on the road, we knew there would be “incidents”, and we both agreed not to let problems like this get us down.

Early evening we pulled into a spot at St. Mary’s Lake. In the morning Frank climbed up on the roof and repaired the vents as best he could with the materials he had available. We would eventually replace them, but for today the repairs he did managed to keep our refrigerators operating smoothly.

What a difference between Yellowstone Nat’l Park and Glacier Nat’l Park! We spent one week on the east side of Glacier Park, and one on the west side. We were simply amazed with the expanse and beauty of the area.

If you have never been to Glacier Park, you really do need to visit and experience the awesome landscape. Everywhere you look you see fantastic beauty. In fact, the saying “a sight for sore eyes” had new meaning for me. I swear my eyes were aching from all of the beauty we were seeing.

We took a drive on Going To The Sun road, and caught many beautiful landscapes. Glacier National Park is geared more towards hikers, with many trails to explore.

At first we were a little intimidated, because neither of us were up to 10 - 12 mile hikes, when it finally occurred to us that we didn’t need to hike the whole trail, we could walk what we could, and enjoy shorter hikes! (Duh!)

While standing at a trailhead taking in the beautiful landscape that lay before us, a hiker came out the path, and was telling us of some mountain goats up ahead on the path. He said it wasn’t very far.

Frank decided to wait while I went up the path in search of these mountain goats. I must have been walking maybe 3 minutes, wondering how far ahead they were. As I turned the next bend I was almost face to face with a group of mountain goats.

Glacier National Park is a true hiker's paradise, there is so much beauty to explore. We did see some wildlife, but not nearly as much as we had seen at Yellowstone.

We did eventually see some bears, but that is a whole 'nuther story!