Glacier National park was a place to see for me . It was on my bucket list. I passed thru there when I was 15 years old with my parents and was in awe of it. Always wanted to go back.
This summer I had 3 and a half weeks in between some house sit jobs. I decided to travel and explore Washington and Montana. Unfortunately , Washington was on fire in early August when I set out so pushed on to Montana. Fires in Montana as well but Glacier was not to bad. Some days smokey , some days clear.
Spent 9 days in Glacier national park and took many hikes and many photos so this will be a series of posts .
What can I say. One only has to look at these photos to see the beauty of this place. The top left photo is of Grinnell Glacier. In 1906 Glacier National park had 120 glaciers. There are now 26 and they are rapidly melting. I heard that Grinnell glacier used to be huge but as you can see, it is now chunks of ice. On the right is one of many beautiful hiking trails. Next photo is the ever funny, quirky looking Moose. Next to that is the beautiful and old St. Mary’s lodge in many Glacier. Next photo is Lake McDonald.
I looked online before going to see about the camping and most of it was first come, first serve and I read that one must get in line at 5 a.m to get a spot. Very true in August. I got in line at 4:30 a.m and was the 3rd in line. By 6:00 the line was about 12 cars. I think 4 or 5 of us got campsites. Glacier is crowded but so beautiful that you don’t even care. And a lot of the trails you just need to get a couple miles in before the crowd thins out.
Hidden lake. So beautiful. It wraps around the mountain .
This guy thought it might be fun to surf the frozen waters ! Ha Ha. He about had a heart attack from the cold. This is at Grinnell glacier.
I finally got my photos working on my computer after 3 visits with an Apple genius bar. Yea!!
Anyways, I can now post about the summer I had of house sitting and sight seeing. I wrote about my first house sit in Edmonds. Then onto Olympic National park for a few days.
After Olympic National park it was on to a week long house sit in Monroe with the cute little kitty named Shift. I watched Shift for a week in a very large , nice Motor home that was parked in a lovely park along a river. This cat was a 4 month old main coon and looked like a full grown kitty. Very rambunctious fellow. But, sweet and loving as well.
Shift
While watching Shift I did a day trip to the lovely town of Leavenworth, Washington. It is a Bavarian themed town. Very cute. Lots of flowers all over, Bavarian food, beer, wineries, shops, etc..
After taking care of Shift. I was In-between house sits and had 3 and a half weeks free. I wanted to see some of the upper cascades in Washington and do some camping and hiking but due to so many fires I did not do any camping in Washington in August. it was so smokey you could not even get out of the car without ash falling all over you. I had a hard time breathing in it so I pushed right on thru what looked like a beautiful area . I decided after a long day driving to spend the night in Colville,Washington in a hotel as I did not want to camp in the awful smoke !! They just happened to be having a weekend event called Rendevous days with music, vendors ,etc… Looked like some good music so I stayed 2 nights. It was a fun little event. But, the smoke never cleared up.
Well, Montana has been a must see for me with Glacier National park being on my bucket list of places to go. So, hoping for the best as far as clean air, I pushed on. I did however spend one night in Libby , Montana on the way and went to these beautiful waterfalls just out of Libby. Kootenai falls and swinging bridge. The bridge is not for those who have a fear of heights! It really does swing when you are walking over it. Beautiful river ! Libby seemed like a very quiet town but an abundance of beauty surrounds it.
Next post will be about Glacier. In fact the next 2 or 3 posts will be about Glacier. I spent 9 days there and did several hikes, saw lots of wildlife. Beautiful place !
This guy thought it might be fun to surf the frozen waters ! Ha Ha. He about had a heart attack from the cold. This is at Grinnell glacier.
Sues Wanderings 