Mountains uncomparable!

Amongst the gods at Glacier National Park

Greetings from Portland! Alicia and I made it in this afternoon and have settled into our hostel for the next two nights. We’ve only been here for five hours and we already love it. I thought it would be difficult to leave the mountains but Portland has so much to explore and we’re ready to discover it tomorrow.

The last few days have been slight but monumental changes from our planned itinerary. But before I get to that I’ll finish up with the Grand Tetons. Saturday, Alicia and I did a couple of hikes: one by Christian Pond which was fairly hilly but for our out-of-shape bodies coupled with the altitude, was still a bit of a challenge. We did make it to the top of a hill and got some great views of the Tetons. The next hike we took was around the lake shore. This one was considerably less hilly and offered some amazing waterfront views. After some much needed showers (we’d been showering about every other day to this point) we hiked down to Jackson Lake, a mere quarter mile from our tent, to hang out, enjoy the views, and get a little sun. I’m darker than I’ve been in years and it’s only late June. After dinner we went back down to the lake with our tripod and took some pictures as the sun set. The pictures almost look fake, like we’re at a Grand Teton’s themed High School prom, but it absolutely did look like that. While we were hanging out that night we saw an elk and a mule deer grazing up on the hill behind us, a mere 30 feet away. We then decided we would try and see some more wildlife so we took a quick drive out to the Bridger Teton National Forest figuring the animals would be in abundance out there. Unfortunately they were not, but we did get an amazing pitch black viewing of the stars. At 6,000 feet and in utter darkness, the constellations were more bright and radiant than I’ve ever seen before. The next morning we got up and headed towards Montana, expecting to spend the night at Lost Creek State Park near Butte, Montana.

Since I began planning the trip back in November, Glacier National Park had been in my mind but time and its remote location made it seem unobtainable. Yet as the trip got closer and even once we were on the road people have been asking, “Are you going to Glacier?” and when I say, “I want to but I don’t think it’s gonna fit,” I always got, “Oh you should, it’s spectacular!” So while driving north through Idaho at 80+ miles per hour I realized that we were 160 miles away and would arrive at the state Park at 3pm. I had a feeling we would be in for a letdown after the Teton’s, so Alicia checked the GPS and we saw we could make it to Glacier in another 5 or 6 hours. So Glacier it was. And it didn’t disappoint.

We stayed at Avalanche Campground, which was on the west side of the mountains. That is important to note because our area was lush. I mean moss and ferns everywhere. Dampness permeating the air. A raging creek in earshot. Alicia said it looked like Twilight. Fortunately, Alicia made the decision to cover the tent with the tarp because it rained most of the night. By morning it was sunny. We got everything packed up and began our drive on Going to the Sun Road. The 35 mile road took us up and through and around snowcapped mountains and monoliths, we overlooked luscious valleys, and got spritzed by many, many, many waterfalls that ran down the mountains and across the roads. It would be nearly impossible to count the waterfalls. About halfway was Logan’s Pass and this had to be the highest elevation in the park. Snow was everywhere, still feet thick. Alicia and I climbed up the glacier a little bit – Alicia in her flip flops. On the other side of the mountains, it was dry, much like most of the landscape we’d seen so far and it was easy to understand why: clouds have difficulty getting over the peaks. We took many pictures of them trying.

Glacier National Park is connected to Waterton National Park, a Canadian park, but due to lack of passports, we didn’t make it up that far. On the drive back through the park we saw Big Horn sheep grazing and relaxing between twin waterfalls. We stopped and got lunch and a slice of huckleberry pie in Hungry Horse, MT, which according to USA Today, is the huckleberry capital of the world. We planned to camp near Coeur D’Alene, ID but decided to get a hotel in Spokane, WA because it was getting late. This ended up being a wonderful decision because we woke up to a steady rain and a chilly 55 degrees. It has rained two other nights on the trip but had cleared up by morning. Today it didn’t. Spokane reminded me of a smaller version of Raleigh, just with a raging river running through the middle of town.

Today we drove down Washington and across Oregon to Portland. We watched the Princess Bride at old movie theater across the street from the hostel and then had delicious Thai food at a restaurant across the street, before getting some ice cream. I had a Cherry Cheesecake I cream and Alicia got a scoop of Hibiscus sorbet on top of Lemon Lavender ice cream. Tomorrow Portland awaits!