Going to the Sun (or Hunting for Mountain Goats)

Monday was our day to drive Going to the Sun road through the park.  We had hoped to start our day with the Avalanche Lakes hike, but the parking lot was totally crammed full.  We circled a couple times, but had no luck so we headed off to the McDonald Falls walk instead.  After reading the "how to be safe in bear country" brochure, the kids were excited to be as loud as possible to warn off any possible bears (or other hikers.)  And no surprise, the bears stayed far far away.   The hike was a success... the falls were pretty and more importantly, there were lots of opportunities to throw rocks in the water.  

Montana playground 

 Look, we are all in the picture!

 Waterfall on the way up to Logan Pass

 Wildflower hike

 View from the wildflower hike

After a picnic lunch (check off "picnic" in the Cub Scout handbook for S,) we headed up to Logan Pass.  While we stopped at scenic overlooks, S and G were excited to work on their Junior Ranger booklets (the daytime ones are much more doable than the Night Ranger ones we received the day before.)  Once we reached the top, both were excited to be sworn in as Junior Rangers at the visitor's center, and then pick out a souvenir.  No surprise, G wanted another stuffed animal (Big Horn Sheep, which is named... Big Horn Sheep.)  S found a cool graphic novel called Trickster about Native American traditional stories.  And Monkey was THRILLED to get a red bus like the ones in the Park.  (The bus is not designed as a child's play toy.  But that didn't stop Monkey.  By the end of the trip he had stripped the bus - tires off, seats out, hub caps off, roll bars off, etc.  On the plus side, it provided hours of enjoyment in the car for him.  And it will provide hours of gluing for us if we want to put it back together.)

 Hidden Lake

 View on the way back from the lake

At the pass, we headed out to hike to Hidden Lake in hopes of seeing an actual glacier.  But it was colder and windier than the kids found comfortable.  S was convinced he was going to get altitude sickness any minute (why oh why did we mention this possibility?  or remind him that he was car sick at Mt. Rainier when he was 1?)  and his hands were freezing.  Monkey wanted to be carried the whole way.  So J and the children turned around and headed back to the visitor's center and I pushed on alone.  I wished the kids had made it all the way to the end to see the lake and the mountain goat!  After some much speedier hiking, I caught up to them at the visitor's center.  We had missed our photo op of the Logan Pass sign (I know, call me crazy) so we drove back the way we came to see it again.  We were in luck though... there were several mountain goats posing on the side of the road, waiting for us!  After our detour, we started the drive down the eastern side.

Kids on Hidden Lake hike, before S was convinced he had altitude sickness.

J wisely stopped near Jackson Glacier on the way down, and convinced the construction workers to let him look around at the viewpoint to take some good glacier photos.  Since the glaciers aren't expected to last much longer, we wanted to make sure we actually saw them!  Of course, the kids had no interest in getting out of the car.  "Glacier?  We've seen one at Mt. Rainier."  After a long day in the park, we headed out on our drive to Great Falls, hoping for something decent to eat in St. Mary.  And, uh, we shouldn't have hoped.  The "deli" we went to only had spinach wraps and white bread with flies on it.  The meat also had flies on it.  The hot dogs looked gross.  We tried the grocery store next door with not much better luck.  We got a couple of premade sandwiches for G and Monkey, S ate another peanut butter sandwich that I made in the car, J got the gross hotdog from the deli, and I ate the rest of our bag of sugar snap peas.  Hey, not all road trip meals are great.

Jackson Glacier 

We had a long drive across the Blackfeet Indian Reservation to get to Shelby and I-15.  The scenery was lovely, especially with the late day sun.  We were relieved to hit the interstate before it was totally dark, and zoom south to Great Falls for the night.

Monday evening in Montana,  as seen from the van while driving.