Day 14 - Glacier National Park

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Around 1:00, Agent Orange woke me up because he thought he heard some kind of breathing outside the tent. Turns out it was probably me breathing inside the tent. We both stepped outside about five minutes later and neither of us were eaten. About 4 hours later I decided to pee in nothing but boxers, which was probably more dangerous considering it was really cold. It's amazing just how quick you can start shivering. Getting back inside that sleeping bag really felt great.

We broke camp a little late -- around 9:30 -- and headed over to Eddie's for breakfast. Huckleberries are big here and we had some Huckleberry yogurt with our huge breakfast, which was quite good. Next, we rented a canoe and headed out onto Lake MacDonald. It took us a little while to get the steering figured out, but eventually we got the hang of it and had fun exploring the lake. I was a little annoyed that the rental company gave us boundaries on where we could take the boat and that there is a law about wearing life jackets (they don't even have sales tax here, what do they care about laws?); but it was a great way to spend the morning.

Next, we headed over to the other side of the park -- St. Mary -- which took about two hours. Here we took a hike up into the high country to get a view of a glacier. The ranger we spoke to beforehand warned us that we'd be in territory where Grizzlies are often sighted. So, we had to be sure to make plenty of noise as we hiked the trail. Luckily, we had recently memorized the lyrics to Hoo-Yip, the song from the closing credits of Grizzly Man.

The trail essentially follows a stream until it moves above the trees and into some steep meadows that look exactly what you would picture a Grizz rolling about in. All the way, there are giant mountains rising up out of the valley, with snow scattered all over them. At the end of the hike, we realized that it's not that easy to identify a glacier compared to other big deposits of snow. I'd say we most likely saw the glacier we set out to see, but it's hard to say for sure at this point.

After finishing the trail, we drove the leg of Going-to-the-Sun Road that is open on this side of the park. It was shorter and less scenic than yesterday's drive, but still had some great mountain views.

Finally, we exited Glacier and started the drive to Yellowstone along winding roads through farmland where horses and cows have gotten fed up with being fenced in and sometimes wander right out onto the road. After stopping for dinner at a Subway in Blackfeet Indian territory, we pushed on for Helena, the capital of Montana.