Family Vacation Volume II

Red busses on Going to the Sun Road

Nathan on top of Logan Pass

On top of Logan Pass

Waterfalls

Glaciers

Everybody was kung fu fighting

Our home away from home

Required!

St Mary Lake

Sitting on the dock of the bay just wasting time

Miss Megan at St. Mary

The caught fish...

Making ice-cream/ lifting weights

mmm peach cobbler

everyone likes homemade ice cream

BROWNING, MONTANA

Blackfeet Indian reservation

Mountain goats licking salt

Mama and baby

My little mountain goats...licking a rock

Megan in the daisys

Hope you can't see what they are REALLY doing....

My sweet boy

After the nippy night in Gem Mountain, we decided we weren't as prepared as we should have been. We drove to Missoula and found a Sportsman's warehouse, where we were able to buy Savannah a new, super cozy down sleeping bag. Also we found the REQUIRED bear spray for Glacier National park, and a few other things. We were soon back on the road and soon made it to Glacier. For our first night we camped at Fish Creek by Lake McDonald. When we got to our spot, we realized I hadn't realized that the campsite I reserved was sloaped. But we soon figured out a new lay-out and got everything re-setup.

That night we decided to go to a Ranger talk which was about conservation. It was in an open ampitheater with about 100 people listening. When the presentation was over, the Ranger asked for questions. Savannah raised her hand and was chosen to asker her question. She said to the Ranger, "So where are all the elephants?" The Ranger tiped her head and said, "what?" "I said, where are the elephants?" At that the people started to laugh and the Ranger replied, well, those are in a different park" Savannah crossed her arms, stuck out her lips and said, "humph!" Guess her whole vacation was ruined. After dinner, which was hobo packets, we hurried and got ready for bed. Lucky for us, the campsite had flush toilets, and running water. Aaaah!

That night was much better, since it wasn't as cold as the previous night. We got up early and broke camp again. With a quick breakfast of oatmeal, we hurried and got back on the road. Our goal was to make it to St. Mary's Lake which I had a reservation for, but only one night. We wanted to find a campground with a site we could stay at more than one night. We drove on "The most senic highway in the World" Going-to-The Sun road. It was breath taking! Everywhere was glaciers with water falls running from them. Beautiful mountains, and valley filled with wild flowers. The road was long, narrow, and winding. And though it was only 50 miles, it took a good 2 1/2 to get to St. Mary's Lake.

We were able to find a great campsite at Rising Sun campground in St Mary, which we were able to stay at for the next 2 nights. The Ranger made it clear to us that bears frequently walked through the camp along with deer and mt. lions. "Lions and deer and bears, Oh My!" We were required to carry bear spray with us everywhere, and had to clean up everything between meals. Nothing except the tent and bedding were able to be out. Not even clothing that had been worn fishing could be out. While setting up our sleeping bags, I was ambushed by the kids and we had an awesome, drag down, knock out pillow fight. It was so much fun. After lunch we hiked to down to St Mary Lake. It was beautiful. The water was the clearest blue I have ever seen. Keith was able to get in some fishing while the rest of us explored. We found a boat dock and sat on that and admired the surroundings. Keith was happy to catch a few fish.

That night we got back to camp and had taco salad for dinner. I also made a peach cobbler in the dutch oven. While we were waiting for the cobbler to bake, I brought out a surprise. I bought a ball which you can toss and kick around while it makes ice-cream. You put ice and rock salt in the bottom. Then in the top I placed a mixture of water, dry milk, pudding mix and a can of sweetened milk. The kids played soccer and then after about 30 mins. we had a quart of yummy vanilla ice-cream to put into cones and on our cobbler. They loved it! After the kids got back from a Ranger meeting, we had a quick family home meeting, and then the boys went to take a shower. We all slept very well that night!

On Monday morning we woke up and got ready to go to Browning. Browning is a small town in the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. There we got to go to The Museum of the Plain's Indians. It wasn't fabulous, but Nate enjoyed it. After that we drove south to the bottom of Glacier, so we could find the mountain goats. There are cliffs that are mineralized and the goats come there to lick the salt. We found a mama and baby goat. And they were adorable. They would leap from ledge to ledge, and you thought they would lose their footing, but they never did. It was amazing.

That night, once we got back to camp, the girls were able to take showers, and then we went to dinner at the Two Dog Flat resturant. It was a nice change. We all had burgers and huckleberry soda. It was yummy. After dinner we took a two mile hike, and looked for some animals , but we didn't find anything except for beautiful flowers. We hiked back and it was close to dark, so we cleaned up and got ready to leave in the morning.

We really loved Glacier National park. It was so beautiful, and pristine. It really did look untouched.