My trip to Glacier NP
This post today is about my trip up to Glacier NP
Winging it
So after my contract was up with Xanterrain August, I decided I wanted to visit my friend Eliza in Seattle. She was working on a Royal Carribean ship at the time and the ship's port of call was Seattle. I decided I might as well travel around a bit before returning back to Colorado. Right before I left, I decided to extend my contract to September, and work for a couple more weeks. This was becasue I was planning on returning to school, but things changed and I wasn't going to be able to finish the fall semester, and dropped all my classes.
So the first leg of my solo journey would be from Old Faithful to East Glacier Village.
I didn't have any planned reservations, because I was hoping to grab a campground spot inside the park. This plan failed as the campgrounds were all full when I arrived late that evening. There would be more pictures, but I was too busy trying to find a place to stay for the night. Here is a photo from that evening.
Eventually I was able to find a hotel in East Glacier. This was an unplanned expense, but I made it work. I stayed at the Circle R motel. It was fairly nice. It was kinda nice having TV again, after not having access to it in Yellowstone.
That morning
The next morning I got up, and headed toward Saint Mary, the main entrance on the east side. If I had the time, I would have explored the area a bit more, but I wasn't able to. I headed into the park, and grabbed the first campsite I could find. Raising Sun campground. I had always thought the Tetons were amazing. This topped it. I had trouble focusing on the road because it was hard not to look at.
I continued on up the Going to the Sun road. This road is fully deserving of the name.
Here is a time lapse of the clouds rolling over the peaks and into the valley. I couldn't figure out how to embed it, so if anybody knows how, please leave a comment.
link to video
The oncoming storm
After driving most of the 50 mile road, I made a stop at the top of Logan Pass. This is the highest point on the road at 6646 ft (2025 m). The vistas were awesome. I explored the visitor center for a bit, then headed up the Hidden Lake trail.
I even spotted some wildlife.
I made it almost 3/4 of a mile before the weather started to turn for the worse. Thunder had started roaring in the valley below, and was getting ever closer. I decided that lightning was too much of a risk above the treeline, so I started back down the trail rather quickly. This trail was seeing quite a bit of traffic, and the really concerning thing was that people were still heading up.
I finally made it back to the bus stop, and had just slipped into my rain gear. As soon as the bus arrived, it started raining quite heavily. Made it. I walked back to my campsite, and waited out the rain for a while. After it let up, I finally made up some food, and called it a night.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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This is my first time doing this sort of thing, so be sure to leave any feedback or questions in the comments.