We were supposed to wake up at 5:45 to see if the local moose came to the pond outside the restaurant for breakfast. That didn't happen. I woke up, but Tony refused to get up. We still haven't seen any big game while we've been out here. The funny thing is that back home we have to stop and gander at any and every deer we see. It has barely been a blip on Tony's radar at the deer we've seen out here. We hope to remedy that tomorrow at Yellowstone.
We decided to go into Glacier on the east side since we had to travel so far to find a room last night. It was totally the best way to see the park since so many people start from the west side. We ended up turning in too soon but that was a great uh-oh. It routed us back around to where we needed to be. Along the way we got to see a beautiful lake, sheer rock mountains, and a hawk. Gorgeous.
Once we got on the right track, we started seeing burnt forest. We all sat in stunned silence in the car. This was old burn versus what's burning now. It was miles and miles as far as the eye could see of what looked like tooth picks standing. It was a very solemn drive into the park. It almost felt like driving through a graveyard. Tony even likened it to driving through an Indian burial ground.
But the good news is that the new growth is prosperous underneath it. The small pines are probably about a foot tall. The further we drove, the taller it got. In looking at the landscape, I'd say the large majority of the park has burnt at some point. There are so many patches where you can tell it's burned. Some are small areas and others are vast acreage. A natural state for a forest, but still hard to swallow being a tree lover.
We got to the area that is currently burning. We didn't see any flames, but the charred ground and trees still reeked of fire. We did see one small trail of smoke high on one ridge. One whole section of the road into the park had all the pull outs blocked. The trails in those areas were blocked off, too. The smoke on one section was so bad visibility was limited. But it soon cleared and with the trees limbs gone, we saw much more of the park than we would have otherwise.
The views in the park were simply stunning. We ran out of superlatives to describe one ginormous mountain peak from the next. The mountains were layered in valleys of trees at the bottom, to large meadows of wild flowers, to then sheer rock. The rocks are layered in various colors that range get in color from yellow, green, red, pink, white, gray, and black.
There were mountains that formed a single, pointy, rocky peak, some that formed a ridge of multiple mountain rocky peaks, and others that were a solid rock plateau. There were so many beautiful water falls and rivers gushing down the crevices we lost count.
At Logan's Pass, which is the pinnacle of the mountain range, we dropped over to the other side. A sign said it was an eleven mile descent to the bottom. Crazy gorgeous doesn't cover it. We also decided having the monster truck in that park would have been a very bad idea. The roads were pretty narrow. We also discussed how bad it would be to have car problems on the road. It wasn't mush later that we saw a car with a flat tire blocking traffic. Fortunately there was a park ranger there helping them. We were glad it wasn't us!
We stopped at numerous pull outs along the way for photo opps. The girls hate that phrase. We're taking pictures at break neck speeds. I just pass the camera to whomever has the best view point and say "Photo opp"! The biggest problem is two windows have to go down to stop that gosh awful air pressure imbalance in the car. Wind whips through the car for a bit, and then all is well. We've gotten some beautiful shots for sure.
At the bottom of the mountain, we were following a river that got bigger and stronger as we went because of all the glaciers melting into it. We stopped for the obvious photo opp. Jen found a trail down to it. We had not hiked all day and felt we couldn't really say we'd been to the park unless we did, so we went for it. Once we got down there we realized just how beautiful it was. It was crystal clear. It had a bluish tint to it from all the glacier water. We could see each and every little pebble in the bottom.
As I looked down on it, I got this strange urge to jump. I asked Jen if she'd do it, she agreed immediately. We then looked at Cass to see if she'd go. At first she refused. I had to sell it to her that we had clothes and towels in the car. The hard part for her was she had big hiking boots on. I knew she'd need them on to climb out of the water that was lined with rock walls. She finally caved, and said she'd go.
We were going to go one at a time, but then decided to all go together. Cass then chickened out of that proposition. Jen and I said we're out of here, and at the count of three, jumped. It felt a tiny bit like Thelma and Louise. My adrenaline was pumping up to the point I was airborne. It was about that time I remembered what the feeling of falling felt like. The bottom of my courage fell out, but I was shit out of luck in backing out.
The next shock was hitting the frigid water. As soon as I hit the water I thought maybe I was wrong to be so eager to take the plunge. It was damn cold. I popped up and immediately wanted the ejection button. I looked at Jen and saw the same look on her face. Our original plan was a bit flawed from the start. We were to swim back up stream to get out. Problem was, it was at a white water drop. We swam, but we didn't get anywhere. I gave up pretty quickly and started for the closest rock.
It's amazing what frigid water temperature does to a body. I think my heart may have stopped on initial impact. Then my brain seemed to stop working. Cass jumped in right after we did. I sort of remember her jumping in, but all my brain could think about was survival. Getting out of that water was first priority. I'm glad Tony caught it on camera, because my memory of it is extremely foggy.
Once we hauled ourselves out, we started warming up quickly. We then had to figure out how to cross back over. We decided to go down the river and see if it got more shallow so we could cross. We had to boulder a few places, but we found a spot. The bad thing was the water was moving very swiftly through some big rocks. We decided to back up a bit and cross in the water.
It's amazing how quickly the brain forgets sometimes. It didn't look like it was that far to cross in the water. I hopped right in the water without thinking. Again, the the water took my breath. We scurried across and felt like bosses when it was all over.
My skin tingled for the better part of an hour after our excursion. I kept saying I wish we could do it again. For me, it was the highlight of the trip so far. Everyone loved Glacier Park. It will be hard to top for the remainder of what we're going to see.
Tonight we drove into Bozeman, Montana to stay before heading to Yellowstone. We saw that park on our last trip. We loved it best with of all of the critters we saw. Since we haven't seen any so far this trip, it may still take the cake if we can score some big game sightings there.
As the trip is coming to a close, we're finding it more and more difficult to stay in the car for long stretches of time. I had to beg everyone to continue on to Bozeman tonight to make tomorrow's trip to Yellowstone shorter. When we're in the parks, riding is no problem. It's just the long distances in between them that are so tiring. Yellowstone is a HUGE park and will take a long time to get through. We're planning to stay in Jackson tomorrow night. We're all looking forward to it and The Grand Tetons. After that, it's back to Denver.
The warranty company approved about 75% of the costs of fixing the truck. They're supposed to be working on it and have it ready for us to pick up on Friday. We're mostly in denial that there will be any issues with that schedule. We're just thinking positive. We've had enough heart issues for one trip!!
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