Last week was an exciting one as far as miles driven and miles hiked. A few month’s ago my boyfriend told me that his brother and his girlfriend wanted to take a road trip out west and that they were trying to find people to go with them. I told him that I love that part of the country and that I would like to go with. So, last week we all got in the car and drove West. Our final destination was Glacier National Park in Montana but we made some stops along the way in South Dakota. First we visited the Corn Palace and the Indian museum.
Both places were interesting. The corn palace is pretty much a tourist trap except for some pretty educational sections where you learn about corn and why it is important. The Indian museum was very cool because it showed artifacts that were dug out in the area and there were some nice pictures of how things used to be. I’m not a huge fan of museums but this one was pretty interesting for being such a small one. After that we moved on to the Badlands.
I had been there before and I thought it was very pretty and interesting. Last week it was 98 degrees and the heat index was in the 120s so while it was pretty amazing to walk around and explore the badlands, it was also extremely hot and I felt like I was going to die of heat exhaustion. We only stayed there for a few hours since it was just a pit stop before Glacier. After the Badlands we drove to Wall Drug. We didn’t really buy anything, but we had to stop there because you just can’t ignore all the signs on the side of the road telling you that you are that much closer to it. My boyfriend’s brother wanted to go to Deadwood so we made a stop there.
It is a very pretty small town with a main street that takes you back to the cowboy days and bar fights. They didn’t like it very much because apparently it has changed a lot in the last few years. Since I had no expectations of the place I really liked it. That was our last stop before driving non stop through Montana almost all the way to the border with Canada to Glacier National Park.
Glacier is an amazing place. The mountains are gorgeous with the trails to prove it. It had been a long time since a place took my breath away but Glacier certainly did. Our camp site was small but comfortable and aside from all the extra precautions to keep bears out of our camp site, it was pretty much the same as any other camping experience I’ve ever had. The huge difference comes with the going-to-the-sun-road which takes you from east to west inside the park it is about 50-something miles and it takes a good 4 hours to go all the way around (driving). There are many trails to choose from but the ones by Logan Pass were the most exciting as far as wild life goes.
We were able to walk through the snow, we saw goats on hidden lake trail and we saw ram on highline trail. There were many squirrels and prairie dogs all around. The other trail we did which was also amazing was the Hidden lake trail. That one is accessible through Many Glacier and it is where most of the bear sightings happen. We didn’t see any but we always made lots of noise and carried our bear spray. On our way out we saw moose and a baby moose. It was very surreal to see wildlife so close to us.
Overall, it was an excellent trip. I need to spend at least 2 months there to hike every trail and to make sure I get to enjoy all that it has to offer but we only had two days and we did the best that we could with the time we had.
Important note to those of you who want to ride the shuttles on the going-to-the-sun-road… after 5pm there are no more shuttles from the west going up to Logan pass. We took the 4pm shuttle at St. Mary’s visitor center to Logan pass. Then from there we took a smaller shuttle down to Apgar. When we reach the end of the shuttle (around 6pm) we were told that we were stranded down in Apgar because no more shuttles would go up to Logan pass. We asked to talk to the person who was in charge and the guy told us that he couldn’t approve any more shuttles to go up and that our best chance of getting back to our camp site would be by hitchhiking… “Have fun, you’re on vacation. I did it for 40 years.” – with that we went over to the intersection on the road that had been pointed out to us as the best place to hitchhike and not even 4 minutes after we stuck our thumbs out these kind family picked us up. They were not going that way but they still helped us. It took one hour and thirty minutes to get us to our car and from there it would take them at least 2 hours to get home. These people were amazing. They took us up the mountain and did not accept anything in return. The only thing they wanted to do is help because that is what honest people do. That’s one of the most humbling experiences in my life.
