I realize as I complete my packing list for our next big adventure, I haven’t written anything about our last adventure. How can that be I ask myself? This was an epic adventure. One filled with everything our family would hope for with rock throwing, getting our feet wet, living out regretted and missed opportunities, forgiveness, snow, sun, mountain climbing, bears, and having the feeling like you are on the top of the world. I take a step back from my awe and realize after that trip, Noah and Isabel started first grade and it has been a wild ride every day since.
I started planning for our 10-day, triple National Park road trip about a month in advance and I don’t think I’ve ever been so prepared for an excursion. The plan was to leave Portland and drive for 8 hours (the most the kids have ever been in the car) to Missoula, MT.
Day 1
Miles Hiked: 0 (I’m not counting hiking to the M)
There had been a bunch of wild fires in Glacier and most of the midwest that pretty much blocked out the sun as we drove. We couldn’t actually believe we were seeing the sun. We stopped for lunch in Spokane and ate some of the best Hot Dogs ever. Yes, hot dogs at a place called Wild Dawgs. I found raving reviews on Yelp and who raves about the lowly hot dog. We had to go and we weren’t disappointed, it’s a sure stop for next time we are in town.
We got to Missoula late and planned on staying in a KOA. I went to college for a year in Missoula and I regretted never hiking to the M on the side of the mountain. That night we climbed to the M and the feeling of doing something I always longed for was pretty overwhelming. The view was great at sunset even with all the smoke.
Day 2
Miles Hiked Today: 0 (I wouldn’t call touring a ghost town a hike)
We woke up early the next morning and were off to Garnet Ghost Town. I’d never heard of the place and Will found it in our research. It’s an old Ghost Town that is in the middle of nowhere, but along the way there are some great roadside markers of a bygone era. The town is a walking tour of old buildings they are restoring all by the time, dedication, and money of volunteers.
Back in Missoula we stopped at the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Museum and at the Smoke Jumper Center. I thought the kids would like the museum and be bored out of their minds on the Smoke Jumper tour that I really wanted to do and it was totally the opposite. They hated the museum and loved the tour (I liked both).
Day 3
Miles Hiked: 1.1 miles
This was another driving day. We drove from Missoula up to the west side of Glacier. We stayed just outside of Glacier at a USFS campground. I think since it was a Monday we had the place to ourself. It was by the river and the kids played on the rocks for hours while we relaxed and cooked dinner.
We did get in a small hike inside Glacier called the Forest and Fire Nature Trail. The hike wasn’t all that exciting and it didn’t exactly have great views, but it marked that we were now in Glacier!
Since reading about Glacier we were all a little paranoid about grizzly bears. We had loosely decided that we weren’t going to backpack during the trip, but we packed everything into our backpacks just in case we changed our mind.
Day 4
Miles Hiked: 5.4 miles
We drove across Glacier on the Going-to-the-Sun road toward Babb, MT. We rented a cabin from VRBO there. It was a small bunkhouse run by Paul Ranch and we had a blast. We even got a Christmas card in the mail!
Even with all the smoke from the fires Glacier was breathtaking. We stopped at St. Mary’s Lake, St. Mary’s Falls, Trails of the Cedars, and Hidden Lake Overlook at Logan Pass. It seemed like any trail we saw on the side of the road we stopped at. We took our time and did a lot of in and out. While driving I saw a Yellow-bellied Marmot sunning himself and then while randomly taking pictures of a mountain-side I spotted a bear.
We made our way into West Glacier to buy tickets for the Grinnell Glacier Ranger Led hike and boat. Also we stopped for the junior ranger program and marked off big horn sheep, mountain goats, and moose from our list of animals to see in Glacier.
Day 5
Miles Hiked: 7.6 miles
Glacier is one of those places that you can’t really explain, but you need to experience to understand. I was so at peace while on the trip, I kept thinking, it can’t get better than this and the next day it did.
We started out really early to catch our boats, first across Swiftcurrent Lake then across Josephine Lake to get to the beginning of the trail. The trail winds up and through a canyon. Along the way we saw wild flowers, yellow-bellied marmots and a ptarmigan. It was really exciting for the kids to have a ranger (Ety) narrate about Glacier National Park and how it was made. This was everyone’s favorite hike on the trip.
Day 6
Miles Hiked: 0 miles
We packed everything up and started our way down to Yellowstone. The car trips was easy thanks in full to Percy Jackson on CD. We made it to West Yellowstone late and were surprised there were still camping spots available in campgrounds. We had marked a few places on the map where we might need to camp on National Forest Land, but amazing their was a spot. We reserved it for two nights.
Day 7
Miles Hiked: 6.4 miles
The next morning we discovered why there were spots available. Less than ¼ mile away they were doing bridge maintenance and at 7am the bulldozers and big machinery started up. Lucky for us, we don’t generally sleep in. I had two really lofty goals of the trip, one was to hike Grinnell Glacier at almost 8 miles with the kids in 6 hours and then the other was to hike Mt Washburn in Yellowstone.
The kids are into a TV show called, “Rock the Park” and Colton and Jack had hiked this trail and the kids wanted to do it, too. While up on the mountain, we were less than 10 minutes behind a grizzly bear, we saw Big Horn Sheep less than 100 yards away from us, and we caught a glimpse of our first Pika. That day we also drove out to the Lamar Valley, because Day 8 we were onto a new park.
Day 8
Miles Hiked: 0 miles
We woke up to the howling of wolves! The wolves had to be pretty close from the volume, but I wasn’t going to get out of the tent and go search for a pack of howling wolves, that and less than 10 minutes later the heavy equipment started up for the day. We ate our oatmeal, packed up, and started driving toward Old Faithful. Along the way we stopped for at least 5 geysers and the kids knew the difference between a hot spring, mud pot, and fumarole before lunch. Noah wanted to stay and wait for the geyser that was overdue to spout, but hadn’t spouted in 7 years. I told him, I wasn’t sure it was going to happen today.
We did finally make it to Old Faithful and realized why we love backpacking. Even though we had seen people of the last 7-8 days we hadn’t really been connected into society and at Old Faithful there were thousands of people and the parking lot is bigger than the lots at Disneyland.
After Old Faithful we drove through Grand Teton National Park, we weren’t as lucky on the camping spots and had to stay on the outside of the park near Jackson, WY. The smoke had cleared this far south and the day was bright, so the mountains looked like jagged pieces of glass stuck up out of the ground. It reminded me of the one time I drove through the region and the same picture was burned into my mind.
Day 9
Miles Hiked: 6.5 miles
We woke up to a cold morning. The coldest morning of the trip. I think Will said something like 40 degrees when we woke and nobody was very excited about the chill. We backtracked to Jenny Lake, but didn’t want to spend the extra cash on the boat to get to Inspiration Point. So we hoofed it from Stringer Lake to Inspiration Point. We also hiked maybe a mile into the canyon. On the way back, Noah did his super hiker run all the way back and Isabel and I tried everything to keep up with them. Will said he pretty much trail ran the whole thing back, we were at least 30 minutes behind when we finally reached the end… and Isabel ran for part of the time, too. So Noah must have been booking it.
Day 10
Miles Hiked: 1.5 miles
The long trek home began. When I was 8 years old, before their was a freeway through Idaho, my dad took me on a road trip through Idaho that felt like miles upon miles of the moon. It made a huge impression. So on our way home, I thought it a perfect time to visit what I learned later was called, Craters of the Moon National Monument.
Craters of the Moon is indeed like the moon. Astronauts used the place for moon preparations and it does look like the moon in many ways. Another cool feature of the place are caves. We stopped for about 2 hours here and did some spelunking and a tiny bit of hiking.
The trip was great and the kids had a fantastic time. I can’t wait to return to Glacier and see the peaks without the smoke and backpack in Yellowstone when I’m not so paranoid of bears. I imagine one day hiking the backcountry of the Grand Tetons with the kids. It was a great trip.