Road Trip Day 10: Saying Goodbye and heading to Yellowstone

Road Trip Days 6-9: Swan Lake

Road Trip Day 5: Glacier: Two Medicine Lake

Our second day in Glacier National Park.  Again, we started the day early....this continued as a trend for most of the trip.  For this second and final day, we decided to explore the Two Medicine area.  We made the more than hour drive around the southern perimeter of the park over to Two Medicine.  Our first stop was at Running Eagle Falls. When we pulled into the parking lot, I discovered that I had forgotten to put on my running/tennis/hiking shoes and was instead wearing flip flops!! What in the world!? We had a day of hiking and exploring to do, how was I supposed to do it in flip flops? I downplayed my error and said I was fine, I would do what every one else was doing and I would be fine.  We go out of the car and off I went....

The hike (or rather walk) was short, flat and easy to the beautiful falls, one of my favorites!  I loved how there were two sets of falls in one with the lower appearing to just come straight out of the rocks.  Running Eagle was said to be a a beautiful Blackfoot Indian warrior.  She lost her life in a battle against the Flathead Indians and was said to be laid to rest in a tree at the top of the falls.  I wish we would have been able to get to the top of the falls to see it from above and maybe discover how the waterfall split, but the climb looked a little to unsafe.....and I had flip flops!  

From here, we continued down to the end of the road until we reached a cute little area at Two Medicine Lake.  We went into the campstore and asked the Rangers there about some of the hikes in the area and came up with a plan of attack.  Prior to setting out on a hike we enjoyed a nice picnic lunch, fueling up for our hike.  

We had the option of taking a boat trip across the lake and taking a guided hike to some falls, but the boys weren't interested based on some pictures they saw of the falls.  There were also some long hikes that they just weren't feeling up to.  We settled on a 2 mile (4 round trip) trip to Aster Falls.  The Ranger told us you could climb to different levels of the falls and this is what caught the kids attention.  Thankfully, I discovered that Justin had an extra pair of shoes in the car.  Although a little small and I had no socks, any shoes were better than flip flops for the adventure ahead.

There were a lot of ups and downs on this hike, some forest, some meadow and plenty of sights to take in.  It was pretty hot and we were all happy to see the falls.  We are very rarely disappointed when we see waterfalls.  I think we all love them.

 Aster Falls ended up being better than we initially thought.  From our prospective at the base of the falls, the waterfall didn't look so impressive, however, we soon discovered that these falls began high up the mountain, winding through a series of falls. It didn't take long for us to set out on a journey to find the top of the waterfall.  We all managed to safely cross the stream over a fallen long and then began to climb the steep mountain side following the falls.  The boys were eager to keep climbing up and up.  It was so much fun exploring.  We took a few breaks here and there, enjoying the falls and the surrounding area.  After some time, we decided we were not going to be able to reach the top of the falls and it was no longer safe for us to climb any higher.  Now to get back down...that wasn't as easy as climbing up. With Jeff in the lead, he says, "this way looks easier". I can tell you now that the way he lead us was definitely not easier!  We found ourselves sliding down mountain sides on our backsides, through brush and trees.  It was an experience for sure! Despite the challenges and Justin's fear of heights and falling, we all made it safely to the bottom having enjoyed the entire experience.

Back at the car, we decided to call it day and so we headed back to camp for an earlier night. We cooked a nice dinner and played some cards.  Another great day in the books.

Road Trip Day 4: Glacier National Park!

Ahhh, Glacier National Park, what a glorious, beautiful place!  Jeff and I have been to Glacier on one other occasion when we drove to Montana after his High School graduation, but to be honest, I don't remember it all.  Not sure whether we didn't stay that long or whether it was because we were just kids that it didn't make that much of an impression on me but that wasn't the case with this trip.  

Our campground was in West Glacier, just a few miles from the West Entrance of the park.  We packed a lunch and started the day out early.  The sun was up at 4:30am....and didn't go down until after 10:30pm....so I was up and ready to go pretty early.  The kids did not see the need to rush out too quickly but they were soon up and ready to start our day around 8:30.  There is only one road that takes you through the park, The Going-to-the-Sun Road.  As we entered the park we informed the kids that no electronic devices were to be used while in the park.  That elicited a few groans, but well worth it.  It allowed us all to be connected with each other and the beauty that surrounded us.  

Our first stop on this first day was a hike just past Lake McDonald at the trail head for Johns Lake.  We weren't sure about stopping so soon into our day as we knew there was lots to see, but the lake was a short half mile hike and so we decided to give it a try.  We walked through a cool forest of Lodge Pole Pines and giant rocks.  Had we not been paying attention, we would have missed the lake altogether.  It was more like a pond.  We kept walking thinking there must be more, there wasn't, that was the whole lake but we were pleasantly surprised when eventually we made the loop and came across McDonald Falls!  Our first falls of the trip! I love waterfalls. 

The kids, especially Ryan, loved skipping the flat rocks into the creek.  We were impressed by our first set of whitewater and the color of the rushing waters. 

We crossed the river and continued along the path, the view became more impressive. We found that what we had seen before were not the falls since a more impressive sight was before us. 

Justin was terrified in that upper middle picture. He would not go toward the edge and was unaware that there was a ledge for Jeff to stand on. He was on the verge of tears pleading for Jeff to come back up.

Once we loaded up in the car, we continued our journey up The Going-to-the-Sun Road!  I was not prepared for the sights we would see along the way.....It was so amazingly beautiful!!  As we made our way towards Logan Pass we passed the Weeping Wall and made a stop at another waterfall that disappeared into a bank of snow.  This was a short hike in distance but it was a very steep climb.  We learned that Justin has a fear of heights!  He wanted to go further but was struggling and fearful.  He spent a lot of time on his butt and with his hands holding onto the mountain side.  This will not be the last time this trip that he has to face this fear.  Travis and Ryan easily kept climbing until we finally encouraged them to make the journey downward.

Weeping Wall

We continued to Logan Pass, where it was very crowded. It took us quite awhile to find parking.  We did get out at the visitor center to use the bathroom and put our feet in the snow that remained.

Logan Pass

Jackson Glacier overlook

We are back in the "valley" now and heading out towards the East Entrance at St. Mary.  We made a stop at Saint Mary Lake to take in the sights.

St. Mary's Lake

We exited the park at St. Mary and headed up to the Many Glacier Area.  At this point, we were just 30 miles for the Canadian border. Many Glacier was really nice, lots of trails and hikes to explore.  We decided to take the hike to Redrock Falls, which was about a 4 mile hike.  We spoke to a family who had just completed the hike and they had seen a couple of moose!  We were excited about the prospect of seeing wildlife since we hadn't seen much yet. Redrock Falls was gorgeous! We spent quite a bit of time climbing up and around the falls and taking in the views.  Unfortunately, we didn't see any moose or bears as other hikers had seen.

Redrock Falls

It was about 5pm when we made it back to our car.  Now we had to decide how we were getting back to camp which was all the way on the other side of the park, a couple hours away.  We decided to go back the way we came and travel across The Going-to-the-Sun Road again.  It was just as spectacular the second time with a whole new set of views as we viewed it from a new vantage point.  

It was a long, exhausting but wonderful day!

Road Trip Day 3: On the Road Again

We left our friends house around 10am and set out on a long days drive to Glacier National Park. We traveled up through Washington to Spokane and then crossed into Idaho and eventually Montana. Unfortunately we hit a lot of traffic outside Coeur d'Alene and were literally stopped there for a long time.

The drive was beautiful. The kids did great although they got a little antsy in the last hour. We pulled into our campground in Hungry Horse, MT in the West Glacier area around 8pm. We set up camp and then made dinner. It was a long tiring day, but we were happy to finally be in a spot we could call home for a few days.

Flathead Lake, Mt. 

Finally settled into camp. 10:15 at night and it's still light out! 

The days travel stats: 411 miles traveled over 9hrs and 12 minutes (we lost an hour with the time change. 

Travel stats to Glacier: 3 days, 1,112 miles traveled over 23 hours and 5 minutes 

Road Trip Day 2

Yesterday we traveled from LaPine State Park, Oregon (40 miles South of Bend) to Kennewick, WA.  It was one of our shorter drives of the trip.  Driving through Oregon was beautiful! The landscape was so diverse!  We saw Mt. Bachelor, Mt. Hood and looming big, far in the distance, was Mt. St. Helens! We saw canyons, valleys and meadows. As we reached the Oregon-Washington border, we traveled along the Columbia River for 70 miles before heading into Washington.    

I did make Jeff pull over so I could take a picture of Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens together but my phone just did not do the size of them justice at all. 

Panoramic with both mountains...yeah, I can't see them either 😕

While we were pulled over on the side of the road, the boys all got out to go potty on the side of the road. We were all alone  out there when suddenly a car drove by honking at the boys! They thought that was funny! We also blew a giant dandelion and made a family wish for "safe travels", Travis added, "and no broken bones" 

A great picture of the Columbia River as we crossed into Washington. I kept waiting for a scenic overlook but there wasn't one. 

Still happy on day 2

Kennewick, WA. was just 30 miles from the border. We decided to stop there for the night because we had friends that lived there. 

We met our friends Jaz and Anita two years ago while we were in Hawaii. We were at Disney's Aulani. We were looking for some lounge chairs by the pool on our first day there and there wasn't any available. Anita saw us wondering around and so very kindly offered us two of their chairs. We became fast friends from that point and spent the rest of the week together! 

It was great to visit with them in their home! The fixed us a fabulous dinner and we spent some time catching up. They were great hosts! 

The boys hanging out with Simran and Rajan....great kids! 

The visit was too quick but still very nice. 

Day 2 Stats: 5hrs 30 minutes travel time for a distance of 274 miles. 

Road Trip Day 1: We are off!

We set off on our big road trip yesterday.

We had a long day of travel in front of us to reach our destination of LaPine State Park in Oregon, I wasn't sure how this day was going to go. Would the boys be complaining about how long the drive was, that they were bored? Would they be fighting in the back seat? Or would they travel nicely. I anticipated the former but I was happily surprised that they did really well! 

All smiles as we set off from home

They spent a long time doing a road trip search game that Justin found online, they listened to music, Travis read and we all talked and interacted....imagine that! Surprisingly, they only watched one movie! 

Each kid had their own snack box which was awesome because they weren't constantly asking me for snacks. 

Staying entertained...that is Mt. Shasta in the background.

Finally, after 8 hours and 23 minutes in the car and 427 miles traveled, we arrived at our first stop. LaPine is a pretty nice, clean campground. Our spot was pretty nice for just one night. We backed up to a grassy open area so the boys spent a lot of time playing catch and football. There was lots of laughing. 

Camp fun! 

We also went for a little walk to check out the Deschutes River. We found a tree the boys thought was fun to climb on. Of course, they saw the humor in being inappropriate. 

All in all, it was a better than expected day. The car ride felt relatively quick and we had a lot of good family time....helps that we had no cell service at camp.