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.