A Room with a View

We chose a remote border crossing which had just opened two days prior and we were one of the first through it so the guards had to "grill" us before coming across. We passed and made it through. This area of Montana was pretty desolate and we did not see another vehicle until we hit the entrance to Glacier National Park. We did run into some wild horses though.
We rolled into St. Mary and stopped to replenish our supplies because we were going to spend a couple of nights camping in Glacier and our stock from our Costco run in Seattle had run low. I remember what it was like shopping in Kauai on a Wednesday and all the shelves were bear because the barge was due into town, but this store in St. Mary took the cake. We walked in and the entire area where vegetables, fruit and meat should have been stocked, it was completely empty, and I mean completely. If you needed anything more than chips, soda or beer you were in trouble. Thank God that is all we needed!! We were going to have to improvise for our dinners. Good thing I am the expert on 30 second meals. (amazing what we have been able to concoct with our jar of Pesto).

As we headed into the Park we visited with the Park Ranger to get some info on the trails and camping. She informed us that the Road to the Sun from the East Entrance to the West Entrance was not completely open due to over 75 feet (not inches but feet) of snow still on Logan's Pass. They would not be dug out until July. She did give us the names of a few trails which were open for hiking and the open campgronds. Being so early in the season not all the trails or campgrounds are open mainly due to too much snow. We found a great little hike to some waterfalls and as we were coming off the trail we ran into a group of skiers/hikers who hiked up one of the routes and then skied and snowboarded down it. We were jealous.

We needed to decide which end of the Park we were going to camp because it was getting late. We decided to stay on the East Side and enjoy the sunset so we set up camp at St. Mary's primitive campgrounds. (Primitive means no running water). No worries because we landed the most picturesque campsites known to man. We paid $200 for our view at Chateau Lake Louise but this $10 a night view at Glacier National Park may have topped it. Okay I'll admit our air mattress was not quite as nice as the king sized bed. But all else being equal this was a better deal.

This campground was set up to be "bear proof", special garbage cans, special bins for food storage and all campers had to abide by the strict rules of "bear proofing" their sites or be subject to a fine. We had our "pepper spray and big hunting knife" in the tent with us. With the sun staying up longer we had several hours to enjoy our view and hang out. The setting was so perfect and exactly what we were envisioning our trip would be like. We ended the evening watching the sunset and listening to Roby play his guitar. A picture out of a Rockwell Painting.

I somehow slept through the windstorm that night but we woke again to a perfect day. We did not want to leave our campsite so we prolonged it as long as we could and just sat in our Kukuiula camp chairs enjoyed the sunshine and read our books. Once lunchtime hit we headed to the West side of the park and checked out MacDonald Lake in the Apgar Village area and then headed up the other side of the Road to the Sun. We chose to do the hike to Avalanche Lake which was about 6 miles round trip but not too strenuous. It was one of the few trails open not completely covered in snow. Along the way we came across some great waterfalls and even ran into a deer. We came within 10 feet of it. It was just minding its own business chomping on the grass.
After the hike we decided to get on our bikes and continue up the Road to the Sun past the closed off area to vehicles. Having the road to ourselves, we enjoyed the views and saw some mountain goats and elk along the way. We were so psyched because we saw our first black bear!!

Having spent the majority of the day in the park it was too late to leave the park so we decided to camp another night but instead of a mountain view, we camped at the edge of MacDonald Lake. Not too shabby of a view. Due to our lack of food supplies, Roby tried to catch us some cutthroat trout but he was not too lucky. In fact it was probably the worst 30 minutes of fishing he has ever had. His line kept getting caught up in the rocks and debris he gave up. So we improvised and finished off the last of our spaghetti noodles and pesto sauce. After supper we settled in and read our books and enjoyed the evening. Unfortunately the weather turned on us that evening and we woke to quite a nice thunderstorm. Thankfully we have a good tent but our rainfly does not come all the way to the ground so the edges were catching some rain so we devised our plan on how we were going to break camp with the least amount of damage to our stuff. Fortunately we had to put everything away prior to going to sleep for "bear proofing" that we only had to focus on getting our sleeping gear and tent put away. We make a good team!!