The Sites We See: Made it through Montana!

Big sky was great! Its was really nice to see some familiar faces. We hung out there for a week. It was nice to spend time with our friends while meeting new ones. It was a good change of pace to be in one place (other than wisconsin) for a longer period of time. We did a lot of cool stuff during the week while our friend Fisher had his days off. We went hiking to Ousel Falls, floated down the Madison river on inner tubes, checked out some local music, shot some sweet guns, went to the movies, and hung out, relaxed and drank beers. Fisher's roommates both had dogs which ended up being a big source of entertainment a lot of the time because they never wanted to stop playing. Joanie was so funny. She is a springer spaniel and her hair made her look like she was wearing a toupee. Bailey was the sweetest pit bull with the coolest coloring. The town of Big Sky is such a nice tight knit community. Everyone is so friendly and most things were within walking distance of the house.

Super Moon!

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Since leaving big sky, we headed to northern montana to Glacier National Park. On the way up I unfortunately got stung by a bee while driving causing my hand to swell up pretty badly. It’s very uncomfortable and annoying but I wasn’t going to let it ruin my time in Glacier. Before entering the park, we found a campsite for the night right outside the east entrance called St Mary’s Campground. It was a nice place with amazing views of the mountains. We met a really cool guy named Hawkin who worked in the park doing guided hikes. He pointed out some great hikes that we could do given the distance we were willing to walk. We were super thankful to have met him because we would have never ended up on the hike we took without his advice.

The next morning we packed up, had breakfast and headed into the park on "Going into the Sun road". It was a beautiful day for the park. It was sunny but not too hot. Our first stop in the park was Siyeh Bend, which is the location of the head of the trail Hawkin suggested we take. This hike was by far the most amazing hike I have ever done. The views were absolutely phenomenal. It was overall the perfect weather to hike in. When we started off, the forest provided us with shade too keep us cool while the sun was highest in the sky. By the time we got out of the forest into the higher altitudes of the high alpine forest, there was a sufficient breeze and light cloud cover to keep us cool while we headed up the mountain. I have never seen an actual glacier before so it was really cool to not only see one but to hike over them! We also saw our first mountain goat grazing near a small stream of glacier water coming down the side of the mountain. We stopped at the top for a brief break to have some snacks and take in the view before heading back down the other side. The total hike was 10.3 miles. We were a little tired by the end but more pumped up at how awesome the whole experience was. Once we got to the end on the other side of the mountain there is actually a shuttle to take you back to the cars (which was sooooo nice lol)

Shaking her ass to the wind!

After the hike we drove around glacier on some of the coolest cliffside roads I have ever been on. We were going to each campground along the rout trying to find one that had an open tent site we could grab for the night. All the ones within the park are first come first serve, so by the time we were done with the hike, it was late in the day making it a bit harder to find one. We drove through one called Apgar Village at the bottom end of Lake McDonald. The sign out front said that it was full but we were determined to check anyway. Luck for us we spotted an open one in the perfect location! After grabbing the site, we headed over to the village center for some dinner and to take an ice cold dip in Lake McDonald to wash up.