Glacier National Park

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I think I’m falling in love with Montana. I spent one day in Missoula, a college town pretty much in the middle of Montana and apparently the Rolling Stone magazine has voted its college campus the prettiest in the country. So, for you guys who would like to study overseas after your HSC, go here. The food is amazing, pretty ‘green’ if you know what I mean and markets everywhere. The film ‘A River Runs Through It’ (Brad Pitt with long hair on a horse, need I say more?) was based here and as I said, I’m falling in love with this state. Who knew?

I meant to stay in Missoula longer, a friend of a friend’s documentary film was included in the annual Wildlife Film Festival but the weather suddenly became so warm and lovely, I didn’t want to stay one day longer in a city and took off. It’s spring time in Montana and camping has been just wonderful. I stayed one night next to the Flathead Lake in the Blackfeet Indian Reservation and spent the evening sitting next to the shore waiting for the sunset. Some of the photos came out real good. The next day I drove to Glacier National Park, close to the Canadian border. Unfortunately most of the roads were still closed but I got to take a killer photo of the mountains and their mirror image in the lake. The wind had just died down for a short moment and again, lucky Heidi.

Well, and here I am. Camping next to Thompson Lake for the night, watching Loons fly past and enjoying the quiet, simple life. Reading the camping instructions it seems that this area is very popular for fishing enthusiasts in the summer, but I’ve scanned the lake with my binoculars and only one other campsite is occupied all the way across the lake. Coming here in ‘off season’ was probably the best decision I’ve made so far. Unfortunately I also had to pay for a fishing license while camping here (it’s kind of included in the camping fee), which is very funny because I cannot fish. I tried it once a few years ago with Mrs Meylan down in Narooma and caught a yellow jacket (?). I was so distraught by the poor, struggling fish that I started crying and begged Mrs Meylan to unhook the fish and release it back into the water. So much for that.

Tomorrow I will try to drive as much as I can towards the East Coast, Seattle, Washington. I know this sounds stupid since I hate morning television, but I saw this little ‘advertisement’ on Good Morning USA that was talking about a resort on the San Juan Islands close to Seattle where one can watch killer whales from the shore. They are residents in those waters and this might sound really corny, but the best day of my life was a few years ago when I travelled to Alaska and took the Marine Highway Ferry from Valdez to Whittier. We passed a pod of killer whales and some of them looked at me, rolling around the water, watching the boat pass by. I was on deck, with a crappy camera that didn’t really take any good pictures at all but I remember that day like yesterday. As I said, best day of my life.

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