Blogs from Glacier National Park, Montana, United States, North America

Over the River If you have ever had an opportunity to take a train trip across the country, you would find yourself looking out at the tiny towns that dot the flatland of eastern Montana you may have wondered about life in these villages sparsely scattered across the plain. For me taking the train through the magical portal of Glacier Park and watching the sky open up and the land rest into a wide open grand plain where you can see to the ends of the curves of the earth is a familiar sight back to the place of my birth. Perhaps our subconscious holds dear the places where we come from and like a salmon we are drawn to return to these places and retrace our paths through life. I am able to hop on ... read more

It was an early start as we headed into the heart of Glacier. Mark, Jess and some of the others were dropped off at the visitor centre for the start of the longest hike in the Park, whilst Scott, Kylie, Steve, Annabel and I were taken a few miles further for the Gillam Glacier hike. Todd dropped us off and we were quickly left on our own to take on the hike. So we set off straight away, crossing a small wooden bridge over a small creek almost straight away before reaching the edge of a lake. To the left on the far side of the lake from us was a pretty awesome looking hotel, which offers boat rides across to the other side of the lake to join the hike we were doing. We clear ... read more

Sadly we left Banff behind to head to our next destination. Somehow I felt that I would return to that wonderful town and take it all in again. Til then, we headed onto Glacier National Park, which meant we were back in the United States of America. The time we spent in Canada flew by, like some of this Tour, but I was continuing to have the time of my live. On the way to Glacier, having just crossed the border, we stopped off for lunch and a quick walk around Head-Smashed-in buffalo jump. Well I say walk around, because that’s what the others did. I on the other hand, hung around outside the visitors centre and called home. Speaking to mum, she told me all about Grace and the labour, and how small and beautiful ... read more

August 12th, 2011 Friday Apgar Campground, Glacier National Park, MT. Staying in the campground today so ending mileage is still 14838. Declared it a down day. We stayed in camp and worked on blog. Napped and read. Also spent time looking at maps and tour books planning what we were going to do next. Jim and Dianne were planning on heading due south to Yellowstone National Park. We had thought to tag along, but that would put us further south and the weather forecasts showed very hot temperatures going east from that area. We had also been through that same area several times in the past. We made the decision then to leave on Sunday and to continue east from where we were along highway 2 and then down into Great Falls, MT. We had noted ... read more

"... Where the sun don't ever shine, I shiver'd the whole night through." Being able to tell a tetradonta from a miniata or even a black wattle from an elephant ear is not much use to you in this part of the world. This part of the North American continent is full of what we have been happily calling 'pine' trees. We were wrong of course but that hasn't diminished the enjoyment of travelling through some magnificent forests. The placement of these trees on spectacular mountains in beautiful valleys along rippling creeks and rivers full of water and running strong in the middle of summer doesn't hurt. Neither does putting a road through them with plenty of 'pull outs' so that you can stop for photos. It would really have been good to be able to ... read more

July 21 Glacier National Park Thursday we headed up to Whitefish MT. It is a small town near Glacier National Park and is popular both for summer activities and also skiing etc. in the winter. There must be lot’s of money in this town because there were numerous banks. We did a partial drive through Glacier Park which is essentially one road.The scenery is gorgeous. Dinner was at “Pescado Blanco” a “mountain Mexican” place. We had never heard this term before but it is an upscale Mexican-Latin place that combines meats of the mountains (elk, bison, pheasant) with Mexican and other Latin cuisines. We had the elk burritos which were delicious. ... read more