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Published: April 17th 2008
Montana Skies
Views like this made the drive from the Midwestern US to Northern Montana and Southern Alberta alright.I’m retroactively blogging a trip my brother and I took around to some of the National Parks in the US in August of 2005. I wanted to put some information out about these amazing places, as they are, in my opinion, the highlights of the US (and Canada in this case!).
We drove from Minneapolis, Minnesota westward to reach Mt. Rushmore on the first day. It was an insanely long drive, but it was just the beginning of the thousands of miles we were to drive that month. We continued on to Great Falls, Montana on the second day and hit the 1,600-mile mark. We still had 3 and 1/2 hours up to eastern Glacier National Park. However, it isn’t the chore is sounds like, as the countryside is absolutely stunning in Montana (S. Dakota is horrible!!!). There are absolutely vast amounts of prairie with beautiful mountains stretching to the sky in the distance. The sunsets over the mountains turn the sky magenta and at night the stars are crystal clear. It is a pleasure to just cruise along the open roads on small highways in that part of the country.
As we were pulling in to Glacier, we
From the campsite
This is the view, the first night of the trip, from the campsite at Waterton talked with a few local kids who said we should head up to Waterton National Park, on the Canadian side of the border. It is contiguous with Glacier, but they claimed that the mountains and lakes are more spectacular. They were. We camped on the lakeside with stunning sunsets where the mountains on the eastern shore were turned purple by the setting sun in the east. It was phenomenal. At night, the temperatures dropped to a very chilling mid fifties, much colder than I had expected, but I was so tired from our hikes that nothing could wake me. That includes the deer that wandered into our site and started eating in the middle of the night. It woke my brother, who thought I was getting attacked by bear given all the noise. It ended up that I was just snoring really loudly!
The best hike we did was the Crypt Lake trail. You cross the lake in the early morning on a boat with several other hikers and begin a long trail that raises 3,000 feet. The views are stunning and you can quickly separate yourself from the group if you hike fast. There are also campsites along
View from Crypt Lake trail
A few hours into the hike, this is the view back down the valley you hike into. the way, so if you want you could stay the night, if you get the permits, and take it slow. The highlight of the hike though is the insane ending. You shimmy across the side of the mountain covered with loose rocks from the rockslides until you reach a ten-foot ladder. You climb up and then crawl through a 25-foot long, 4 by 4 tunnel. After, you go along a 50-foot cliff with a two-foot wide ledge. They kindly provide a small cable for you to hold on to so the vertigo you get from looking at the 600 foot cliff behind you doesn’t send you toppling over to your demise. Finally you reach Crypt Lake, a stunning lake completely isolated from the rest of the world. It was one of the best hikes of my life and would recommend it to anyone (and I’m even afraid of heights!). After the experience on that hike, I figured I could tackle anything, even if later hikes were a bit closer to the edge than I appreciated.
After that hike we were completely exhausted and the blisters on our feet prevented us from doing any other intense hikes down in Glacier
What am I doing?
This is where you shuffle along holding the metal cable. It is a bit intense. the next few days. We did a few easy walks along the way through the park, and absolutely loved the scenery, but we had to get on the road to Missoula as our friend had a flight in Boise the following day. I will say that Boise blew me away. I never expected it to be so posh, with so many fantastic little bars and restaurants. We were there during the Basque festival (Boise has a huge Basque population) and were able to soak up a little bit of the culture. Also, after spending a week camping and eating noodles and rice, a nice steak and salad tasted delicious. The next day we decided it was enough of the northern Rockies, and we decided to head to southern Utah to check out Zion National Park.
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