Blogs from Glacier National Park, Montana, United States, North America - page 6

After a LONG night, the morning was welcome. We broke camp, had pancakes for breakfast, and walked the very short distance to the Ranger Station. Someone is there during the entire tourist season. No electricity, no indoor toilets, but check out the view! The walk to our next camp included a couple of suspension bridges (which I would have LOVED to have had on Day 4, you will see later why), a beautiful water fall, and at least one bear caution sign. At the waterfall we stopped to not only take pictures but to eat lunch. He had prepared this cream cheese mixture that we just LOVED. Cream cheese, sun dried tomatoes in olive oil and some basil. YUM! Today wasn’t as long a walk as the day hike in, but there sure seemed to be ... read more

Prepare yourself for a paragraph or two of irrational whining. Starting with: GPS - Getting People Stranded. Our special edition Tom Tom has a fetish for gravel roads leading to dead ends. Why direct the WHOW down a highway when there's a perfectly rutted piece of dirt track finishing at an impasse. Resorting to the tried and proven method of map reading, we found ourselves at our final destination in Canada, The Waterton Lakes National Park, a place where: "rugged windswept mountains rise abruptly out of gentle prairie grassland, interloped with around 200 klms of hiking and bike trails, all with uninterrupted views of the tranquil waters of Waterton Lakes". That's a brochure's spin and it's probably true for those rarish days of the year when conditions cooperate. Bringing us to: Canada, I love you and ... read more

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, ... read more

I once was a wee lad who used to go fishing on the weekend with his mates. As I would sit on the riverbank eagerly casting my bait in anticipation of what lurked beneath, my eyes would be drawn to the shadow of an overhanging branch on the far bank, where the river ran tantalizingly dark and deep. That is where the monster surely lay, undisturbed and uncaught, and that is where my bait, and I, by proxy, needed to be. When the urge took possession, I would walk downriver to just past the riffles and wade chest-deep through the water and fight my way up the far bank through thickets and nettles until I stood excitedly within rod’s reach of that very spot. In hindsight, the monsters I caught there may have looked the same, ... 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