We're in Grand Prairie, Alberta, Canada tonight in the Rotary RV Park. It's right in the heart of the city, but located next to a college in a large park with a running/biking path. It's really pretty nice. Lee and I got a short run in this afternoon. We haven't done enough of that and I fear we'll be sorry when we get to Fairbanks for the Midnight Sun Run!
The campground has wifi, YAY! It's amazing how dependent I've gotten on this technology. So I can finally go back a few days to catch you up on where we've been.
Last Monday, we arrived in West Glacier NP. We stayed in Glacier Campground about a mile outside the entrance to the park. It was a "no frills" campground in the woods. Their slogan was "camping the way it used to be." We did have water and electric, so it wasn't that rustic. A nice alternative to the park itself, since the park can't accommodate any RVs that are over 20-something feet long.
Once we got settled, we went over to the park and took a drive on the Going to the Sun Road. This road connects West and East Glacier NPs, but at this time of year, it hasn't been completely cleared of snow yet. We were able to go 14 miles, following along the shoreline of Lake McDonald, the largest lake in the park. It was really so beautiful.
Once we passed the lake, we were riding alongside McDonald Creek. Since the area received a huge amount of snow this winter, the creek was very full and running very fast. The light was just right, and the water was a beautiful blue-green.
On our second day in West Glacier, we took a 5-mile hike on two connecting trails. The Cedar Loop was a beautiful cedar forest with rushing water through beautiful gorges.
The Avalanche Lake Trail was a densely wooded forest that led to a beautiful lake. In this photo, you can see how the trees have been affected by an avalanche from the facing mountain.
While we were walking, we spotted some mountain goats on the mountain across the valley. There are 8 of them.
The lake and surrounding mountains were beautiful. We would have walked farther around the lake, but we couldn't because the snow was too deep!
And, of course, no hike would be complete without a couple of wildlife photos.
Chipmunks aren't exactly unique, but I couldn't resist this one nibbling on a leaf. I watched him down the whole thing!
When we got back from our hike, we decided to ride our mountain bikes up the Going to the Sun Road, starting from the trailhead at mile 14 where traffic had to stop. Cyclists and hikers could go another 7 up to the portion of the road called "the loop." At this point, the road does a 180 degree switchback before climbing higher through Logan Pass and eventually heading down to East Glacier.
When we started, it was pretty warm, so we unzipped the legs from our hiking pants and off we went.
We got as far as the tunnel, which is just a little bit before the loop, when we were greeted by a group of five big-horned sheep making themselves comfortable inside the tunnel. We didn't know how they would react to two cyclists entering their domain, so we decided to let them be and turned around to head back.
As we were riding up the mountain, it didn't seem that steep. But when we turned around to go back down, we were surprised at how steep it looked. I thought, "Wow, did I just climb that?" By this time, the sun had started to go down behind the mountains and it started to get cold. We were freezing and starving because we hadn't planned to be gone all day and never had lunch. That just made us ride faster.
When we got back to the car, instead of going back to the campground, we decided that we had to go back to watch the sunset on Lake McDonald. Starving and cold, or not, we didn't want to miss it. And I'm so glad we did. As we watched the sun sinking lower in the sky, two kayakers paddled into the scene. It couldn't have been more perfect. We could go back to the trailer now and collapse until tomorrow!
Next post will be East Glacier.....
Fabulous! Love Glacier Park!!
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