Summer Trip To Glacier

We had a fun week last week traveling to Glacier National Park.  We packed up the tent trailer and headed out Thursday morning for a fun 6 day vacation.  I found a cool web site where you can put in your departure/arrival destination and it gives you various stops along the way to visit.  We didn't get to all the stops, but on the way there, we stopped at Frosty's Drive Inn for the best burgers, fries and shakes in St. Regis, Montana!!  On the way home (didn't get any pictures) was the 50,000 silver dollar gift shop....not the most exciting, but still fun to say we went!!

Here's our 1st stop at Frosty's (couldn't get everyone smiling in the same picture.  Hayden must have itchy eyes!!)

Then after a long drive, finally arrived at the campsite.  Hayden and Lilly kept busy stacking rock towers while we set up the trailer.

We were lucky enough to get everything set up, and eat dinner before an enormous rain/thunder/lightening storm came.  We were thankful to have our tent trailer and glad we weren't stuck in a tent.  I taught the kids "rain drops on roses"....and in the end, they didn't feel so bad!! :)  Here is Hayden passing the time singing VBS songs, complete with hand motions!

Grace keeping warm in the mornings in her coug coat.  Luckily it warmed up each day and we didn't have any more rain after the 1st night!

On Friday, we headed out on the trails around the campground to explore.

We also headed to the Village where the kids had fun at the Discovery Center learning about all the animals.  Can you tell Hayden liked all the skulls??!!

Lilly liked the life size elk!

Then we spent the afternoon playing in the water and throwing rocks.  This was Lake McDonald, but the kids called it Lake McDonald's and Hayden believes there is an underwater restaurant complete with slides and tubes to crawl through!

That night for dessert, we had waffle cones filled with marshmallows, chocolate chips, strawberries, and bananas.  We wrapped them in tin foil and put them over the fire!  They were quite a fun treat....can you tell??

We kept the marshmallows and chocolate chips sitting out and what did this little guy do when we weren't looking?  He would grab handfuls and sneak over (crouching and all) to his chair and inconspicuously put them in his cup holder....here he is after being caught :)

Each night in our camp ground the rangers talked about different subjects.  Over the week, the kids learned about Pikas, Ravens, and the forest growth.  Here is a little potato pika!

On Saturday, we went on a Ranger led hike through the forest that had burned down 80 years ago and then parts of the forest that had burned 10 years ago.  She taught us all about why fire is important and how there are certain pine trees that drop pine cones that will only open at 140 degrees, so that they will seed only after there is a fire!  The kids made the 2 mile hike without complaining....and didn't even hold up the group!

We made it!!  Stopping for a break!

Look closely and you can see Mark re-creating the Lion King moment when Simba is born.  Lilly thought this was GREAT!

After our hike, we met up with our friends that we were camping with and went down to the water to cool off!

On Sunday, we woke up bright and early and went on the "Going to the Sun Road" up to Logan pass to see the highest part of Glacier.  This was my favorite part!  It was BEAUTIFUL!!  It was so green and the mountains were so big!

We made it to the top!!

The kids spent the first part of the week filling out their Ranger work books.  Once they got them filled out, they brought them to one of the rangers who asked them questions to see if they were Ranger worthy. Then, after repeating the Ranger oath, they got their gold ranger badges (this was Hayden's favorite part!)  He truly believed he was a ranger and wore his badge proudly everywhere he went....including his PJ's!  He even wore it today!!

Can you tell how proud he is??

Mark hiked up with Hayden and Lilly to see the glaciers.  I stayed with Caleb and Grace since we had the stroller and the hike was 179 stairs (according to Hayden).  Instead, Caleb had fun chasing the marmots that were all around the information center!

Headed up to see the glaciers

They said they saw a few mountain goats in the distance.  We also learned that the glaciers will be melted be between 2020-2030.  I thought that was an interesting fact.  As you can see, there isn't much snow now at the top of the pass!!

After the hike, we headed back down to the car for a picnic in the car.

 The kids had learned about Ravens the night before and soon after eating our lunch, in came the ravens.  They were hopping from car to car trying to get as close to us as possible.  You can't see from this picture, but they were HUGE...and mean looking.  Soon, we had a raven hovering above me on the SUV next to us.  I had visions of "The Birds" movie, but luckily Mark shooed them away with his hat and they went on to torment some other people eating lunch!

 On the way back down the mountain

 On Monday, we headed out for a hike through the "trail of the cedars".  It was an easy hike for the kids and they had fun seeing all the huge cedar trees (up to 300 years old)!!

 Then we headed to the Lake McDonald lodge, where Lilly found a friendly old man sitting outside the grocery store :)

 Last stop...ice cream cones on a hot day!!

It was a fun trip!!  Mark and I have now made it our goal to see all the National Parks together in our lifetime!!  There are 58....so far, we have seen 5.  I guess it's a good start!