I think we both got a relatively decent night’s sleep, which was nice. We got up, ate some corn chex 😁, filled up the gas, and pointed the nose of the van east.
Not really having any idea what I was getting into with Glacier National Park, thinking that it was a really really big one like Yellowstone, we filled up gas on every single stop. I think we filled up two or three more times between the loves by Coeur d’Alene and the entrance to the park. It was at least two more times, and I think maybe three.
Our timing at Glacier couldn’t have been better.
😍
Better than planned.
The sun was out and shining and bright, and because we got to the park itself somewhere around 3:30, the evening raise were shining on the western slopes, lighting up the landscape beautifully. And we hit arrived in perfect time for the changing of the leaves.
They were gorgeous. 😍
We stopped Again and again and again on the highway to the sun road, taking picture after picture after picture.
Rocky peaks, glistening Rivers, small waterfalls, towering waterfalls. Beautiful, vibrant fall colors, mostly golden yellow that brightly reflected the eastbound raise of the early evening sun.
It was simply beautiful. 😊
We stopped briefly at Logan Pass to take more pictures, before heading east down the interior slopes of the park toward St Mary Lake and the eastern entrance to the park.
With the sun setting behind the peaks that marked the continental divide, It continued to be one beautiful Vista after another. And that we didn’t stop as many times as we had on the drive to the summit, still, we stopped a great many times, and there were a great many absolutely beautiful vistas.
I didn’t realize it was such a small park. I didn’t realize it could easily be done in a day if you were simply going to drive the road and not hike off into a valley or a bowl or somewhere.
I have been preparing for What I thought was going to be a two or three day check through the park, but nope!
And that was actually just fine. Our eyes had been privileged to feast upon a smorgasbord of beautiful views, from foothill to peak to foothill.
And just as we were coming to the end of the road, there was a turnout on the east side of St Mary’s Lake with a view all the way across the lake of the dusk light and the silhouetted mountain peaks towering above.
It was absolutely beautiful.
Absolutely beautiful.
Better than planned.
By that time it was past 7:30, and I need to to eat something so as not to have two full of a stomach before getting my little body off to bed and then having to deal with all the stomach issues that having an overly full stomach cause me with whatever issues I’m dealing with overall.
We tried to find I can’t ground, but the one that we found both looked full, and it also didn’t have a bathroom, which was the whole reason we need a campground. 🙃
0 for 1
Needing to eat, we went ahead and just pulled over at a beautiful little view where the last light of day was reflecting off the St Mary’s River. I took a few pictures, and Mom made some sandwiches, and we ate dinner.
After eating dinner, we pulled out of that little turnout, and I started driving toward campgrounds that I saw on Google maps.
Since I had noticed that we were super close to cardston, Alberta, Canada, and knowing that there was a temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints there, and since we had decided to head that way so that my mom could enjoy the temple on Saturday, I started driving north out of the park.
The first campground that I tried to stop at had great reviews, but when we got there, the gate was closed.
0 for 2.
I accidentally drove past the second campground, but was almost to the third by the time I realized that I had accidentally driven past it, so I just went to the third one, which also had great reviews.
But it was completely closed down. You could see that there once had been an RV park and What not, but it was completely shut down.
0 for 3.
So I went back to the other one that I had accidentally driven past, and it was listed as being open, but when we drove into the campground, the office light was off, and the little camping spots were super primitive, and there was no bathroom visible anywhere.
0 for 4.
Having failed on all three attempts, we decided that maybe we would try our luck across the border, so we just headed north, pulled out our passports, and rolled on into the land of kilometers, maple leaves, hockey, and eh’s. 🙃
Unfortunately, after crossing the border, we realized that the only campground was listed as being closed.
😅
So what did we do? We went over to the campground anyway. 🙃
And guess what?!
It was open!
And though we had just found our precious campground after for previous failed attempts, we risked losing our spot at the campground in order to drive over to the cardston temple to take pictures of the beautiful temple all lit up at night.
We got back to the campground, and after a bit of a challenge getting Mom into the bathroom (there was a code that we needed that we didn’t have), I managed to find the code, get her the bathroom, get our site paid for, and get us parked for the night.
What an absolutely beautiful day. 😊
Lift the world.
~ stephen
Lift the World 