Glacier National Park

 We headed out pretty early on the road to Glacier National Park. The drive was beautiful! We drove past the Rockies, which were huge and amazing! We also drove by Flathead Lake. Little did we know that this area is know for cherry orchards, miles and miles of orchards. It was a really nice drive though.

 Most of our pictures were taken from the car. We were trying to get to the park so we decided to take most of our pictures from the car. This was really the only good one. Josh had a tendency to take pictures of other cars or power poles or just the window with something blurry behind it. HAHA, oh well...

Welcome to Glacier National Park!!!

 Finally, we arrived at the park. It was a beautiful day and hardly anyone in the park. We headed right to the campsite to make sure we could get one. As we drove into Apgar campground, which happened to be the only campground open on the west side of the park, we found a lot of camp sites. The park ranger said everyone was leaving because the park was getting ready to close most of park down. We thought they couldn't close down the park, but we were wrong...

 This is Lake McDonald, just a short walk from the campgrounds, beautiful!! We walked down after we set up camp and skipped rocks. It was amazing! We were the only ones around.

Lake McDonald

 This is Going To The Sun Road. An amazing drive. Before we left for our trip my grandpa told us we had to drive this road, so we did. But unfortunately the road was closed about 16 miles up. We did stop at all the turn outs that we could though, and it was worth it.

 One of the places along the road was the McDonald falls. Breathtaking... We walked a ways down one of the trails and then up the side of the river. The rocks looks so weird! Some looked like they had been cut into squares and stacked, like slate. Others were so rounded, mostly through the falls area. The water had worn all the rough edges down.

Ivy down by the falls

 The Going To The Sun Road ended at Avalanche campground. There were two trails in that area, one was a cedar boardwalk and another was a longer hike up to Avalanche Lake. We stopped along the way to hop off the cedar boardwalk, it didn't feel much like hiking when you follow a boardwalk.

 The hike to Avalanche Lake was beautiful! I somewhat tough hike but fun. We started at a gorge area and then headed up a trail along the creek. Along the way we saw so many huge ledges and ridges, basically huge rock walls.

Avalanche Lake

 The hike was totally worth it! We walked over the last little hill and this was what we saw. A beautifully blue lake surrounded by mountains with waterfalls coming down. The water was freezing and the wind was crazy but it was like a little hidden paradise.

 We ended up hiking all around the lake and a little ways up a creek. On our walk back around the lake, we noticed everyone was leaving, Josh said we should get back on the trail in the woods because his feet hurt from the rocks. When we got back to the main area the last couple left told us to not hike around the lake because there was a black bear there!! Apparently we had walked right past the black bear and didn't even notice!!

Bowman Lake

 The next day it was so overcast that we decided to drive up to Bowman Lake. The drive was crazy! Especially in my little Corolla. We drove past all this forest that had been burnt down in the last few years. The little trees growing up were so cute! Then we turned onto this dirt road and it probably took us an hour to go 20 miles.

 We were going to hike around the lake but then it started pouring down... So instead we just hung out and watched the wildlife. We saw several birds species that I had never seen before and also caught a glimpse of an Eagle flying over head.

 I thought this sign was funny... especially with Josh in his Poncho. It says to be prepared, sudden storms may occur.

 After getting soaked at Bowman Lake we decided to splurge on a good six pack of beer and sit by a fire. It was actually great beer, a Huckleberry Wheat. We actually met up with some fellow Oregonians who were staying across from us while we sat out. The Erm's from Coos Bay. We chatted with them until well after dark and they talked us into heading down the Lake McDonald to watch the stars. It was amazing! So many stars!

Glacier Park was fantastic and awe inspiring! We would love to come back again when more of the park was open and it isn't raining the whole time :)
This picture is of Logan, out camp bird. He hung out with us pretty much the whole trip, each day trying to get a little closer to our cooler.