Big Sky Country

2020. Year of the Pandemic. Canceled trips, canceled events, and canceled everything. A shitastic year for literally billions of people, one for the history books, and a year we will be talking about for decades to come for all the obvious reasons. But I am not here to talk about all the heartbreaking things from that year. I want to talk about the shining moments we created that year.

Making the best out of some of the worst times we have been through. For me, that was an impromptu road trip to escape in the great outdoors. Thank goodness for America's National Parks! We have so many gorgeous parks and like many folks in 2020, we hit the road to immerse ourselves in the great outdoors. We set out on a 10-day journey to Montana's Glacier National Park. starting with a 2-day drive to Montana with making a few great stops along the way in Cheyenne, WY, Little Bighorn National Monument, Helena, MT & Missoula, MT.

We spent our first night on the road in Cheyenne, WY, a great stop with several hotel and restaurant choices as you travel Northwest. Our 2nd night on the road landed us in beautiful Helena, MT. I highly recommend visiting Helena, a jewel of a town with history of the gold rush in the 1800's and it is chalked full of great architecture, a hip downtown and mountain views. After breakfast and visiting the capitol in Helena, we took off down the road heading toward Glacier country, stopping for lunch in Missoula, MT. After lunch, we made our way to Flathead Lake State Park, which is a huge lake, to say the least! Flathead Lake is the largest natural body of freshwater by surface area in the western U.S. and is also one of the cleanest lakes in the world. I linked the State Park for this lake in my trip itinerary at the bottom

of this blog, as well as all our other points of interests on this trip. A swim in this lake on a warm afternoon was so refreshing and absolute bliss! Especially with the year we were having, this dip in the lake was heaven and the rocks! I have to tell you about the rocks in the lakes in this neck of the woods are so colorful! Many lakes have of an array of pastel colors with the mixture of pebbles. I found myself fascinated with each lake that we visited and rubbing my eyes in "am I dreaming?" with how beautiful and clear the water is, regardless of significant depth in feet. After having a few hours' swim and fun in the Flathead Lake, it was time to take off towards our cabin, which was only about 45 minutes away. We get rolling on the highway and all of sudden the front left tire goes flat and we pull over to the side of the road. Great. Sunday afternoon, and almost home free to our destination and we get a flat tire. At least we have a donut spare to get us down the road for a short distance.

We make it to our cabin by the evening and gosh, was this location heaven! A little cabin on the Middle Fork River, a great spot for relaxing and listening to the river run during our stay. This spot was about a 15-minute drive from the West Glacier Park entrance. Very convenient for our daily commute in and out of the park. The next morning, first stop: tire shop for a new tire. Then it is off for a full day of exploring in Glacier National Park. We make our way to the West Glacier entrance and start our journey on the 'Going to the Sun Road.' It is 2020, so I should let you know that there were a few caveats to the park during this year.

1. Due to covid, Glacier National Park was closed for a while, and late opening up for the summer season. Like many places in the U.S., many parks would delay and opened parts of the park in phases. And then, it would mostly consist of opening certain parts of the park, some lodges or indoor places closed and some areas would open up later as states lifted covid mandates.

2. The whole East side of Glacier National Park remained closed in 2020. The areas such as Saint Mary entrance, the Chief Mountain border crossing, and the Glacier-Waterton International Peace Park, the whole east side and the border into Canada all closed.

3. Five days is hardly any time to scratch the surface of Glacier. It is over 1 million acres after all! Which translates that we will just have to come back someday and explore more. Even with part of the park closed, there was still plenty of beauty to get lost in. If you have not been to Glacier National Park as of yet, PUT.IT.ON.YOUR.LIST! You won't regret it!

On day one we opted to drive on the 'Going on the Sun' road as far as we could go to Lake Saint Mary to hike around the lake and hike to Saint Mary Falls and Virginia Falls. Driving on the 'Going on the Sun' road is like placing your automobile on a roller-coaster track and carefully going with the flow. This road is not for the faint at heart, is very close quarters with amazing views of the heart of the park. When we arrived to Saint Mary Lake, we had our picnic lunch and hiked along the lake and over to the waterfalls, which proved to be very entertaining watching folks jump in the ice cold water. My younger daughter was dared and offered money to jump in, and in the pool of the base of the water she went. Not jumping off the cliff like other folks. Watching my daughter take a dip was definitely the entertainment for the day!

The next day, we started at Logan Pass with hiking and enjoyed the gorgeous views. After we fought and won a parking spot at this location, we were rewarded with a beautiful hike, mountain goat sightings and lunch with Hidden Lake views. You might notice a haze in some of our pictures and that is result of some mega forest fires in 2020, happening in Washington, Oregon, California and Montana.

2020 at the time was a record-breaking year in how many wildland fires were happening all at once and the millions of acres burned in the U.S. The smoke created a haze all over parts of the U.S. and reached as far as New York City this summer. After our hike at Logan Pass, we headed west on the 'Going to the Sun' road and stopped at the Avalanche Lake Trailhead and hiked to Avalanche Lake, not too long of a hike, 5 miles round trip to lake and back. We were rewarded with this gorgeous lake and it was my turn to jump in the brisk and refreshing water. After a couple of hikes, it felt really good, even though that glacier mountain water is COLD in August. After my brisk swim, it felt good to warm myself on a rock and drink a local beer of Montana.

We ended the day hiking around McDonald Falls and finished off the day with over 10 miles hiking total, not too shabby! I found myself sitting beside the river, gazing at the clear blue water, the sun setting and listening to my kids laughing and playing by the water. I cannot get over how beautiful this place is. We retreat to our cabin for the evening with the sounds of the river and floating into a deep sleep, dreaming of our next adventures. The next day we woke up early, because it is river rafting time! This was one of the top excursions my family was looking forward to the most on this trip: an all day rafting trip on the Middle Fork River! I did some research in the area for Rafting outfitters and Wild River Adventures (link in the trip itinerary) had the 5 stars and best reviews.

There is just something magical about setting out on the river. The flowing of the water, going along and seeing the woods and mountains from a new angle of river views. And the water, let me tell you I have never seen a river so clear and turquoise! You could look down as far as 20 ft or so at the bottom and it was perfectly clear. These clear views in the river allowed me to see some pretty remarkable size fish and it never got old staring at the river. My kids absolutely enjoyed rafting: the thrill, the water, a new way of being in nature for them. We started our river trip with safety tips, which directions to paddle and learning the commands from our guide. Then we set off. This time of year, this river mostly had class 2 or 3 waves, which was nice for a first time excursion with kids. We floated a couple of hours, then stopped for swimming and lunch. My husband, finally for the first time of this trip, braved the water and jumped in! He bobbed up screaming "cold," like he was shocked this water was still cold, LOL! "I told you" I said! The water was brisk and refreshing, if you asked me and the coldness of it doesn't bother me after the initial 10 seconds of jumping in. We were on the river for about 5 or 6 hours total. Another day of heaven.

Our guide was wonderful! She was so skilled, knowledgeable, and great with our girls. When in Montana in the summer, you must absolutely get yourself on the river. After this awesome day, the only way to end it was to relax in an hammock, cook on the grill, and watch a good sunset on the Middle Fork River at our cabin. The next day we set on the Northwest side of the park with a picturesque drive to Polebridge and a visit to the Polebridge Mercantile for huckleberry bear claws. And let me just pause for a minute and talk about huckleberry everything: huckleberry pie, huckleberry ice cream, huckleberry jam, huckleberry bear claws (OMG) and yes, huckleberry beer! Ya'll I have never experienced a "Huckleberry Heaven," until this week in Montana.

After taking in those huckleberry bear claws, we set out for the bumpy gravel road drive to Kintla Lake, which is a little farther up the road from Bowman Lake, but sooooo worth the drive. We had a real tough afternoon ahead of us of hiking, picnic, and swimming in the lake. When we arrived to Kintla Lake I was so overwhelmed of the beauty, the solitude and the emotion of being grateful to be in such an incredible spot in nature. After a few hours of hiking, taking a dip in the water and just refelecting on the side of the lake, I just started to cry. Thankful that after such a rough set of months, that we could have such an amazing day and have a day of joy, instead of heartache or pain. This was such a perfect day, even in the midst of our imperfections, which makes it even more perfect, because we are together as a family, enjoying ourselves in such a beautiful place. I think we encoutered a total of 3 people during our whole afternoon. One lone fisherman and a couple of hikers, so basically we had the lake to ourselves. I mean, how can you beat that?! After a full afternoon getting close to the evening, it was really hard to pull away from this spot. Which made me a little sad, would I ever experience a day like this ever again? Would I ever make it back to Kintla Lake one more time, just to experience the nostalgia of such a day? I dream of this day and this location from time to time, regardless of whether I am happy or sad. It brings me joy to have this memory of this place and I dream of returning, if only to say "thank you."

We set out on the bumpy ride back to Polebridge and we stumbled upon live music outside the Saloon and serving food outside instead of being open inside. Yep, we pull over, this has now become our impromptu dinner plans. Sitting outside drinking an apricot beer, getting bar-b-que, and listening to music topped off the most perfect day. This was the day we really just let ourselves get lost in Montana.

Our last full day in Montana had us hanging out at Apgar and Lake McDonald, which I highly recommend spending a full day here. There is so much to see and do. We started our day going to Glacier Outfitters to rent kayaks and we were able to get our name on the list for 2 double kayaks and rent for a couple of hours in the afternoon floating on Lake McDonald. At 10 miles long (16 km) and 464 feet deep (141.4 m) Lake McDonald is both largest and deepest body of water in

the park. And of course, the rainbow rocks are here in this lake, just like all of the lakes we have encountered around Glacier. Apgar has a visitor center, a cool dock to check out, and there spots all along the lake if you want to brave the brisk chilly water for a swim. There are a few restaurants and an ice cream parlor, and campgrounds if you wanted to stay the night at this cool spot. Kayaking on this huge lake was a great way to spend the afternoon and was so fun to add to our adventures. After kayaking, my husband and I enjoyed a late afternoon beer on of the beaches, while our kids took a last dip in the lake. Five full days in Glacier was a just tip of the iceberg if you ask me and I would recommend more like 7-10 days to fully take in all the things, espcially if it is your first trip here. What does that mean for us? That we are definitely coming back to this National Park someday and hit up all the nooks and crannies we didn't make it to. We packed up for our 2 day drive home starting the next day. We are all relaxed and our souls filled full to the brim with sunshine and nature.

Maybe I should insert some nature quote like Walt Whitman's "keep your face always towards the sunshine, and shadows will fall behind you." Maybe that was the one good thing in 2020: appreciating nature more than ever before. Even when I thought I appreciated it, my appreciation went to a whole other level on this trip. Reflection and appreciation: two wonderful things we should remind ourselves to do every now and then. Montana sure has provided me that then and even today as I reflect on this trip. What a gift this trip was on many levels. The gift I could give to my kids, the gift that I could give to myself. This trip was more than just traveling, my soul needed it. And we should feed our souls at every opportunity we are granted.

Montana Trip Itinerary