I feel like we are an oddity at times. 5 kids. Who even does that?! And they play the old fashioned way. Not many do that, it seems. That they could have fun running together, and ride bikes without helmets? I love it. It is satisfying and makes me feel like all is well in the world when they play like kids should play…..
While at our campsite, the kids whittled these sticks to make crosses. They were very proud of them. And then we remembered the anal-retentive nature of crossing the border and told the kids they couldn’t bring them home. They were pretty disapointed, so made sure I took a picture of them instead.
I have taken a bazillion photo’s this summer of all our adventures. It’s pretty tricky to choose one for my photo a day project. I am going to bombard you with lots of photo’s under the ‘blog’ tab of my website 🙂
But in the meantime, we have set of on the Road to the Sun today. A very famous road in the U.S, that took 23 years to build up over Logan Pass in Glacier National Park, Montana. We did the tourist thing and stopped at all the pullouts. This one was a waterfall, complete with barriers to keep you off the rocks. But behind those barriers my husband finds cool stuff. There was a big ledge with an overhang that Kent took the 4 older ones under, and also into this kid sized hole in the rock. I tried to pretend I wasn’t with them, as Chelise and I waited on the viewing platform above, whenever fellow tourists wondered out loud how they got down there…..
We set out to go explore the Road to the Sun. This is a stunningly beautiful corner of the world, and extremely popular. We choose to come here this week because most American schools are back in session, and we were hoping for a quieter experience.
The road itself is a major engineering feat, that took 25 years to build. The ruggedness of the mountains is awe inspiring, even shrouded in smoke. We stopped at a bunch of the scenic pullouts. Waterfall #1.
Waterfall #2. Kent and the kids climbed over the barrier to explore a little more. River guide Dad, was explaining some hydrology to them!This big overhanging rock, beside the waterfall, hid them from view.It was kinda embarrasing hearing fellow tourists exclaim and wonder ‘how they got down there’. I just pretended I didn’t know them!
And as we climbed higher, we got more of a sense of the grandness, and how crazy and pig headed we people can be about getting a job done. In this case, making a road up here! Shame about the visibility!As we neared the top, the smoke thinned out a little and we could see the mountains more clearly.Wildlife sightings are always a highlight for us.
And then we got to Logan Pass. Oh boy. I like the outdoors. A lot. But sharing it with strangers? Not so much. The parking lot was full, and it was a mass of humanity. It was my turn to be pig headed and I didn’t want to give up the idea of going for a hike. So we joined the 4000 other people. I avoided taking pictures with toooo many people in them. Often, on these kinds of trails, people will walk a few hundred metres to a lookout or bench, and then go back. Here people seemed a lot more dedicated to go the distance.The platform at the summit was chocka with people. Are you getting the impression that crowds aren’t my favorite?! We walked a little ways away to this rock, and had it to ourselves for at least a few minutes. The kids were amuzed by any overgrown chipmunk. Obviously he was very used to being fed by these crowds.
We stopped at a few more pull outs on the way back to camp, including finding a place to swim.
Lovely scenery. But moral of the story, at least for me……find beautiful places in this world that the rest of the world doesn’t know about, or go in the off/shoulder season. And ya know, in general that is what we do!!!!
It’s a while since we have been on our own as a family, and it actually feels kinda nice for this just to be about ‘us’. We didn’t really do anything major. Riding bikes and going to the evening ranger presentations, and general play filling our time. Oh, and eating. Always eating.We wandered down to Lake MacDonald. No togs. We weren’t necessarily planning to swim. But with this guy in the mix, water always = swimming!And everyone else follows suit.Even me, trying to be brave with the cold water.I was clearly taking too long, and the kids decided it was time!Down I go. They thought it was the funniest thing, and probably, really, the only way I was going in!And then there was the stick whittling. They spent hours. I love that these kids are so pleased with the simple pleasures in life 🙂
After a couple of nights at Talley Lake, we moved onto Glacier National Park. And were socked in by smoke. It ‘felt’ strange. The light was very orange, so it gave it an eerie feel, and there was no visibility. We were surrounded by stunning mountains (or so the glossy mags showed!) but we could see none of them. We were orange people, that looked like we had totally overdone it on the fake tan!!
So these little orange people of ours, jumped right on board when the park ranger told them about the Jnr ranger program. They got the booklets, and I have to admit, that I did an internal eye-ball roll. We had done the program when me and the kids went with my Mum and Dad to Yellowstone a couple of years ago, and though it is a really great program, it felt like hard work for ME then, and I wasn’t real keen for a repeat of that.
But they were 100% self motivated…..
They even took the booklets down to the creek so they could work on them around their exploring!They got the work done at lightning speed, and so needed to go take the oath and get their badges to make it all ‘official’This is serious business! Repeat after me!Check. Done that 🙂
The light with all the smoke is crazy cool. So orange, and it’s leaving me a bit stumped with what I’m supposed to be setting my in-camera white balance. Everyone’s skin looks orange too!!
