Solo Road Tripping pt. iv
December 22, 2019I just realized I never finished posting my blog about my solo summer road trip. Soooo guess here it is :)
Montana is where I spent the rest of my time for this road trip.
The first night in Montana, I ended up car camping in Missoula. I heard good things about this place so I figured why not. I got up for sunrise and walked up the little Water Hill for the view in the first two photos below. Missoula is truly a beautiful place, but I feel like it has so much more potential if you actually know the spots to go to. From Missoula, I made my way North to Kalispell where I met up with my friend, Willow (@willowfantino) to go to Glacier National Park. Glacier is only about a 30-45 minute drive North East from Kalispell. We managed to make it to Lake McDonald just in time for some great light and sunset. The vibe at this lake could not have been any more summer. Families with their children were out playing in the water, outdoor enthusiasts were on the lake paddle boarding, and we tourists were there to take in the views. I really enjoyed the kindness and consideration of the people there whenever anyone wanted to take photos. People there seemed to understand there is a spectacular view and it’s there for everyone to share and enjoy.
While in the area, Marshall (@droptheframe) kindly reached out to me and offered a place to stay, shower and then shoot sunrise. With the hot summer heat, it was an obvious choice to take him up on his offer. At Marshall’s, we stayed up playing Yahtzee, got two hours of sleep, and then woke up to hit sunrise at this beautiful fire lookout with panoramic overviews of the reservoir. Although there wasn’t a lot of colour for sunrise, being up there to watch the sun peak over the mountain tops was a truly incredible experience.
The next couple days I spent exploring the park, hiking some easy trails, driving to East Glacier and visiting Many Glacier for sunrise. There is no part of the park I didn’t enjoy. The entire Going to the Sun Road is absolutely jaw dropping the entire way with stunning views no matter where you look.
On another night, I met up with Willow once again, along with her good friend, Jordan (@jordankimmons) to go for a sunset hike. We drove out to the trail head and made our way along. Part way up, we ran into Ryan (@ryanresetka), Lex (@wanderrlex), and Jake (@jguzman) getting followed by a goat. If you’ve never been to Glacier National Park, you can expect to see a lot of wildlife there! We decided to hike up to a saddle in order to view Hidden Lake from a different point. Up on the ridge, we experienced 75+ mph winds! I’m not sure if I’ve ever experienced such high wind speeds like that in my life, let alone at the top of a mountain. Nonetheless, the views were phenomenal. We spent only a short amount of time there before heading down and unfortunately, Jordan lost his hat :( big sad. While making our way down, Willow and Lex literally ran into a mama bear and her cub! We turned back after hearing their screaming, and the two of them were lucky enough to scare the bear away. Definitely a closer of a call than any of us would have liked to have been comfortable with. Once we made it down to the parking lot, the parks ranger approached us asking if we had seen a bear. We told him our encounter and he notified us of two other grizzlies near by, but not to worry as we were safe in the parking lot.
Well that kind of wraps up the rest of it. I’m sure there’s more I could talk about for this trip but the photos probably highlight the best of it. Not only that but my writing skills lack and my attention span to write more is also lacking. So ya know, I’m just gonna end it there :)