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Home » Chasing Montana

Chasing Montana

November 15, 2015 by Kristin

Montana – We Arrived!

I can’t explain why, but I’ve always wanted to go to Montana. It’s like the mountains and glaciers just called my name. As we drove west and crossed the border into Montana, we hopped out of the truck and celebrated the milestone…we actually made it! (Disclaimer…we were in Montana for about 10 days at the end of September. Yes, I realize it’s now November. I could back date this blog post to cover up this fact, but I’m an honest girl, and I will admit I procrastinated going through our hundreds of pictures to compile this overview post of Montana…so just enjoy it anyway! And if you’re interested, you can check out Part 1 and Part 2 of our cross country routes as well.)

Montana Welcome Sign
Montana – We Arrived!

Turns out Montana is a huge state, with countless miles of flat land and cattle (so much cattle in fact, that all the freeway entrances and exits have cattle guards so that if any cattle happen to stray, they can’t walk across these grates onto the freeway). And while the landscape was definitely beautiful, I was almost holding my breath until we reached western Montana where the mountains rose up and matched my visions.

Montana Cattle Guard
A cattle guard in front of us before merging on the highway in Montana.

The National Bison Range

The National Bison Range wasn’t too far off our course as we headed to Glacier National Park and it was a scenic detour that was well worthwhile.

National Bison Range
National Bison Range in Montana

The mountain scenery was abundant, and I actually started humming… “where the deer and the antelope plaaaaaayyyyyy…” when we saw deer and antelope! The bison on the other hand, they were a bit shy, so we squinted at them in the distance.

Matt & Kristin at the National Bison Range
Matt & Kristin at the National Bison Range
Antelope at the National Bison Range
Antelope at the National Bison Range

Moral of the story here, despite bison being the primary draw of the National Bison Range, even without a close up encounter, we were in no way disappointed with our visit.

Spectacular Views at the National Bison Range
Spectacular Views at the National Bison Range

Glacier National Park

We chose Hungry Horse, Montana, just outside of West Glacier, as our base camp for settling in and exploring Glacier National Park and the surrounding area. If you’ve ever wanted to go to Glacier National Park, GO. If reading any of this, or seeing any of these pictures (which don’t nearly do it justice) makes you want to go to Glacier National Park, GO. Unfortunately, climate change is a reality, and it’s likely there won’t actually be any glaciers left in Glacier National Park in just a few short years.

West Glacier, Montana
West Glacier, Montana
Glacier National Park, Montana
Glacier National Park, Montana
Disappearing Glaciers due to Climate Change
Disappearing Glaciers due to Climate Change

One of our first hikes was two-fold. A popular, easy and accessible route on the Trail of the Cedars which connected to Avalanche Trail. We absolutely loved this hike alongside Avalanche Creek and it’s well worth the trek to glacial fed Avalanche Lake.

Trail of the Cedars, Glacier National Park
Trail of the Cedars, Glacier National Park
Avalanche Creek, Glacier National Park
Avalanche Creek, Glacier National Park

The color of the glacial water in Avalanche Lake is just too beautiful to be captured in words or pictures. We try though. The magical bluish-greenish color of the very deep and very cold lake was mesmerizing. Also, if you look closely, you can see the very tall, skinny waterfalls carving a path down the mountain from Sperry Glacier to Avalanche Lake.

Waterfalls from melting Sperry Glacier
Waterfalls from melting Sperry Glacier
Avalanche Lake
Avalanche Lake

One of the most popular and iconic things you can do at Glacier National Park is drive the Going-to-the-Sun Road. It’s some of the most incredible scenery you will ever see. We pulled over dozens of times to take pictures and just sit and just soak in the beauty.

Going-to-the-Sun Road, Glacier National Park
Going-to-the-Sun Road, Glacier National Park

I’ll admit, I was white knuckled driving several sections of it, there are some harrowing curves and edges. But if I was nervous driving it, I can’t even imagine the workers who carved and paved this road through and around the edges of mountains. Truly incredible.

Going-to-the-Sun Road, cliffside bridge and waterfall
Going-to-the-Sun road, cliff side bridge and waterfall
Going-to-the-Sun Road tunnel
Going-to-the-Sun tunnel
Roadside Selfie, Going-to-the-Sun Road
Roadside selfie, Going-to-the-Sun road
Some Deep Thinking alongside Going-to-the-Sun Road
Some deep thinking alongside Going-to-the-Sun road

After driving the Going-to-the-Sun Road, we stopped at the St. Mary’s visitor’s center on the east side of the park which had wonderful exhibits on the history of the area and the Native American tribes, including the Blackfoot Indians. We took the alternate route around the south border of the park which led us past the Blackfoot Indian Reservation. Matt has Blackfoot Indian in his heritage and enjoyed learning about his ancestors!

Matt and his heritage, Blackfeet Nation
Matt and his heritage, Blackfeet Nation, ice cream cone not included

Would I go back to visit Glacier National Park? Absolutely. I could spend months there. Also, the Grinnell Glacier hike is still on my bucket list, which is near Many Glacier on the EAST side of the park. Turns out, West Glacier was a great base camp, and I’m glad we stayed there, but there’s only one road through the park (Going-to-the-Sun Road, which is NOT trailer/camper accessible) and one road around the park. So, it takes several hours to get to get from one side of the park to the other. Since the Grinnell Glacier hike is a full-day hike, it would have been unrealistic to sandwich it between 5 hours of driving, so we’ll just have to go back. Take note, if Glacier National Park is on your bucket list, learn from my mistake and plan enough time that you can stay on both the East and West sides of the park to explore all the mountains, lakes and glaciers to your heart’s desire.

Kalispell & Whitefish

Kalispell was a very cute little town where we took care of essentials like our grocery shopping and beer tasting. Enter: Kalispell Brewing Company. Great beer, great service, fresh popcorn and even a fun trivia night (although I will admit I am a CHEATER and I look up answers online).

Kalispell Brewing Company
Kalispell Brewing Company

Just North of Kalispell was Whitefish, which was an even cuter town (btw…are you sick of me using words like ‘cute’, ‘incredible’ and ‘beautiful’ yet? Sorry, I need to expand my vocabulary…) But before we stopped in the town of Whitefish, we drove a bit further to the Whitefish Mountain Resort. Mostly known for being a ski destination, (P.S. if you do happen to be an avid skier **shameless plug** be sure to check out this popular ski tree in our shop) they have mountain biking and hiking in the off-season. Let me tell you, anyone who mountain bikes here is either a world-class expert biker, or has a death wish. More likely, I’m just chicken.

We were here for the hiking. However, we weren’t exactly prepared for the Danny-On Trail. We had almost no water, no snacks, and found out it was 3.8 miles to the top where the ski lodge, summit and highest views were perched. Oh, and over 2,000 foot elevation gain. Could we do this? Did we want to do this? Matt planted a seed in my brain that we absolutely could. That was all I needed, I believed it too. So, we gathered our courage, threw out our doubts, filled our water bottles and scraped a few granola bars together to commit to the climb.

A couple things about this hike:

  • It was past the summer season, and the Fall is considered the “shoulder” season. SO, the chair lift only operated on weekends. We were there on a weekday. If you climb up 3.8 miles, you must climb down 3.8 miles.
  • We were told the views at the top are INCREDIBLE.

Our previous hiking experience has proven that when you have a quads-a-fire, breath sucking, uphill ascent, that your reward will be a breathtaking summit and well-earned downhill descent. However, a couple surprising things happened on this particular hike. First of all, the views on the entire 3.8 miles to the top were astounding. The fall colors were at their peak, we saw mountains, towering pines, distant lakes, sheer drop offs, fresh bear (and bear cub) tracks and ultimately, scenery worthy of each muscle burning, up-hill step.

The "Danny On" Trail at Whitefish Mountain Resort
The “Danny On” Trail at Whitefish Mountain Resort
Peak colors all the way up
Peak colors all the way up
Beautiful looking up
Beautiful looking up
Beautiful looking down
Beautiful looking down
Even the pups enjoyed the vigorous hike
Even the pups enjoyed the vigorous hike
Fresh bear (and bear cub!) tracks on the trail
Fresh bear (and bear cub!) tracks on the trail

The surprising thing, was that the summit wasn’t the “pinnacle” of the scenery. The ski lodge at the top was under construction, so we didn’t have access to the lookout balcony. The views were beautiful, but not the most beautiful view we’d ever seen (don’t get me wrong, we reveled in making it there and took pictures at the top and also of the ski trail map to prove we made it!).

At the Summit!
At the Summit! The trail climbed 2,353 feet in elevation to a 7,000 foot panoramic summit.
Proof we're at the top...the summit ski slope map
Proof we’re at the top…the summit ski slope map

But it was a good learning lesson and reminder to enjoy and appreciate the journey as much as the destination. Getting there was even more spectacular than arriving there. And let me tell you, the descent was no piece of cake. It took half the time, but our shins understood the full wrath of a downhill mountain descent.

Shins and toes are feeling the descent!
Shins and toes are feeling the descent!
Dobie asked if we could hop in a gondola or chair lift. Sorry bud!
Dobie asked if we could hop in a gondola or chair lift to get back to the bottom. Sorry bud!

We washed away our muscle aches with some deliciously deserved craft beer at The Great Northern Brewing Company in downtown Whitefish. All in all, it was one of our favorite days in Montana.

The Great Northern Brewing Company
The Great Northern Brewing Company

 

Hope you enjoyed some of the highlights from our time in Montana!

Cheers!

Kristin

Filed Under: All Blog Posts, Blogs by Kristin, On the Road Tagged With: destination tree, inspiration, road trip, travel, wanderlust

« Here’s to the Wide Ones, the Heavy Ones, and the Slow Ones
Our Route Across the Country – Part 3 »

Comments

  1. Stubs says

    November 15, 2015 at 2:17 pm

    Thank you for sharing your awesome journey!

    • Kristin says

      November 15, 2015 at 8:48 pm

      You’re welcome! Thank you for the support and for following along!

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