THE FIRST DAY.
The first blog on Montana. I decided to split this up into a 9 part blog, because with the magnitude of this trip each day deserves it's own highlights. I still will never be able to convey how much each individual day, each individual passing moment, meant to me and changed me on this trip. I'll start by saying I've always thought that the most beautiful scenery in the world were those containing a body of turquoise water surrounded by snowy mountains and alpine trees. Growing up, places like those didn't seem real to me, they were too beautiful. Long story short, Glacier National Park was a bucket list item of mine so when my husband and I started planning a National Parks trip last year I pushed for Glacier. When we were telling people we were going to Montana for a trip most reacted with some sentiment of, "well.. that's random?". Not random at all.
We spent 9 days camping in a tent, living out of a car, driving on the edges of cliffs, waking up early for sunrises, hiking to lakes and glaciers, viewing wildlife, meeting some pretty cool people, bonding with one another, seeing mountains through the smoke of the wildfire, getting blisters, eating huckleberry pie, and having an unspeakable amount of little and big life experiences.
DAY ONE.
Day one technically starts with a flight from Pittsburgh to Toronto, Canada; from Toronto to Calgary; to a hotel in the late late night/early morning. After some sleep we Ubered to downtown Calgary to pick up our rental car. We then stopped at Rosso Coffee Roasters for some awesome nitro iced coffee and delicious breakfast sandwiches, even if I did forget that "bacon" in Canada is different than in the United States. We began our four hour journey across the border and into Montana to the park. The views on the drive alone were like nothing I've ever seen before. When we crossed the border you could immediately see the mountains in the distance. When we crossed through the park entrance and began our way on Going to the Sun Road I immediately burst into tears. All of the years of wanting to see views like this and not understanding that it could be real and here it all was in front of me. Also, 2 minutes into the park and my tears a mama bear and her cubs ran across the road in front of us and a MOTORCYCLIST. Welcome to Glacier National Park.
We stopped at one of the pull offs soon after entering the park that overlooked St. Mary Lake and Wild Goose Island.
We continued on our way to Fish Creek Campground on the west side of the park where we would spend the beginning of the week. When we got to the campground we set up camp and realized that we were just a few yards away from Lake McDonald which made walking to the lake at night and for sunrises pretty easy.
Speaking of walking to the lake at night, the first night was the only night clear enough from smoke that we could get any shots of the night sky. At times we could even see the Sprague Fire burning in the distance which got worse as the week went by. I have never seen so many stars in the sky, and these pictures ending our first day in Montana could never do it proper justice.
