A Little Piece of Heaven

As we go about our travels, we get asked a lot of the same questions.  One of the most popular is, "Where are you looking forward to going the most?"  My response is always Glacier National Park.  If any of you are avid hikers or campers you probably know of its infamy.  All I knew was that every RV travel blog and podcast says you have to go there.  Mike and I have designed this trip to be about visiting people, and so Glacier is one of the only detours we've gone out of our way for.  Glacier NP is a million acres is divided into an East and West side. Due to Covid, the entire East side is closed this summer. Also, the main bulk of the hiking and camping is only open until early October-ish. Thus, the West side proved to be a popular spot last week.

We rested up in Missoula, MT the weekend before our week into Glacier.  It was a little smokey and so I knew it was smokey at the top in Glacier too.  But the Lord provided a late summer rain/snow that some of you may have experienced.   It made for the most beautiful 4 days up at the park, and as soon as we got back to Missoula the smoke returned.  God really provided.

Our first full day in the park we headed out the door around 8:30am only to get turned around at the entrance because the park was already too congested. I won't lie I was upset.  I had been looking forward to these 4 days and then was turned around on the first day.  We parked at the little village and walked the 2.5 miles to the first Ranger station, the Apgar visitor's center.  We got the kids their stamps and stickers in their ranger passports.  Our good friend Steve,  joined us for the week and so all 5 of us headed back into the park around 3:30pm.  Our neighbors in Missoula told us about "Virginia Falls," they said we had to do it.  So we headed out on main road in Glacier NP called "Going to the Sun Road."  It is a two lane road following Lake McDonald and continuing into the heart of the West Side of Glacier.  The major pass On the Road to the Sun is Logan's pass (we'll come back to that pass in a bit). From the entrance of the park to Logan's Pass it is about an hour drive.  Going to the Sun hugs the side of a mountain as you are climbing. At one point there is just as much mountain above you as below you.  You can see the river and valley snaking below you.  It is majestic, and epic and frightening.   We made it to the trail head for Virginia Falls and even found a family to offer us their coveted parking spot. We made our way on the trail, through a forest that clearly was burned within the last few years, but made an excellent view of St. Mary.   It took us over small streams, St. Mary's Falls and even though a more dense forest (we all had bear spray, that's a thing in Montana).  Mike was a head of me on the trail and I could tell when he reached Virginia Falls because he was shouting.  Little makeshift wooden bridges crisscrossed to lead to the most magnificent waterfall I've ever seen.  It was close to 100 ft high and flowed into a clear glass pool at the base.  Our kids did amazing and never complained once.  We watched the sunset going back down the Road to the Sun.  We didn't make it back to the trailer until 9:30 and ate dinner at 10pm.  It was worth all of it.  We talk a lot about our plans not going how we plan them to go.  Mine didn't go as planned that morning, but I don't know if we would have gotten to Virginia Falls that afternoon if they'd gone my way.  God's plans don't often make sense in the moment but he knows the end of our day when all we can see is the beginning.

Ok I told you we were going to come back to Logan's Pass.  So, the parking situation in Glacier, is a situation.  Since arriving we were told, warned etc that the parking at Logan's pass filled up early.  By early I mean before 7.  Our neighbors arrived one morning at 6:45am and didn't get a spot.  Uh huh.  So for our last epic day we went crazy beautiful.   We were staying at a campground 1/2 hour away and we woke our kids at 4am and bribed them (banana chocolate chip muffins) into the car.  We drove the Road to the Sun again, this time in the dark.  We got a spot. We waited for light and started out on the Hidden Lake trail at Logan's pass.  We watched the sunrise hitting the mountains so it made them layered shades of pinks, oranges and yellows.  It was breathtaking.  I will never forget that morning and when I daydream of our travels that's were my mind is going to wander.

Glacier was more than I could have ever imagined.  It is a little glimpse of heaven on earth.  After this week I feel like I've been given a gift that can never be taken from me.  I am so grateful to have made it to Glacier and to experience God's untouched beauty.

We are on the road tomorrow towards the Black Hills of South Dakota...

Much aloha,

Mike and Nikki

P.S.  If you don't have plans next summer please get yourself to Glacier National Park...you can thank me later