WaterTurtle

Friday, July 4, 2014

The drive from Glacier National Park to Yellowstone is a long one - around 7 hours or so. So we planned to stop over somewhere fun on the way to cut down on the long drive. Bozeman was right on the way, so we stayed there one night. The drive between Glacier and Bozeman is gorgeous and you begin to understand why its called Big Sky Country. So much land out there! And it was classic having the highway stretch out in front of you all the way to the horizon.

I mentioned in the Part 1 post that we could have stayed at any of these spots for a month and still not gotten to everything, Bozeman included. What a cool mountain town. There is so much to do in and around that town all year round. Just go to OutsideBozeman.com to see what I mean. Two great ski areas within 30 min drive, the Bridger Range, Gallatin National Forest, and Yellowstone National Park all within their backyard. The hiking and biking options with Bozeman as your base are almost endless. I could hang out there for a while.

We walked around the downtown area and looked around in the shops, and I stopped by a pub and watched some of the USA vs Ghana World Cup soccer game with the locals. We had a great dinner at Montana Ale Works...very good and I highly recommend it. It was recommended to us by some locals.

We got up early the next morning to begin our long day in Yellowstone National Park. I had mentioned in the last post that most everyone we talked to recommended spending more time at Glacier and Grand Tetons National Park, so we planned to pack in as much of Yellowstone in one day as we could. We didn't do it justice of course, but we did cover the major spots and must sees. This site and this one gave us some good tips for one day in the park. I have to admit - for me, you see one geyser, you've seen them all. You see one hot springs, you've seen them all. If you're a geologist, this place is for you. And it sits on top of a super volcano (and gets several small earthquake tremors a day apparently, although we didn't feel any).

Don't get me wrong - Yellowstone is beautiful, there is tons of wildlife there, and it should be visited, but it was more crowded even though we were there before the high season of July and August. And as expected, it was a lot of stopping the car, getting out, and walking anywhere from 10 yards to a couple hundred yards to see the attractions, then getting back in the car and moving on. Something about the grand peaks in Glacier and Grand Tetons called to me. But I would like to return to Yellowstone again and do some backcountry hiking off the beaten path and also go to the remote corners of the park that we didn't visit this time around.

We stayed in the small town of West Yellowstone that night just outside the park, then drove south back through the park (in the falling snow) the next morning and went on to the Grand Tetons National Park and Jackson WY, where we would stay for the next three nights.

Here is a short video and pictures afterward with commentary. Don't forget - you can click on any picture to view it in large format and scroll through them. Enjoy!

Yellowstone 2014 from WaterTurtle Media on Vimeo.

Big Sky Country - check out the highway all the way to the horizon.

Leaving Glacier National Park

My only picture in Bozeman - a snow bike in a bike shop, check out those fat tires! This is a great complement to skiing if you live in a place with lots of snow.

This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip - Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone

the locals

A big herd of bison

This bull went out and stopped traffic, then let the rest of the herd pass through (below)

Elk and baby

Elk - yes that is snow. We got a fresh layer of new snow (4-5 inches) on our way out the next morning

Lower Falls at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Upper Falls at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

The Old Faithful Inn - a pretty cool place, a classic

Old Faithful

The Continental Divide in Yellowstone

On our way out the next morning from Yellowstone to the Grand Tetons National Park - it snowed 4-5 inches.

To be continued in Part 3 - Grand Tetons National Park and Jackson, Wyoming.

Friday, June 27, 2014

Montana & Wyoming - Part 1 Glacier National Park

This is the first in a three part series of our recent family trip to Montana and Wyoming. Click here for Part 2 (Bozeman MT/Yellowstone) and click here for Part 3 (Grand Tetons National Park/Jackson WY). It was an outstanding family vacation and I would highly recommend it to anyone who has been thinking about seeing this part of the country.

Intro

To quickly summarize the itinerary, we flew into Kalispell, Montana then drove to Glacier National Park and spent 3 nights there. From there, we drove to Bozeman, MT and spent one night there. Then drove to Yellowstone National Park and spent one night in West Yellowstone, MT. Then we toured some more of Yellowstone and drove on to the Grand Tetons National Park and spent the last 3 nights in Jackson, WY, then flying home from there. I'll get into more detail in each part below and subsequent posts. Contact me here in the comments sections or privately if you're interested in more information.

Our family has always had Montana and Wyoming on the vacation bucket list and we decided it was finally time to go check it out. The National Parks were definitely tops on the list to visit, along with stops in the mountain towns of Bozeman and Jackson. In doing our research, most of the folks we talked to said that if we had limited time (which we did - 9 days) to spend more time in Glacier and Grand Tetons National Parks and less time in Yellowstone. After our trip, I would agree with that. Although Yellowstone is very beautiful and you could spend a month there and still not see and do it all. But that is a true statement for all the places we visited. I would like to return to all these places we visited at some point again and spend more time on longer and higher elevation backcountry hiking, mountain biking, paddling, and skiing.

Mid June right after school let out was the only time we could make it happen this summer. Good news is that means less crowds since July and August is the high season for those locations. Bad news is its a roll of the dice with the weather. We had it all - cold and warm weather, sun, clouds, wind, rain, and snow. And the weather can change quickly there. But we were prepared (dress in layers).

And the wildlife - wow. Wildlife were everywhere. Bears, moose, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, bison, elk, pronghorns, deer, and marmots....at all the places we visited and some very close encounters. We hunted them down with our cameras.

Part 1 - Glacier National Park

One of the biggest features of Glacier National Park is Going To The Sun Road, a 50 mile road that cuts east/west through the middle of the park and has unbelievable views. Its normally open between mid June and the end of September. This year they had a lot of snow and most of Going To The Sun Road was still closed when we arrived. We were only able to drive 15 miles of it out and back on the west side, after flying into Kalispell. That meant we had to do an end around and drive an extra 2 hours to get to the Many Glacier Hotel on the east side of the park, our lodging for the first 3 nights. On top of that, the two big trails (Grinnell Glacier and Iceberg Lake trails) I had planned for our hiking in Many Glacier were still closed due to high snow and avalanche danger, and a bridge was out on one of the trails.

So lesson learned - try to go to Glacier National Park in July or August if you want the full experience. Despite that, there are many other hiking options and we were dressed for the first few cool days of cloudiness and rain. With only 2 1/2 days and 3 nights in Glacier National Park, there was so much we didn't do, but we chose to spend most of that time in the Many Glacier area and it was gorgeous. Following is a short video of the scenery in Glacier National Park, and pictures with commentary following that. You can click on any picture to view it in large format and scroll through the set.

Click here to see much grander pictures of Glacier National Park as seen from a different perspective - long trekking and peak bagging by my friend Ken Teeter.

Enjoy!

Glacier National Park 2014 from WaterTurtle Media on Vimeo.

The dining room at the Many Glacier Hotel

Morning rainbow, looking out at Mount Wilbur across Swiftcurrent Lake from the deck of the Many Glacier Hotel

One of the many moose we saw

This moose and her baby were seen daily across the lake from the hotel

The mountain goats - they blew me away with their ability to stand, walk, play, and live in the extremely high cliffs of the mountains

See them?

Those are giant waterfalls from the snow/glacier spring melt

a close - up

Getting our hiking on

Mountain goat and her baby very high up

That is straight down from where that mountain goat is standing on the cliff

Bighorn Sheep

Many Glacier Hotel, Mount Henkel behind it

Apikuni Falls, a nice hike to it

We saw three bears in the same day. First, this "cinnamon" black bear. Yep, black bears can have brown hair too. We of course first thought it was a grizzly but other folks corrected us. Grizzlies have humped shoulders, a more shoveled/scooped nose, and a different ear shape.

watch out for the mountain goats

The same cinnamon black bear up on the hill near the Many Glacier Hotel

When I was taking pictures of the cinnamon black bear, two more bears suddenly came walking out of the woods a lot closer to us. What a surprise that was.

These are also brown hair black bears, although I'm still wondering about the one of the left (seen in the picture above). Grizzly, brown bear, or black bear? The one on the right is definitely a black bear (see 2 pics below), so would a grizzly or brown bear be hanging out with a black bear?

On the west side of the park, on our shortened Going To The Sun Road drive

Lake McDonald

Many Glacier Hotel

The Many Glacier Hotel rooms are old and very basic with classic claw foot tubs in the bathroom (no phone, no TV, no WiFi, etc)....just the way we like it.

The river flowing behind the Many Glacier Hotel from Swiftcurrent Lake into Lake Sheburne

The historic Many Glacier Hotel

One of our hikes - Swiftcurrent Pass Trail out to Bullhead Lake - 9 miles roundtrip (the next 14 pics)

Peek-A-Boo!

Our lunch spot at Bullhead Lake

The first moose we saw - a young one just starting to grow his antlers just munching away right off the trail, but we almost walked right by and missed him

The deer were not afraid

Everyone was carrying bear spray

Another great view of the Many Glacier Hotel

The historic Many Glacier Hotel opened in 1915. Back then, it was the epitome of luxury. By today's standards, its certainly not. But what it lacks in amenities it makes up for with its historical ambience, amazing scenery, and quick access to trails. One of the best features of the hotel is the lobby, especially with the giant fireplace. Everyone gathered here with drinks or coffee and their books or laptops/iPads since this was the only spot to get WiFi, which was extremely slow due to their poor satellite internet connection.