West Glacier, MT –> Glacier National Park –> Lake Moses, WA

Today marks the first day we are returning to a park. After the night before’s terrifying Going-to-the Sun Road in the dark, we decided to stay in the relatively flat part of the road. So, we got up and packed, wrote directions for the next leg of our journey, and made our way towards the Apgar Visitor Center in the south-west corner of the park. The lake looked very different than it did in the dark of the night before, and after some quick showers in the morning the roadways had a glisten to them. The skies started to clear making the views even more dramatic. We stopped by the Visitor Center, somehow found a parking spot in the overly crowded area, and spoke to a park ranger to decide on which trail to walk that morning. The park ranger, especially for how crowded it was, was extremely calm and collected, giving us more information than he needed to on the trails, and giving us his recommendations and potential parking areas. While in the Visitor Center, we learned that there are five distinct regions that converge in Glacier National Park: Alpine, Boreal Forest, Grassland Prairie, Rocky Mountain, and Pacific Northwest. Because of this, it has earned the nickname “The Crown of the Continent.” What a name it lives up to!

We took the park ranger’s advice and did the St. John Lake Loop around the top of Lake McDonald. While we were getting our backpacks packed and applying bug-spray, a couple on a motorcycle pulled up and started a conversation with us after seeing our WV plates. It really does seem like people are significantly nicer out west, it seems so strange to me! We headed out on the trail, through the shaded 200 year-old forest, greenery surrounding us with a red tinted hue along the trail and ground. We continued to St. John’s Lake, as the park ranger described was more of a bog, but beautiful none the less. There were lily-pads sprawled out across the lake, the blue cloudy sky reflected in the water. We continued in the forest, surrounded by shades of green and large trees, the ground with a shade of brownish-red. We eventually heard what we thought was a rush of water, then we realized that it was probably the main road that we were only about 50 feet from crossing. It’s crazy how we were so immersed in nature that we didn’t even realize we were so close to the road.

We crossed the road and realized we actually were close to the water. St. John Falls was just down the short hill, and we lingered while taking in the sights along the wooden bridge while admiring the blue aquamarine water. The pine trees lined the rocky shores of the river, while the mountains loomed high in the distance with the clouds parting way to reveal the deep blue skies. It would have been easy to find a seat and spend the entire day trying to drink in the scenery there. As many other places, the pictures do not do it justice somehow. We continued up the trail, which went along the water which led to Lake McDonald and was lined with more pine trees. It led out to the road and right back to where our car was parked.

It was getting to be the time of day that we needed to get back on the road, but I really wanted to see Lake McDonald up close. The couple we had talked to before our short hike had mentioned the colored rocks in the lake, which I had also seen pictures of through my researching for the trip and through Pinterest photos. We put that as the last thing we would do in the park for the day, and on our road out of the park, Billy found a pull-off along the lake that had steps that walked down to a small beach area. We took some pics of the clear blue water with various colored rocks. The water was unbelievably clear and blue, and the rocks ranged from colors of gray, black, brown, reds, and tan. Billy eventually decided that since he was going to take his hiking boots off to drive anyway, he might as well dip his toes in the water. I followed suit, and the cool water felt great on tired feet. We even tried out the GoPro in the water and were able to get some awesome footage. We pulled ourselves away and got back in the car to head out of the park.

Cue on the road again. We drove out of Glacier’s West Entrance and through the tourist towns that lined the roads for miles past. Driving through some of the small towns in Northern Montana, we even saw a license plate from the Northern Territories of Canada! The license plate was shaped like a bear, we’re not sure we would even see another one, seeing that the population there is less than 50,000 people! We drove through the mountains and ranches of Montana, realizing that the thing in that area was drive-thru espresso shacks. We eventually stopped at one, and talked to the woman that worked at Java Junction (in Ronan, Montana) about how they started. The list of flavored expresso options were expansive, and we were spotted as tourists immediately due to the fact that we didn’t specify how many shots of espresso we wanted. More of that on a later post though. Billy was loaded up on some really good espresso, and we continued on our way through the rest of Western Montana, and then into the farmland and cliffs of Idaho, and eventually hit Washington. We finally made it to the other coast!

The Eastern side of Washington looked very different than I thought it would, with farmland, windmills, and rolling hills. We made it to our motel in Lake Moses, Washington- The Lakeshore Inn. The sun was setting and we saw the last bit of sunlight fade and illuminate the sky in pastels over the lake. We brought our baggage in, and then I decided I wanted to eat vegetables for dinner. Something we had slightly been lacking since being on the road for the last week compared to our normal diets. We drove out to a local grocery store Lep-re-khan to try to make something for dinner. We wound up with 2 bags of stir fry veggies, a package of maple sausage, and some apples and bananas. Returning to the room and trying to scrounge up what we could to make a somewhat edible meal, I had microwaved stir fry veggies, maple sausage, and chipotle pepper and black pepper. Billy added peanut butter (of course), and hot sauce. Maybe it was because we were craving veggies, or maybe because we were really hungry, but it actually tasted good! I even ate some of the celery in my bowl without making a face (I HATE the taste of celery). We have joked since that we should try this meal again sometime, but are slightly convinced it would be terrible. We ate up and went to bed. The Lakeshore Inn was not the cleanest, but did have a nice sunset. Like I have expressed before in relation to bathrooms, the cross-country road-trip can also lower your standards of accommodations when you are on a budget!

~GW