Montana Trip

Troy and I were able to take Josh back to my sister in Montana after his visit in Missouri for the summer.  Our trip started with a drive at midnight to the Kansas City airport Thursday night.  Josh talked most of the drive and only dozed off for a short time.  Our plane was scheduled to take off at 6:30am.  Our shuttle ride from the car to the airport was a bit quiet...no one was completely awake.

Troy had just gotten off work at 6:00pm on Thursday, slept til about 10:00pm and drove all the way to KC...he didn't last long once we got checked in.

Frontier Airlines was awesome for having a kid to fly with...unlimited cartoons for $3.99..well worth it!

We landed in Bozeman, Mt and made a quick drive through McDonalds.  Josh stayed awake to order his, but passed out before he ate.  We stopped at the Grizzly Encounter, but were a bit disappointed for 19.00 we sure didn't see much there.  We met my sister in Helena, MT and did a bit of sight seeing.

We headed on to Great Falls, MT and spent the night at the motel with the Sip & Dip lounge.  The lounge is known for having mermaids in a pool behind the bar.  We didn't spend much time  in the bar...just a quick few minutes to try and take pictures.  The Friday night crowd was filling the place and we just don't fit in with 20 somethings...it was very uncomfortable for me. 

We left my sister and Josh Saturday morning and headed to East Glacier, MT.  It didn't take long for us to realize that we were about to see one of the most beautiful places on earth.

The pictures don't even look real!  I had made reservations for a cabin there and we had plans to hike in Glacier Saturday and Sunday.  Our Cabin was perfect!

Once we got checked in and unloaded we were excited to get headed to our first hike.  We ate breakfast at the Two Medicine Grill...it was wonderful!  We chose the St. Mary's/Virginia Falls trail in Glacier to do Saturday afternoon.  It was about 3 1/2 miles or so and was rated fairly easy.  We knew we could finish it within a reasonable amount of time and then would drive the Going-to-the-Sun road to finish off the day.

As we pulled in the park entrance, the wild life didn't disappoint...

While I was spending my time taking photos out my window, Troy yelled "it's a bear!" Of course I missed getting a picture, but I did see a cute little bear butt disappearing over the edge of the road.  We drove to the trail head and realized by the traffic that it was quite popular. 

Just a short distance in on the trail and the signs of past bear activity are obvious.

Troy had a habit of wandering off trail to get a closer look.  At one point, We climbed down and crawled under a log to get a better view.  Troy balanced across a log to get across the water.  I knew I wasn't that talented so I took my shoes off and waded across the freezing water.  Well worth the experience!

We finished off the day driving Going-to-the-Sun Road across Glacier National Park.

We pulled off the road and walked a short trail to this overlook.  We passed a couple of very wet people and when we got to the end, two people were still swimming in the very cold water.  Evidently they had been diving off the ledge on the right.  The water was crystal clear and obviously a lot deeper than it looks.

Once we reached West Glacier, we ate at the West Glacier Restaurant and took the highway around south Glacier back to our cabin.

What a unbelieveable trip so far...more about it tomorrow!