Recapped Road Trip: Campin' fools

We don't need no stinkin' boys!

Rachel and I headed to Glacier National Park for three days, two nights of tent camping. We are both use to camping alone when various men in our lives have failed to be "available". So, this time we said the heck with the boys and set out on our own. Hold off on all the girl on girl, can we have pictures from the tent, etc...we heard them all before, during and after our trip!

We stopped to stock up the cooler...Kokanee and Huckleberry Soda and beer. Had hamburger, eggs, hot dogs, potatos, breakfast skillet fixin's...we were loaded. We arrived in camp and home sweet home was set up in 10 minutes. Not bad, uh? Definitely looks a little more livable than Os' tent.

AVALANCHE GORGE and LAKE: This is one of my favorite trails in the park. in fact, when I die I want my ashes buried in the rock somewhere around the Gorge. Don't scatter me, I'll end up in the Gulf of Mexico somewhere. Dig me a nice hole and leave me on the far side of the Gorge so I can listen to the water roar for eternity. I'll be happy.


This picture of Rachel is my favorite from the entire weekend. Once we got to the Lake we reconnected with ourselves a bit. She found the shoreline rock, I found a taller tabletop rock a bit further back. The Lake was like glass and only a few people around the entire shore so it was quiet and very reflective. I have tons of color photos of the park so I mixed things up a bit this time. This one turned out awesome! Like Rachel's HNT said last week...Change in Altitude, Change in Attitude. It works.


Meet the national symbol of Logan Pass...the mountain goat! These guys scamper and jump around the rocky uplands of the park with ease. And they are awful darn cute.

ST MARY'S FIRE: National forests have cycles. They go through storms, snows, wild flowers, no wild flowers, heat, cold and fire. Two year's ago the west side was lit up for weeks closing the park from all campers and hikers. This year, the east side is ablaze. It closed the highway off and on for a few days but we were able to drive over and get a good few. I took live video too but my voice was cracking up with tears as I tried to narrate. I know it's a natural process and the park will benefit from it eventually, but still the power of the fire and the speed at which it chars the forest is an eery thing to watch first hand.

SUNRIFT GORGE: Another favorite spot in the park. Ex never did get the hint that this was where I wanted him to propose to me at. Oh well! Have no clue where that water comes from. Will do that hike someday, I'm sure.
LIFE AT CAMP: While it was just the two of us at camp we had a few visitors...four legged and otherwise. The fat squirrels were everywhere, waiting for their next handout. We also had a little baby bunny and a couple robins too. A fellow Montana blogger stopped by for dinner and was impressed with my hobo dinner making skills (throw burger, potato, onion, corn in foil with as much butter as you can fit in there and slow cook over fire). There were s'mores to be had too but I'm a weird s'more eater...graham cracker and very very slowly browned and gooy marshmellows only...no chocolate and god forbid, don't char the mo-mo!

We had a bit of a photo shoot to take care of while in camp as well. Too bad that shirt wasn't very warm. Our first morning you could see your breath and the second morning wasn't much better but I got tackled back into my sleeping bag by our Saturday morning visitors so it was all good. My ex's sister, grandpa and uncle raided our camp on Saturday morning, getting me out of bed. God it was good to see them, the sister flew to Hawaii yesterday to start college at the U on a pole vault scholarship. She'll always be my "little sister".

APGAR VILLAGE: Tradition followed the two of us on the trip. For as long as I have been going to Glacier Park the last thing I do whether I stayed a week or a day is stop at Apgar Village and get a Huckleberry ice cream cone before leaving. We got our cones and stood by the Lake McDonald and enjoyed. It was a fabulous trip with great company. It provided me the time to reflect, let out a few tears, and recharge until next year. It works every time. And a hell of a lot cheaper than those professional therapists I have paid.