Glacier National Park

We got on the road early this morning. We had to. It was a long drive just to get to the park entrance, almost 3 hours. I slept part of the time and my sweetie did all the driving, one thing about vacation that I love. I'm not good for hours behind the wheel.

We stopped in Shelby for a potty break, but that was the only stop we made until we pulled in at the Ranger's Station. The kids were all given Jr. Ranger books and we spent a few minutes in the St. Mary's Visitors' Center before venturing onto the Road to the Sun.

So many people had commented on this beautiful drive that we knew we had to try it. It was a little terrifying at times, since there were sheer up cliffs on one side and sheer down cliffs on the other. Sometimes it was barely wide enough for the van to squeeze through and I was starting to wonder if we were crazy when we stopped at Logan Pass.

We couldn't find a parking spot so my sweetie finally pulled over to the curb and let us out while he circled the parking lot until he found one. Then he joined us on the glacier.

The kids loved playing in the snow! Except for Baby Doll who was alternately playing and laughing, while crying and wet. We did a short hike up to a snow field and took pics for you. The girls made a tiny snowman while the boys tried to become human sleds. (It didn't work very well...)

After we left Logan Pass, we drove further up the road to see the waterfalls. They were so beautiful! Some came down and ran right under the road. Others were across the canyon in all their spectacular glory. The mountains were even different from Utah mountains, much more up and down and singular.

We drove all the way to the loop and then my sweetie decided it was time to head back. We stopped again at the Ranger Station and the kids all received their Jr. Ranger badges and were sworn in.

We left the park and started the long journey back to Great Falls. We stopped for dinner in a little town called Conrad. The restaurant was pricey, but good. Baby Doll made a mess of her car seat, so we had to strip off the cover which meant laundry for me when we arrived at the hotel about 11:00. It only took a little over an hour to get things through, so that wasn't too bad although I didn't quite get them dry so now I have little clothes hung all over the rooms.

It's a 6-hour drive back to Idaho Falls tomorrow, so we are going to be mostly on the road, but maybe we can find a few fun things to do. If you live near a Chick-fil-A, don't forget tomorrow is Cow Day. We are hoping to catch the one in Ammon for dinner... I did bring our cow hats... Curly is so excited about it, how could we say no!?