Glacier National Park, MT - Part I

Not having ever seen a picture of Glacier National Park, it was for some reason sitting on the top of my "places to see" list.  The six long weeks spent at home were driven by getting to Glacier before the season ended.  We made it with eight days left in the three month season of the park!  Yes!! Considering school had already began there was an incredible amount of tourist. I can't imagine what the summer months must look like!
The famous Going to the Sun Rd. was completed in 1932 and to this day it is the only road going through the park.  In the same year the road was completed, Glacier became the first internationally operated national park in the world sharing the boarder between the U.S. and Canada.  In 1850, 150 glaciers could be seen in the park.  Today only 25 remain. It is estimated that by 2030 there will be no glaciers left.  I am so grateful to have experienced the park while glaciers are still present but I am greatly saddened by the inevitable disappearance of them.  I just hope that if I have children I can take them to see the glaciers before they are gone forever.
Driving along the road really felt like driving into the sun.  The fifty-three mile road hangs on the side of a mountain and is permeated with pull outs that lead to epic water falls, river access, hiking and breath taking views.  It was hands down the most beautiful place I have ever experienced: a relic of the ice age, a wonderland of nature and wildlife today.  As I like to say, "a playground for nature lovers".  We spent six incredible and unforgetable days in the park.  We plan on returning next year for more out of this world adventures!

Welcome to Montana!

Big sky country here we are! Excitement ran high as we finally reached our goal of getting to Montana and specifically Glacier National Park before it closed for the season.  Our route took us though the Bitterroot Valley where we took a magnificent hike along giant rock formations.  Darby was a notably cute town we stopped at to pick up produce at the seven stand farmers market.  The sky in Montana is two fold in size compared to any I have seen.  These gargantuan skies brilliantly lit up at sunset. Just before reaching Glacier, we slept in the nearby national forest at Lion Lake.  It was dark when we parked and in the morning we had quite the spectacular view when we pulled our curtains back!

Room with a view!

To my left: To my right

To my left

To my right

Along hwy. 93 in Idaho, you will find red rock formations with snaking rivers that are spotted with rustic log cabins. At times it almost felt like we were in the southwest.  Shortly before we reached Salmon, ID, Jadey (our WV) began screaming at us in a loud clank and squeak.  We quickly diagnosed her illness as a broken sway bar (again). A man dressed in camo from head to tow helped us secure it well enough to get to the next town.  We made it to Salmon and spent a few days there dealing with our little situation.  The town had charm but wasn't exactly geared towards our 'type'.  One bar had a sign outside that stated, "Take your granola loving, tree hugging, Subaru driving, wolf loving, politically correct ass out of here".  Since we could very well check off every item on that list, we decided to pass on stepping in! We did meet a Swiss cowboy in Salmon though and I can say without a doubt, that was a first!

Get all your essentials in Salmon

Bayhorse Ghost Town, ID

Off hwy. 75 in Idaho, in a sparsely sprinkled area of wood cabins sits the ghost town of Bayhorse.  This town popped up in the 1880's as a profitable mining town.  After many unfortunate incidences including a large fire, rich silver veins growing sparse and several severe winters the town withered away almost as quickly as it was built.  Left behind is a relic of the very hard and simple lives of miners and their families in the 18 & 1900's. This remote and snowy land tucked into a small valley between rocky ridges offered me great contrast to my life.

Hot Springs of Idaho: Part I

Visiting hot springs has been on my list of 'things to do' since we first left on our journey.  It wasn't until Idaho that we finally made it to one, or three to be exact.  Idaho is an easy place to begin your hot springing addiction.  We have a 'find a hot spring' app on our phone but it's no surprise that we typically don't have service in hot spring territory.  However, in Idaho, there is no need for such an app! Between labelled hot springs, following steam rising from rivers and word of mouth, it would be hard to miss the plethora of amazing springs.  Because the local Idahoans like to keep their beautiful state and their beloved hot springs private, we won't mention the names of the springs we visited.  I can say we found them all along highways 21 and 75.  We hope you enjoy the pictures of nature's bathtubs!

Take a bath
inside the shack

Hot Springs of Idaho: Part II

The enormous area covered by national forests in Idaho is a wonderful place to travel.  The forest is speckled with tiny predominately hunting based towns.  I have to say I was a bit concerned driving through this region in a hippie bus from 84' with a peace emblem on the front.   In the end the camo loving folk of Idaho were some of the nicest people we have encountered on our travels.  Idaho has hundreds of amazing pullouts/campsites for dispersed camping (free overnight parking).  It was in one of these pull outs on the edge of a river/hot spring that a lumber jack gave us two fresh caught trout. Yummmmmm!

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Boise, ID

"Hey look,
it's old just like me"!

We posted up in Boise, ID for four days awaiting the replacement for our defective tire.  Every one of those days was spent in the magnificent Boise River; building rock stacks, swimming and yes, bathing (using biodegradable soaps of coarse)! The town had great coffee shops, a lot of folks from Northern California, no motorcycle helmets, bicycles and amazing pastries (thanks Chelsea)! On our last night in the area we stayed at a nearby rest stop with thunder and lightning storms surrounding us.  It was exhilarating and our first time capturing lightning!