The Mountains are Calling……

This year was the year my only baby brother turned 50! Us siblings always try to do something special to celebrate. James’ idea of celebrating was

1. wanting us all together (which is a remarkable feat being that each one of us live in 1 of the 4 corners of the USA!)

2. To do a rode trip together.

So number 2 it was with just 3 of us 4 siblings. Where did James want to go? To Glacier National Park. My brother has traveled all over the world, but somehow missed this beautiful place. Kathy and I had been there, but it had been awhile for me. So to the mountains we were bound. My sister, Kathy lives at the tippy top of North Idaho which is just a 4 hour drive to the park, so we decided to meet there and drive over. Thus our rode trip.

We left on Thursday morning…not early…seemed we didn’t do anything early. Ha! This was supposed to be a relaxing trip, one that we just kinda did without having any strict rules. We took our time going over and stopped in the little town of Bonners Ferry and walked the downtown and went to a few antique shops and ate our huckleberry ice cream. Kootenai Falls was on our way, so why not stop there? There is a swinging bridge that goes over the falls and who couldn’t resist that?

We didn’t get to our hotel, which was in Kalispell, the closest main town from Glacier, until around 5:00. We were hungry and decided to go out to eat and call it a day.

We finally made it to Glacier the next day. We made a general plan to just do the main attractions on the east side of the park. The park was pretty flooded with visitors. I guess it’s something you can do outdoors during Covid without mingling too much. However we saw plenty of people on the trails and people even hiking in masks! Go figure! However, these were places you surely don’t want to miss if you go to Glacier, no matter how many people there are. It’s beyond beautiful! The main road is called “Going to the Sun” road. And once you’ve done it, that’s how you feel, as close to heaven as you can get, in elevation and beauty. Here are some pics from or first full day of Glacier.

Hidden Lake trailhead. The trail was closed due to bear sightings.

My brother James loves the outdoors. This trip was for him, so us girls pretty much let him choose what he wanted to do. He decided to ask a Ranger where his favorite place to go was, where there was no people. The far northern west side of the park was definitely more isolated. He showed us a few trails that were short but rarely visited, so that is what we did on day 2. The first trail was only 1 mile but through thick woods with just us and the bears. There were telltale signs of bear everywhere and I was quite nervous. At the end of the trail it opened upon a beautiful meadow with a lake in it. It was so beautiful! I don’t like being surrounded by woods. I liked the open air! We saw 2 wild swans drifting slowly on the lake with the mountains behind. Words cannot express the feelings of utter loveliness yet loneliness. Also in the meadow was this tree that had survived all the forest fires of history and was said to be 800 years old. It stood alone and majestic. It was well worth the hike. We just tried to scare away all bears by being as rambunctious as we could. Lol!

On our way to the wilderness trails was an old trading post that is still open and selling goods today. This is a main attraction on the west side of Glacier, so there was lots of people there. We had to stop to see what it was about.

Further north we drove. Bowman Lake was our next destination. It was getting late afternoon, so we didn’t have much time for a long hike. This Lake was up a dirt mountain road about 9-12 miles from the main road. I’m telling you, it was just so pristine that we couldn’t stop taking pictures of it! There were people on the shore, but not many. We decided to do the hike around the lake on each side. Different views, ya know. We went up about a mile on one side and until we saw too many signs of bear. Then went back and hiked the other side about a 1/2 mile until the mosquitos were having us for dinner.

Nature shows us how great God is and how He loves beauty. He is the extreme artist that thrives on color and change. Yes change people. Seasons change and makes a whole new picture. I can’t hardly imagine what these same pictures would look like in the winter or fall…..wow….what a thought! God loves change. As hard as it is for us sometimes, it’s the Lord painting a whole new picture in our storybook of life.

It was a remarkable trip! I am always astounded of how great God is when I see His magnificent handiwork! I feel so humbled to know that the God that made all this beauty, can live in my tiny little heart.