July 11 // Glacier National Park, Montana [view photos]

It’s day six already, and it’s really hard to believe that we’ve only been gone for so few days and yet seen so much. With Wyoming behind our back and Montana as our playground today, we had Glacier National Park on tap for exploration.

We left our hotel in Whitefish around 8:30 and arrived at Glacier about a half an hour or so later and made the slow trek across the narrow and winding Going-to-the-Sun Road, passing Lake McDonald, Heaven’s Peak, slinking up towards the awe-inspiring Weeping Wall, the frigid Logan Pass (peaking at around 6000 feet), Jackson Glacier overlook, and eventually ending up at Saint Mary, where we headed northbound towards our final destination — Many Glacier campgrounds.

We originally were going to stay near Lake McDonald at Sprague Creek, but we opted out of the road hum and for the epic view of Mount Grinnell, towering over us at 7500 feet. And nestled in our little pull-up campsite is this clearing that gives us just enough view to frame Grinnell Point quite nicely. And for the most part, Many Glacier is a nice place to pull-up camp with the exception of the trailers dotting the area with their white, fiberglass walls and shiny exteriors that scream, “NOTICE ME!” In addition, people are allowed to run their generators between 5pm and 7pm, which is a bit annoying if you ask me. We go camping to get away from it all, not bring it all with us. So if it weren’t for our neighbor’s generator humming away and smelling up the vicinity with small engine exhaust, it’d be near perfect.

The temperature difference here, compared to what we experienced in the Grand Tetons, is night and day. It’s pretty frigid here and the wind has been on and off most of the day, blowing cold glacial winds our way. It was pretty nice on our hike around Swiftcurrent Lake, as we were never too hot and were able to enjoy the view all the way around the lake.

Natalie picked up a nice cookbook when we stopped at Logan Pass, one that offers really good backcountry camping recipes, complete with how to prep at home beforehand as well as the total weight of the meal that you’re carrying. What a great thing to have for planning some great home-made meals for out on the trails. When we go camping again in the future, that’ll be a great addition to the quick freeze-dried meals that we picked up at REI.

I have to say, they have really improved on those freeze-dried meal packs. They’re so much better than how I remember them before. Over our trip we’ve had a variety of freeze-dried meals including mountain chili, macaroni and cheese, lasagna, and even had a great mixed=berry cobbler with a chocolate crumb topping. Yum! We also had it balanced off with some fresh salad, fruit, cheese and crackers, and of course s’mores to top it off.

On the whole, our camping experience has been pretty good for pull-up camping. But I think we would also like to try back-country camping together as well. We would have done so for Glacier, but we need to get some better gear for Natalie before we take on nature in-the-raw. For starters, a new pack with a frame for better back support, a good sleeping bag that will zip with mine, some mats of our own (thanks Jeff & Angie for loaning us yours), and some better light-weight clothing that is made for camping. But on the whole, the pull-up experience hasn’t been bad, Yellowstone aside.

Both Jenny Lake (Grand Tetons) and Many Glacier (Glacier National Park) both have their pro’s and con’s. Jenny Lake was REALLY quiet when we went and very few families there — mostly couples. But you had to be pretty fortunate to get a good view of the Teton range. But where we lacked in view, we excelled in peace and quiet and a serene place to camp. Many Glacier offers us an epic view that is difficult to rival with other pull-up campsites. Mount Grinnell is a beautiful site to enjoy and beheld. But the downside is that it is still a bit noisy here with some of the family camping experience, trailers and RV’s making their noises that they do, and other things that just call too much attention to themselves.

It’s a bit of a balance to be weighed — if you absolute peace and quiet, you have to rough it more and hoof it for three to six miles to the backcountry, where it’s just you, God, and nature’s inhabitants. Pull-up camping, on the other hand is convenient and relatively easy and you really don’t need to sacrifice your comfort — the RV’s and “tour buses” we’ve seen are proof — to “escape” to nature. But I’m of the opinion that you really miss out on the experience of God’s creation and nature at its best when you don’t make some comfort sacrifices to dwell in her midst.

Knowing what we both know now, if we were to do anything different, we would have prepared more for the camping leg of this trip and attempted a night or two in the backcountry, Yellowstone would have been just a day trip, and most of our time would have been spent both here in Glacier and in the Grand Tetons. When you’ve been to both of these places, Yellowstone just sorta pales in comparison. Sure you will see a ton of bison, you’ll see some elk in the early morning mist, and may even spot a grizzly if you’re lucky. But it seems that few who venture there actually intend to “rough it” and experience the hidden things within Yellowstone, the gems few will seldom be able to see and experience from the comfort, safety and convenience of their car or RV.

With Glacier and the Grand Tetons, you are almost beckoned to get out and explore and experience the inner sanctuary on a nice, long day hike on the backcountry trails. And its those experiences that Natalie and I have found some more commonality in, enjoying the beauty of nature, the briskness of a little walk to take those sites in, and decompressing at the end of a day over a hot meal by the fire and a glass of wine to cap off the day’s experience.

And with that, it’s about time to open our bottle of wine, change into some warmer clothes — the glacial air is really starting to chill to the bone right now — and settle in for a good night’s rest.

On to Seattle tomorrow. Yay!

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