Vacation Day 3

Tuesday, August 13 was the last day of our vacation. We woke up, ate breakfast of poptarts & flavored milk, and got to work cleaning up our camping spot. We rolled up the sleeping bags, took down the tents, and repacked the car. After the terrible night's rest that we all got, we were very desirous to get going as quickly as possible! We drove back to the St. Mary Entrance of Glacier National Park, and began our drive on the Going-to-the-Sun road to the west side of the park.

My, how I love this road! You can reach out and practically touch waterfalls that are right next to the car as you drive!

And the views are spectacular! This part of the road was right before Logan Pass--you can see a waterfall to the left and a driving tunnel to the right.

We stopped at Logan Pass, because we were contemplating doing the Hidden Lake hike again so this time Ammon & Kanyon could join us {we did it last year, but Ammon & Kanyon stayed in the car instead because it was really bad weather and Kanyon wouldn't have been able to hike it all}. But after walking around and looking at the trailhead, we realized that the snow part of the hike was already melted, and it wouldn't have been as fun to hike the distance without the snow. So, we just walked back to the car and continued west on the road. It was still pretty early in the morning, and the fog was very dense. It was a totally different sight than what we saw last year on the Going-to-the-Sun Road!

The gray sky and the thick fog really altered what we were able to see below from the height at the top of the mountain pass.

 

When we reached the Lake McDonald Valley at the southwest end of the park, we hit heavy construction delays. Thankfully, we didn't have to wait as long as some--the waiting line was miles long and we reached it just as they opened it up to our lane. We parked the car as soon as we made it through the one-lane construction zone, and began our hike into Avalanche Lake. The hiking trail starts on the Trail of the Cedars, and we passed this super awesome tree that looked like it had a nose, so of course the boys had to pick it!

We walked on the Cedars Trail until we reached the trailhead for Avalanche Lake at Avalanche Gorge. The air felt cool and moist, and the views of the Gorge were amazing from any angle!

This was my favorite hike this year. It's a 2-mile hike that's almost completely uphill the entire way to reach the lake. The hike is in the middle of the dense forest, so it wasn't hot, and there were so many cool things to see--old trees, neat formations, and big rocks. And after what happened the previous day, the boys didn't run ahead of us, so we spent more time with them along the way, which made me happy, too!

 

There was one spot on the Avalanche Lake trail where you could definitely tell an avalanche had come through--all the trees were down and there was debris all around. But it was really remarkable to see large boulders everywhere amidst the trees as we walked as a result of glaciers that had moved them and then the snow melted, leaving the giant rocks at their final destinations.

We stopped and rested several times on our uphill hike, taking advantage of any rock or tree to sit on!

 

I'd been walking almost every day for 2 months prior to this trip, and I felt like I was preparing myself for all the hiking we'd do while at Glacier, but I was still wiped from this hike!

I loved this hike because it kept my boys entertained, so they played more and I was able to keep up with them as a result! Josh really enjoyed it, too! Can you see his face in this pic?

The day before, we'd walked 7 miles. And this day we walked nearly 5 miles. Surprisingly, Kanyon did so well both days, and he was able to walk more this year with us than he did last year. Josh only had to carry him twice--once the day before on the return walk back from Red Rock Falls and once at a steeper part of this trail:

Not only was the hike into the lake amazing, but the lake itself was incredible! It's really shallow on the end we were at, and the water was crystal clear. You can also see 3 tributary waterfalls from high peaks on mountains across the lake. It was truly stunning. I believe it's called Avalanche Lake for a reason--these fallen trees were all at the side of the lake we entered from--mostly likely from an Avalanche!

The boys tried to skip rocks & then threw rocks to see who could throw the greater distance. Josh and I sat on a log and enjoyed watching them entertain themselves while we partook of the gorgeous views around us!

 

After we were at the lake for about a half hour, we decided to head back--mostly out of hunger! We'd only brought granola bars and water with us on the hike, and it was lunch time, and we were fatigued from the long uphill hiking! Because the return trek was mostly downhill, we all decided to run back. I only ran on the downhill sections, so I was still a few minutes behind the rest of them. The hike up took us 2 hours, but the downhill return was only about 40 minutes! When the trail met back up with the Cedars Trail, we crossed the Avalanche Gorge. I still cannot get over just how blue the glacier water is!

The final section of the Trail of the Cedars was on boardwalk through the trees. There were signs along the way naming the different kinds of trees that were growing near the trail.

We were walking along together when one of the boys noticed my wet shirt and said "EWWW! Is that SWEAT?!". I was dripping wet from running down the mountain, and the boys had never seen me sweat like this before. They were all disgusted, and so they ran ahead of Josh & I (again!). So I made Josh take a picture of my back so that I could see what it looked like--it truly looked as wet as I felt it was! My hair was soaking, my chest and neck glistened, and the entire back of my shirt was damp...

So, as Josh and I were peacefully strolling along the boardwalk--I noticed another cool tree and pointed out this heart to him, which he didn't think looked a heart at all. Can you see it?

At the end of the boardwalk, we crossed the construction zone, and walked to our car. There were several picnic tables around and we were all famished! We sat down at one and ate turkey ranch deli wraps for lunch. They were sooo good! While we were at Glacier, we ate food out of coolers that I had prepared at home, which made it so convenient and cheap!

After we were all full, we repacked the car again and climbed in for our last section of the drive before exiting the park. By the time we had returned from our hike, the air was clear of fog and completely blue and beautiful! I was wishing to rent a boat on Lake McDonald again like we did last year, but Josh was in the mood to just drive home!

We made it home by 9:00 that night, and we were all tired, but happy. It had been a great vacation, and a successful one for the boys who played the License Plate game again this year (and they did SO much better than last year!):

It was a pretty short vacation--just 2 nights, but we had accomplished a lot! We never saw any grizzlies (Josh & the boys' fear), nobody got hurt (my fear), and we saw some beautiful natural sights! The boys watched several movies in the car during driving time, and their favorite one (which they saw twice on our vacation) was the classic "Short Circuit"! It was a favorite of Josh's when he was a kid--and we were glad that we'd gotten the additional speaker for the car CD player the day before (even though it was a hassle and stressful), because it was funny for Josh & I to hear the movie (playing from the backseat), too!

I absolutely LOOOOOVE Glacier National Park, and I want to go back again--but not in the near future, nor with our young kids. I'd love to go back to the Waterton side in Canada with Josh sometime, and I'd also like to go on some of the longer hikes in Glacier that we were unable to do with small kids. It was a good family vacation, and I'm glad we took the time to go!

Vacation Day 2

On Monday, August 12, we began day 2 of our family vacation. We woke up at the nice hotel in Great Falls, Montana and ate their continental breakfast. Then we drove to see Grandma and Grandpa Parsons one last time at their home before saying goodbye. Grandpa was out doing errands that morning, so we just visited with Grandma and gave her our goodbye hugs.

 

Our next part of the trip was not pleasant; every family vacation has some rough time, right? After we drove away from Grandma's house, we decided we'd go buy an additional speaker for the car DVD player, because the kids were having a hard time hearing the movies I'd brought along, and we only have 2 earphones--not 4. Josh wanted to go a store that had electronics, but he took the wrong exit off the freeway. It led us to downtown, and we drove for a couple miles, driving through construction, and there were no stores of any type on that road. So, we turned around and went back to the freeway to take the first exit that we passed. Then we drove to Office Max, but there was construction in the parking lot, so we had to park a fair distance from the store and Josh walked in. He purchased a speaker, and returned to the car. Then we discovered it was the wrong type. So he went back inside and exchanged the speaker for the right kind. When he brought that one to the car, we realized it had to be charged before it would ever work. We wasted about an hour driving around and obtaining the speaker! This really stressed me out because my plan was to spend the night camping at Glacier National Park, which is a first come/first serve basis, but the campgrounds had been filling up by 11:00 each day. By the time we left Great Falls, it was after 10am, and I knew that we'd probably be out of luck when we arrived at the Park, which was over 2 hours away.

 

And I was right. When we arrived at Glacier, the campgrounds were completely full. We stopped at the Visitor's Center, and looked over lists of nearby campgrounds while we ate lunch of nachos (that I brought from home), and made a decision for where we would stay that night. We ended up staying at a small campground a few miles from the east side of the park instead. We did a first for a family: spent the night in tents all together because this was the most cost-conservative way for us to go to Glacier again. We drove to the campground, and set up our tents. We weren't sure if we'd be returning before it was dark, and we didn't want to have to put everything together without light! We put up the tents and got everyone's sleeping bags, blow-up mattresses, and pillows all situated inside the two tents: one for Josh, me, and Kanyon, and the other for the 3 older boys. 

Then we headed to the Many Glacier entrance of the park--a part that we didn't go to last year when we went to Glacier. We went on a hike to the Red Rock Falls, which was 4 miles roundtrip. It was a very family-friendly trail, but it was very hot that day!

At the very beginning of the trail, there was this awesome funky-shaped tree!

 

It was our first big walk in the National Park on our family vacation, and we were so proud of Kanyon for keeping up with us! He only had to ride on Josh's shoulders once on the way back to the car!

 

The air was hazy during this walk, so it's hard to see the distance on film that we could see with our eyes from this open viewpoint along the trail.

 

I loved this little section of the walk with all the plant and tree growth. It was so beautiful and serene!

 

After a mile and a half, we reached the Red Rock Lake. The water was clear, and the coloring of the glacier rocks was so appealing! I love how you can see the red, brown, green, then blue coloring of the lake. So gorgeous!

 

The boys skipped rocks for a while at the lake--Ammon did pretty good, but Josh got the best rock skipping score! Kanyon posed on this rock and asked for a photo, and I was glad to oblige--it was nice to have a boy who requested photos, because there was another boy who made a scowly face every time I said I wanted to take a picture. Can you figure out which one it was from the photo above?!

 

When it began to get crowded with other people around the lake, we continued our hike to the Red Rock Falls. The boys ran ahead of us, and Josh and I were walking together. Two men who were walking the opposite direction said "Are those your 4 boys ahead?", and we told them that they were ours! Then one of the men said "Because we passed 2 grizzly bears not too long ago, so it would be a good idea to stick close to your children". We knew that there had been some recent grizzly activity in the park, and they'd had to close a campground completely down because of it. But we were a little nervous that they were reported so close to where we were. Josh and I were very anxious after that until we reached the falls, less than a 1/2 mile later. Thankfully, the boys had arrived safely there, and we didn't see the grizzlies!

The Red Rock Falls were fantastic, and the hike was definitely worth it! This was my favorite waterfall that we saw at the park this year--because the red rocks surrounding it are all accessible and you can climb all around it. I loved seeing the view of the falls, lake, and mountains from different points on the rocks. I loved watching my boys climb, and I really felt like we were a part of nature!

 

 

We climbed on the rocks for about a half hour, then we began the 2-mile return trek on the trail to the parking lot. Since it was so hot, we were happy to have cold drinks waiting in the cooler of the car! We ate dinner (sandwiches that I'd made earlier that day) as we drove to our next destination in the park. We went to the St. Mary Entrance, and drove to the trailhead of the St. Mary Falls. We walked almost a mile from the road to reach the waterfall. Once again, the boys ran ahead of Josh and I, and when we were approaching the falls, we could see little signs next to the trail that said things like "Don't walk through the trees! Stay on the Path!"--and when we got to the waterfall, we could see our boys across the water from us because they didn't see the signs and went exactly where they shouldn't.

If they had slipped and fallen into the water, there's no way we could've reached them in time. We were across the bridge and above the falls on some larger rocks, and there was a whirlpool right below where they were standing.

So we yelled at them to come right back to the trail and across the bridge to where we were so they could be safe. They all followed directions, but Ammon wasn't happy about being told what to do...as evident again by his facial expressions here:

See how Micah is holding onto his shoulder in the above photo? As soon as they came back to us, they still wanted to get closer to the water, so they climbed down the rocks (with Josh going with them this time), and it was wet from the water and Micah slipped and got hurt. That was kind of like the "See!! Mom & Dad KNOW what they're talking about!" moment. The boys continued on the hike ahead of us again, since they couldn't hang out or climb the rocks around this waterfall like they could on the Red Rock waterfalls earlier in the day. Josh and I stayed behind just a few minutes admiring the beautiful blue water. It was so breathtaking to behold!

 

About a half mile down the trail after the St. Mary Falls are the Virginia Falls. They are series of steep, narrow waterfalls.  We stopped at the lowest one on the trail for a few minutes to catch up with the boys.

Then we continued upward to the next several falls. We stopped at the last one where the trail veers away from the water, and Josh and the boys climbed over rocks while I dipped my feet in the crystal-clear, relaxing, cold water.

 

 

After they were done exploring the area, then the boys returned to where I was at, and some of them joined me in dipping their feet, too!

We began our trek back to the car, walking along the trail. The boys ran ahead of us (again!!), and Josh and I enjoyed the peaceful surroundings. It wasn't as busy on this trail as the Red Rock trail had been earlier in the day, and we felt like we were walking through a secluded rainforest. There were lots of wild raspberry bushes, and we both picked a couple along the way there were ripe enough to eat!

As we were approaching the final stretch of the return hike, the sun was beginning to set and it was just perfect coloring! The beauty of the surroundings were enhanced by the shades of color from the sky!

Unfortunately, when we got back to the car along the road, the boys were not there. We began to panic--they had been ahead of us, and we'd never passed them. We were worried that they were hiding somewhere, or that perhaps they'd been kidnapped alongside the road, or that a Grizzly Bear had taken them, or that they'd drowned--all fears of things that could potentially happen. But the most likely explanation was that they took a wrong turn on the trail--there were a few different trailheads that began on the trail we'd taken to see the two waterfalls. It was getting late, and there was no cell service in the park where we were at, and we didn't know what to do. Josh decided to backtrack on the trail, and I would drive down to where one of the other trails ended. As I was getting into the car, I yelled out (with my super loud voice): "TOLMAN BOYS!!! WHERE ARE YOU?!!", and several hundred feet away, I could hear "Down here!". They had taken the wrong trail, like we figured, but we couldn't see them due to the dense plants. They said they were going backwards on the trail until it met up with the original trail. Josh and I waited at the car for 15 minutes before they finally arrived. They had walked an additional mile!!!

We explained to them how dangerous this whole situation was for them, and they couldn't grasp the implications of why--since they had all stayed together and nothing dangerous happened in our absence. It was so frustrating for Josh and I. So we drove down the road to our final destination of the day, and made them wait in the car for us, since we couldn't trust them any longer to stay by us or make clear decisions regarding their own safety. Josh and I only had to walk a couple hundred feet from where we parked to see the Sunrift Gorge.

Then we decided to walk to one more waterfall--the Baring Waterfalls. We enjoyed our peaceful, quiet 1/2 mile walk together. This waterfall wasn't as big or bold or blue or red as the other ones we'd seen that day, but the walk and the bridge crossing to see them felt adventurous! And I enjoyed the alone time with my husband!

 

Josh and I were gone from the kids in the car for about half hour. Due to some construction again this summer on the Going-to-the-Sun road, it is closed each night at 9:00. So after we returned to the car, we drove back to the St. Mary Entrance, got some refreshments and souvenirs, and returned to our camping spot for the night.

It was a super long night--the owners of the campground had dogs that barked all night, and several rain & thunderstorms passed overhead throughout the night. We all slept terribly! It was a first for us (staying all in tents), but it's definitely something we won't be doing again in the near future!

Day 2 of our vacation had some frustrating times, but I was so glad to be at Glacier Park again. It's hard to feel stressed or angry for too long when you're surrounded by so many of God's gorgeous creations!