Days 201-203: Montana's Glacier-Carved Mountains

Montana’s Glacier-Carved Mountains

Days 201 – 203

July 17 – 19

Glacier National Park

We were now in grizzly bear country, and I was happy that we had the locking hard cases on the bike to store our food.  The night before our arrival into Glacier National Park, we camped in the forest just outside of the south entrance.  To ensure we wouldn’t wake up with a bear poking its head in our tent at 2:00 AM, we put all of our food and anything with an aroma into one hard case and stashed it downwind and far away from our campground.  If a grizzly bear wanted to kick around the case while trying to get inside it, at least he would be doing it from a safe distance. 

We rode into Glacier just after sunrise, bolting towards one of the many first-come-first-serve campgrounds that fill up in the early morning.  Pink clouds filled the sky.  It was a cold ride, weaving past the glacial lakes and roadside waterfalls that punctuated the winding mountain roads.  I couldn’t take my eyes off of the road, and Lynzee couldn’t take her eyes off of the scenery, mentally noting all of the places that we needed to revisit during our three day stay.  We arrived just in time to snag ourselves a campsite.  

The placid glacial lakes make for great photos of the mountains.

Lynzee wants to be a Junior Ranger.

Glacier just after sunrise.

On our way to watch the sunset, we found this gemstone waterfall.

I wanted to summit a mountain to get a better view of the park.

And I found a mountain goat on my way up.

Portrait on the summit of Mount Oberlin.

Waterfalls from the snow melt fall directly on the roadways.

We watched the sunset from a beach with rainbow-colored pebbles.

Contrary to what the name of the park implies, there are not many glaciers left in this national park.  Climate change has taken its toll, and most of the glaciers have retreated into tiny pockets on the northern faces.  I made it a priority to see the most accessible of these: Grinnell and Salamander. 

The route out to Grinnell Glacier.

The patterns on some of the rocks are unbelievable.

Staring at the remains of the Grinnell Glacier.

Salamander on the right, Grinnell on the left, and a waterfall in the middle
from all of the melting snow.  Salamander and Grinnell used to be one glacier,
but they have melted tremendously in the last decade.

Heading back from the glacier.  It may not be here the next time I get a
chance to visit the park.

On our last night in Glacier, two astronomers hosted a stargazing program with two massive telescopes set up in a parking lot.  We spent hours discovering parts of the universe enlarged to a scale that we had never seen with our own eyes.  The craters of the moon, the rings of Saturn, the moons of Jupiter, the spiral arms of the Andromeda galaxy, and some of the brightest stars in the northern sky: Vega, Rigel, Betelgeuse.  We stared wide-eyed at each other after each new stargazing experience, sharing our fascination with discovery and nature. 

Before Glacier, we were growing close to each other.  Our days were so full and so long that we already felt like old friends.  It was uncanny how much we had in common.  There were discussions about futures, and where we wanted to end up in life.  It was here in Glacier, laying in our tent on the last night, that I asked Lynzee to be my girlfriend.  She said “yes,” making me a lucky man.  

I'm a lucky man to have this woman in my life.