Glacier National Park

Last month we planned a big fun trip to Glacier and Yellowstone. Michelle and Rich's families also came and Mom and Dad joined us for the Glacier part. We left a couple days early (on July 4th) and stopped in Pocatello to help April load up all her stuff in a trailer we brought. She graduated and had a job starting down in Monticello school district that next week otherwise she would have joined us.

We arrived at Fairmont Hot Springs Resort that afternoon and spent the rest of the day and the next morning swimming in their hot springs. It was fun and relaxing. Then we continued on to our AirBnb rental in Glacier. 

 

Our rental was awesome! Enough space for all of us and in a great location. About 40 min to the park entrance but we had lots to do right out our back door. The rest of the crew arrived by that evening. We ate and relaxed. 

View outside our rental.

The next morning we got up early and headed into Glacier National Park. Since only half the park was open there was a lot of traffic and not a lot of parking. Plus they would close off roads as soon as parking was full. We ended up getting enough parking spots and spent the day hiking around Lake MacDonald. It ended up being perfect. 

  

We found this great spot to jump off the rocks into the crystal blue and very cold water. Most of the kids did it first and even Grandpa jumped in!

The next day we decided to stay local and not drive into the park. We road the tram up and down the mountain right by our place. 

It was overcast but we decided to go on a hike on the Whitehead trails by our place. Halfway into the hike it started raining and rained hard. We took cover under trees. The kids didn't complain. Instead they started chanting "we'll be happy as long as we live!" over and over again while we hiked back in the rain. The motto stuck with us through the rest of the trip. 

The next day we went back to Glacier National Park. After finally getting up the road and parked we started with a 2 mile hike on Johns Lake trail. A bit muddy but very beautiful.

After we finished the 2 mile hike the roads to the Avalanche trail opened up so Rich, Nate and I ran down the road to get our cars so we could shuttle everyone up. They closed the road again right before we got there. We pleaded with one of the park rangers and he let us take one car up to get everyone. Of course it didn't make sense but we didn't fight it. So we grabbed my car and then had to make a couple trips to get everyone from Johns Lake up to Avalanche Lake trail. We ate lunch and then did the 5+ mile hike to Avalanche Lake. There were a few tense moments because it was a tough hike but the kids did great and the views made it worth it.

 

After hiking 8+ miles we went and relaxed in the hot tub and ate good food.

Our last day in Whitefish we went to City Beach. We played and swam and then my parents headed home while the rest of us headed to our next stop......Yellowstone.