national park

Driving back through Glacier and home to Seattle

Posted by Jason on September 22, 2013 - 2:11am in Our Travels.
When: 
August 31, 2013

I woke up a bit early on our last day so that I could take some photos of the morning sun hitting the mountains. It was really pretty to watch the sunrise, and I got a few good photos. I also wanted to get up early so that we could get an early start to our busy day. We had to pack all our stuff back into the suitcases, drive back across the park (about 50 miles), drive to the airport, return our car, and catch our plane. In the end, we had ample time to make our 4pm flight, but I didn't want us to be rushing at the end.

Lake St. Mary and the east side of Glacier National Park

Posted by Jason on September 22, 2013 - 2:02am in Our Travels.
When: 
August 30, 2013

For our last full day in Glacier, we drove over the pass to the east side of the mountains. Unfortunately, the weather was still overcast on the west side of the pass, so we didn't have very good views of the mountains as we drove over the pass. Instead, we just drove straight over and down the other side. On our way to our next campsite, we stopped at a turn off for a short hike. We hiked to St. Mary Falls and then continued to Virginia Falls, a total of 1.2 miles in from the road. At Virginia Falls, we stopped for lunch along the bank of the creek, then headed back down the trail.

Logan Pass and a crazy storm

Posted by Jason on September 21, 2013 - 6:28pm in Our Travels.
When: 
August 29, 2013

Penelope woke us up around 7AM, which was perfect, because we had a busy day ahead of us. We wanted to get up early to Logan Pass, one of the most popular spots in the park, to avoid the crowds. We had our first hot breakfast of the trip: instant oatmeal and hot cocoa. Penelope usually eats oatmeal for breakfast, but she was very excited to have the overly sugared "maple brown sugar" instant version. After breakfast, we got in the car and headed up to Logan Pass, about 3000 ft above our campground at Avalanche Creek.

Lake McDonald, Avalanche Creek and Avalanche Lake

Posted by Jason on September 21, 2013 - 5:43pm in Our Travels.
When: 
August 28, 2013

After our first night in the tent, Penelope woke us up at about 6:45, same as usual. Still without any way to start a fire, and not feeling like asking for more matches, we had a cold breakfast of yogurt and leftover breakfast pastry from Stefan's backpacking trip (thanks Stefan). We would be staying at three different campsites in the park as we traveled along the main park road, so after breakfast, we broke down our campsite and stuffed everything back in the car. It was a complete mess, with barely enough room for Penelope in the back seat, but it worked.

Fish Creek Campground

Posted by Jason on September 21, 2013 - 5:21pm in Our Travels.
When: 
August 27, 2013

We spent our first night in Glacier National Park at Fish Creek Campground, on the shore of Lake McDonald (or Old McDonald Lake as we liked to call it). This was one of the few campgrounds that you could reserve a campsite ahead of time (the rest were first come, first served), and we didn't want to feel rushed to get there early to get a spot. Penelope was very excited to be camping and was very interested in helping to set up camp.

Glacier National Park - August 2013

Posted by Jason on September 21, 2013 - 5:08pm in Our Travels.
When: 
August 27, 2013 to August 31, 2013

I've been meaning to post about our trip to Glacier National Park, but with our upcoming move, I got a bit behind. It was a really fun vacation. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring along my travel journal, so I'm going to try to remember all the stuff that we did.


Last day in Denali and homeward bound

Posted by Jason on July 1, 2012 - 6:09pm in Our Travels.
When: 
June 16, 2012 to June 17, 2012

I'm writing this entry as we fly back to Seattle. Penelope is asleep in Katie's lap, so it is a good time to write. Yesterday was too busy.

Denali National Park - Day 2

Posted by Jason on July 1, 2012 - 2:08am in Our Travels.
When: 
June 15, 2012

Today we ventured farther into Denali National Park. We caught a mid-morning shuttle bus for a 5.5 hour round-trip into the park. Some buses go even farther in, but we were already concerned that this bus ride would be long for Penelope.


Denali National Park - Day 1

Posted by Jason on July 1, 2012 - 1:32am in Our Travels.
When: 
June 14, 2012

We woke up this morning, got our RV in order, and then did a 5-mile hike around Byers Lake at the campground we were staying at. It was a pretty good hike, but the mosquitoes were out in force and made some sections miserable. We were hoping to catch a glimpse of the mountains reflected in the lake, but the clouds did not cooperate. However, other than cloudy mountains, the weather was great, which was a welcome change. Along our hike we spotted some loons and a beaver in the lake. We also saw signs of moose and bears along the trail, but luckily we had no encounters.

Our first views of Denali

Posted by Jason on July 1, 2012 - 12:48am in Our Travels.
When: 
June 13, 2012

Today we finally saw the sun, but we had to drive a long way to see it. It rained all night at our campground last night, and when we woke up it was raining, overcast, and foggy. Our first stop was 10 min away at Matanuska Glacier. This is a glacier that you can easily access and walk on with a guide service, but given the weather we just stopped at a viewpoint and walked the 1 mile loop trail. The glacier was nice, but not as impressive as some of the other glaciers we had seen.

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