Day 7- Boating on Lake MacDonald

On our last day at Glacier National Park, we decided to see nature from a different perspective. We were going to go on a scenic boat tour, but discovered it would be cheaper to just rent a little motorized fishing boat. So we spent about an hour and a half out on the lake giving ourselves a tour. Camden wasn't a fan of the life jacket.

The girls look happy here, but they were a little bit worried, at first, that the boat was going to tip over.

 And then they got more comfortable.

 The view out on the lake was amazing.

I don't have a picture of it, but Ashley and Alyssa each had a turn driving the boat. Alyssa didn't like it very much, but Ashley kept on asking to do it again.

Towards the end, I had to keep a tight grip on the boys as they both were trying to lean over the edge and touch the water.

 Back on land again. The boys sure loved throwing rocks into every body of water that we found.

These tour buses were spotted all over the park. We never took the tour in one, but I finally got close enough to an empty one to get a picture on the last day.

We absolutely loved our time at Glacier National Park. It was beautiful there and the wildlife didn't disappoint. I didn't get any pictures of it, but up at Logan Pass, while we were waiting for Danny to find a parking space, the kids had fun with the squirrels/chipmunks. They were not scared of humans, at all, and the kids could get close enough to pet them. We will sure miss having our National Park pass this next year because they are great vacation spots and each one is so unique and beautiful.

Day 6- Canada and Waterton

 On day 6 of our trip, we went into Canada to visit the Canada side of Glacier National Park, AKA Waterton. We woke up bright and early that day to the sound of rain on our trailer rooftop. We had high hopes that it would go away before we actually had to get out of the car 3 hours later. No such luck, but we made the most of our cold and wet Canada day. This first picture was taken on the Going to the Sun road (we decided to drive it again rather than driving all the way around Glacier. This waterfall was not visible the first time we drove this way, but because of the rain it was quite prominent on this morning.

We didn't stop for a picture in front of this sign, just a quick snapshot as we drove past.

We did stop here, though. After all, this was the first time any of us had been to Canada.

Don't remember the name of this waterfall, but apparently it is a popular photo spot, so we went ahead and got our photo.

We met up with one of Danny's mission companions(and his family) for the day. They live in Alberta and we probably hadn't seen them for 9 years. It was so fun to catch up with them and have our own personal Waterton tour guides. Here are Danny and Ryan.

After the waterfall, we decided to brave the rain and do a hike up to Bertha Falls. We sported these lovely ponchos which kept us dry while it was raining. However, once we got a ways into the hike, the rain stopped and we were all sweating. Plus, Camden started to doze and his head was dropping right into the plastic. So we took them off and stuffed them in our pockets.

 The scenery up to the waterfall was beautiful, as was the waterfall itself.

 We let the kids take off their shoes at the bottom of the falls and dip their feet into the cold water.

Then we hiked back down the mountain. The boys both fell asleep on the hike down and then the rain started up again. With our hands full of sleeping boys, it wasn't really convenient to put the ponchos back on. As a result, we were all soaked, and cold, by the time we got back to the car. We found an indoor pizza place for lunch in order to warm up and dry off a little. After lunch, we drove out to red rock canyon. We had been told that this drive was a popular place to see bears. It didn't disappoint. We weren't even 5 minutes into the drive before we spotted a bunch of people looking off into the distance. We pulled off the road, grabbed our binoculars and joined the crowds. Maybe 400 yards away, there was a mama grizzly with her baby wrestling on the golf green. It was so cute. We all took a turn with the binoculars, but didn't stay long because it was windy and cold. Red rock canyon was really cool. I'm glad we took the time to drive out there.

Our Canadian tour guides told us that normally the water is full of people wading and sliding down the mini waterfalls. Not a single person in the water while we were there.

Our next stop was the famous hotel. We went inside to warm up and looked around a bit. Then we went outside to take some pictures. The view from the hill was amazing.

After the hotel stop, we found a cafe and ordered hot chocolate for everyone and then let the kids play at the park for awhile. We decided to take a detour on the way home so we could see the Cardston, Alberta, Temple. Camden fell asleep on the way there, so we let him sleep in the car while we took a few pictures.

They have this fun "I Love to See the Temple" bench which makes for a great picture spot.

After the temple, we grabbed dinner, said goodbye to the Peterson's, and then headed home. I couldn't get enough of Chief Mountain. It was so unique. I wish the clouds weren't covering it in my pictures because it looked so cool.

Our drive back on the Going to the Sun road got a little scary at the top when the fog was so thick we couldn't even see a full car length in front of us. We took it slowed and prayed that it would clear up quickly. It did and we were so thankful to make it home safely. We pulled up to our trailer and we all went straight to bed. I think we saw most of what Waterton had to offer. We made the most of the foul weather and enjoyed spending the day with friends.

Day 5- Bowman Lake

Day 5 of our trip was a down day. We needed to do laundry and it rained for a good part of the morning. We went out in the afternoon to explore a road that headed north from West Glacier(where we were staying). There were 3 or 4 lakes a ways off of the road and we thought it would be fun to see one of them. We chose Bowman Lake and braved the 7 miles of bumpy dirt road to get there. It was well worth the drive. Look at how beautiful it was there.

After sitting by the water a bit, we decided to try the trail that went alongside the lake. We weren't even scared off by the signs posted at the trail head.

Danny did carry bear spray and a gun with him on all of our hikes and Ashley had a nice noise maker hanging around her neck (her keys, or tags, as she calls them). We enjoyed the hike until it turned away from the lake and started up the side of the mountain. When we saw no end to the climb, we decided to turn around and head back to the lake. As we started driving, we spotted these Park Rangers, so we let the girls talk to them for a few minutes so they could earn their Junior Ranger Badges.

Although the hike wasn't as successful this day, the lake was breathtaking. We were so glad we made the drive up north to see this part of the park.

Day 3&4 Travel Day and Glacier National Park

The real destination for our trip was Glacier National Park. After our day at Craters of the Moon, we headed off for 4 days of fun exploring the beautiful scenery at Glacier. For our first day in the park, we decided to start with the drive across the park on the Going to the Sun road. Of course, we had to stop and get a picture at the park entrance.

We took our time driving along this road and stopped when we wanted to have a chance to look a little closer at our surroundings.

At the highest elevation point along the road, there is a visitors center. We had planned to get out there and maybe do a hike. However, the parking lot was full. So Danny dropped us off while he circled the parking lot waiting for a parking space to open up(biggest frustration of the trip for him). We saw what there was to see at the visitors center and when he still hadn't appeared, we went back down to the parking lot to find him still circling(45 minutes later). He was super angry by this point, so we hopped back in the car and continued our drive across the park. I did get this picture of the kids while we were waiting.

This was the only glacier we actually saw while we were there. I did not realize this before planning the details of our trip, but the many glaciers in the park are not actually accessible unless you are willing to hike 10+ miles(which we were not). The glacier is the white on the mountain behind them, right above Ashley's head. This one was called Jackson Glacier.

After driving all the way across the park, we headed south towards the Medicine Lakes area. We found a kid friendly hike with the help of a park ranger and started off. Our destination was a waterfall about a mile each way.

There was a moose in this pond along the trail which we only caught a glimpse of. It was hiding behind some tall grasses

We thought this bridge was fun.

When we got to the waterfall, most of us took our shoes off and dipped our feet in the water. The girls posed for us.

Camden was Danny's hiking buddy. He really did not like sitting in that hiking backpack for very long.

On the hike back to the car, we spotted this white tailed deer. We stopped to watch it for a bit. The boys even stayed nice and quiet so that we could watch it. It didn't seem to mind us and walked pretty close to us before heading deeper into the woods.

After the hike, we went out onto this dock and enjoyed the view.

We considered day 1 in the park a success. Beautiful scenery, wildlife spotted, and Camden even got a nap.

Day 1&2- Travel day and Craters of the Moon

On August 5th, we embarked on our much anticipated family vacation. We had been planning this one ever since we printed off Alyssa's "4th Grader in the Park" pass back in September. Our first stop was Craters of the Moon near Arco, Idaho. Craters of the moon isn't actually a National Park. It is a National Monument, but Alyssa's pass got us into Monuments as well as Parks. We were surprised by how unique and cool Craters of the Moon was. We spent 1 day here seeing all that there was to see. It consisted of "cones" and caves. Here is a family selfie on top of the tallest cone.

The kids loved how light the lava rocks were. I'm just glad Tyler didn't drop it on my head.

The caves were our favorite part of Craters of the Moon. This was the first cave we explored. It was actually more of a tunnel because it had an exit at the back.

It had a little mini cave at the end of the tunnel right before climbing out.

 And we made it all the way through.

We bought head lamps for the girls and the adults. We were so glad that we had them because some of the caves were quite dark.

We didn't take the boys down into one of the caves because it was too tight of a fit to get into it so I got to hang out with them and wait while Danny explored the last one with the girls. Tyler liked having a turn in the hiking backpack when Camden got tired of it.

It was a nice little stop and we were glad we took the time to see it.