Days 8 &9: Coming Home

Saturday morning we packed up the cabin, and headed out. We made one last stop at the Huckleberry Patch, where we purchased some Huckleberry preserves and chocolates, so that we could savor the taste at least for a little while longer at home. Joe, our river guide, told us of a more scenic route back to Spokane, so we drove that way. While driving through some small town in Idaho, we saw that the Arby's there was advertising huckleberry shakes. We couldn't resist. We pulled through the drive thru and ordered 7 of them.

My dad's sister, Nancy, and her husband Bob live in Spokane, so we had arranged to meet up with them for dinner on Saturday. They were wonderful to us, and met us with a full picnic dinner at a beautiful park in Spokane. It was great to spend a little time with them. After our dinner, they took us for a walk down to the Spokane River, where we hung out on the rocks. We even saw some beavers in the water.

Daniel made a buddy with my Uncle Bob.

Back at the park we spent a little more time with them before heading back to the hotel for the night. We even got a little swimming in before we went to bed.
We were able to make it to Sacrament meeting before returning the rental car and catching our plane. We flew through Minneapolis on the way home. Overall the kids were fantastic on the planes.


It was pretty late by the time we had our luggage at O'Hare, and we still needed to take the train to the shuttle to our van. Our train arrived and we had to quickly board. As the doors slid shut, we saw that Dailie had not made it on the train. My heart sunk. Here we were in one of the busiest airports in the world, late at night, and my 13 year old daughter was just left by herself. Thank goodness she has a cell phone. Dallin immediately started texting her, but she hadn't turned her phone back on from being on the plane. When we arrived at the station where we were to board our shuttle, we waited for the next train, hoping Dailie would be on it. Rick jumped on and headed back to the airport. Just after he left, Dailie texted back that she had just turned on her phone and was now heading to us. She and Rick were able to meet up, and we all gave her lots of hugs when she made it to the station. We all safely got to the van, and began the 2.5 hour drive home. It was so late when we pulled up to our house, and we were exhausted. Plus, if you remember, there was no water : ). Rick took the next day off work and installed a new water heater. I'm glad he's handy.

Day 7: The Final Day in the Park

Friday, the final day at the park. We decided to spend the morning at the lake, and do an easier hike in the afternoon. As we were driving in to the park, I commented that the thing that would really make the trip for me would be to see a bear that day. We hadn't seen one all week, and I admitted that it would still be a great trip if we didn't actually see a bear, but I also told the kids there is power in positive thinking. We started out at Lake McDonald, where we rented a motor boat for an hour. Rick drove it, and we split up. Dallin, Dailie and Audri went out for the first half hour, while I stayed with Eliza and Daniel to play at the water's edge.
It was such a pretty lake. The water so clear, the rocks so colorful, but the water was VERY cold. That didn't stop Eliza.

After a quick lunch, we started on the Trail of the Cedars which joins up with the trail to Avalanche Lake. Round trip this was 4 miles, so it seemed pretty short next to what we'd been doing all week. And again, we got to see a different part of the park. This area was rainforest-like. Look at the height of those trees.

And more gorgeous waterways and falls.

We made it out to the lake and Avalanche Falls. This is a more often taken trail for visitors to the park, so there were several people at the lake, hanging out on it's beach. I thought, "it would be perfect if we saw a bear across the lake, nice and safe, and we'd get to see one."
As we walked up the beach, we saw lots of people looking across the lake. We looked over with our binoculars, and would you believe we saw a black bear?! Here's what it looked like across the lake. We watched it for awhile, walking along the water's edge.

Here's a cropped and zoomed in shot. My trip felt complete : ).

We hiked back, taking in the beautiful scenery, thinking about the fact that we would be leaving the next day.
Rick challenged Daniel to see who could make it back first, and Daniel took off. We actually had to tell him to slow down a few times because he got so far ahead.
That night we enjoyed our last evening at the cabin. Dallin decided he try sleeping on the deck, since it had warmed up a little throughout the week. At the start of the week it was dipping into the low 30s at night. Here's a picture of how he slept our last night:
What an amazing week. Thanks for enduring with me as I've tried to both document the trip for our family as well as share for those who are interested. I'll finish up with a few thoughts and pictures from our trip home, and then I'll get back to blogging about what's going on in our lives!!

Day 6: Siyeh Pass

After our break from hiking, it was time for the BIG hiking day. Time to see if we could make it on a 10 miler or not. We headed out for Siyeh Pass. Originally we planned to do a loop, over the summit at Siyeh and around the other side, but again there was too much snow. Luckily, the trail was clear to the Pass, so we could hike there and back. We drove to Logan Pass, where we parked the car and took the shuttle to the trailhead. Just off the road was a beautiful stream, where the trail began. Here we are, starting out.

One of the great things about this hike was that we got to see so much in one trip: dense forests, waterfalls/streams aplenty, mountain meadows, rocky cliffs, etc. It really was beautiful, and varied the whole way up.

Just before we stopped for lunch, two female hikers who had passed us earlier came at us from the opposite direction. They were a little shaken up, and quietly told us that not far up the trail there was a BIG black bear who had started to approach them. They decided to turn around, and had their bear spray out and ready. After they passed us, we just stood there for awhile, wondering what to do. This was the hike that we REALLY wanted to do, and we hadn't come very far. We knew we were loud enough to give a bear plenty of warning that we were coming up the path, but we didn't know what to make of what these hikers had just told us. After a short time, we decided to pray. We did, and decided to move forward, cautiously, making lots of noise. I was starting to fell uneasy, when a couple of hikers came upon us from the back. Having two more adults made us much more comfortable, and in the end we never even caught a glimpse of the bear. Guess he wasn't interested in meeting up with any hikers.
Here's one of the junctions on the trail. This was the part where everything really opened up, and for awhile we were hiking through lovely mountain meadows, dotted with wildflowers and some remnants of snow. It was fun to see the new green shoots popping up in places you could tell had snow very recently. As we moved out of the meadows, we started to climb. This was where it got REALLY windy. We welcomed any little tree or bush to shield ourselves from the wind, but they were few and far between. Rick says this picture makes him think of the Fellowship of the Rings.

The kids really started getting tired, and we did make a few promises if they could make it to the top. Daniel had seen a toy at the Huckleberry Patch the day before that he was interested in, and Eliza wanted to buy a stuffed animal, but didn't have quite enough of her own money. We told Daniel we'd get him the toy, and Eliza that we'd help pay for her stuffed animal if they could just make it to the top. It was just the motivation they needed. We got to the pass, which actually the trail goes past, not through. This panoramic captures the pass. We hiked in from the left.
There was a nice stopping point here at the pass, and we knew there was snow ahead, so Dailie, Audri, Eliza, Daniel and I stopped and sat on the rocks. Rick wanted to see how much further it was to the summit, so he went on. Dallin followed behind him. The wind was fierce as we sat there,. Daniel said we should huddle like penguins, so we did and he quickly fell asleep!! At 8000 feet. Another funny thing, Dailie got out her cell phone to take a picture and declared that she had coverage (we had none in the whole park). We were high enough up. Unfortunately her battery was low, and she wanted to use it for the pictures, or she would have had some fun calling someone and telling her where she was.
Rick made it to the summit and was glad that the rest of us hadn't come with him. There was a particularly dangerous snowfield he had to cross to get there. As he was feeling relieved that his family hadn't had that danger, he looked up to see Dallin heading toward him. He hadn't realized that Dallin had followed him. They had a fun Father/Son on top of the world moment. If you look closely, or even click on to enlarge the picture, you can see to the left of Dallin, in the background, a pile of rocks that is obviously man-made. This is to mark the summit.

They headed back down to the rest of us, the pathetic little group huddled in the wind. Can you see us in this picture they took of us? Look closely.
As always, the hike down went so much quicker, but I continued to enjoy the views. I loved the pretty valleys such as this one.
We took the shuttle back to Logan pass, and ran into these guys, a group of six bighorn sheep. We followed and watched them for about half an hour. Magnificent animals.

We drove back to the cabin and rested after our long, big hike. We had done it. As a family we had done a 10 mile hike to a mountain pass and back.

Day 5: A Break from Hiking

Wednesday of our trip was the day to take a break from hiking and enjoy a few of the other activities GNP has to offer. The day started out colder than we had hoped, so we switched our whitewater rafting trip to the afternoon and horseback riding to the morning. They would not let Daniel ride a horse (too young), by himself or with someone, but the girls REALLY wanted to, so we split up. The girls and I went horseback riding, and the boys and Rick went on a boat tour on Lake McDonald. We have occasionally ridden horses, although we are by no means equestrians. However, anywhere that we go that has horses, the girls in particular are BEGGING to ride them. Actually, they beg us to have a horse as well, but I don't think the backyard is quite big enough.

Audri with her horse Bradley, before the ride.

Dailie getting to know Folsom.

Eliza on her horse, Rat. My horse was named Chester, but there weren't any good pictures of me on Chester.
We went on a 4 mile trail ride on a 50 year old trail in the park. We crossed McDonald Creek twice, once with a view out over the lake. I was right behind the most talkative guide, so I asked lots of questions and learned many things. One of the things I learned was how to keep my horse in the middle of the trail. He kept wanting to walk on the left side of the trail. I got much more serious about keeping him in the middle after he ran me into a tree. Nearly took my leg of, wedging my knee between the tree and the horse. I had a nasty bruise that turned many beautiful colors throughout the week. Thanks, Chester. But, the best thing our guide taught me was about huckleberries. Before leaving home we read some about huckleberries, and I looked up on Google to see what they look like. Taylor, our guide pointed out the bushes on the ride, and even jumped off his horse at one time to taste one to see if they were ripe. He said they were close. I figured we needed to try them sometime while we were there, but honestly I thought "I've tried a lot of different berries in my life- how different can they be?". The locals were crazy about them, and every shop you stepped into sold anything and everything huckleberry, and not just food. Anyway, more about huckleberries later...

Rick, Dallin and Daniel took a boat tour on Lake McDonald, and had a great time themselves.

Daniel wanted to sit/stand in all the different places on the boat, and even got to steer for awhile. You can see a picture of that in the video.

A pretty panoramic of the view from the boat.

They also stepped into the Lake McDonald Lodge, built in 1913, just 3 years after the National Park was established. At that time, there were no roads in the park, and the lodge was reached by water, across the lake. It was beautiful. They also stopped in the gift shop and bought some huckleberry chap stick. They came and picked us up from our trail ride, and we hustled back to Great Northern Resort, who was also our outfitter for our whitewater rafting trip.
This was a great experience. It took some convincing for them to let Daniel go. I could tell that they really didn't want to let us, but in the end they left it up to us, and we decided he'd be just fine. They were worried about him being easily thrown from the boat because of his weight. Joe was our guide, and he was great. He loved the fact that we had our whole family out on the river, out hiking, and out in nature. The first 30 minutes of the trip were just floating through smooth water, and he took that time to instruct us well on what we needed to do once we hit the rapids. I remember that he said to keep paddling through them. The rapids were Class II and III. We hit the first one, and I stopped paddling. I don't know who else did, but I did. I was just in awe of the water. I heard Joe yell "keep paddling", and then we hit a rock. I bounced from the left side of the boat to the middle. Dailie bounced from the right side of the boat to the river!! I was pretty nervous at first, until the raft turned and I was able to see Dailie's face. She was very calm, and working her way back to the boat. Plus, Joe jumped right to action. Before I knew it, she was back in the boat. I asked her how she was. Her response- "It was fun!!". So, no serious trauma from that experience, that's good. We did, however, all learn how very cold rivers made from glacier melt can be. Brrrr!! Later in the trip, when the water was calm again, each of the kids voluntarily got in the river for a little swimming, just to try it out. Wow- cold.After Dailie fell out of the boat, Eliza was pretty nervous for the next few rapids, but by the end she was loving it, and asking to go again the next day. She can be pretty dramatic, and we were glad this photo caught a little of that. Daniel stayed right in the middle of the boat the whole time, holding on to the center line. He loved it, and Joe got a kick out of him. Throughout the rest of the week, we'd see Joe occasionally at the resort. He would always come and talk to the kids, and they loved it. He said Daniel was the youngest he had ever taken on the river. The rafting was a great experience. I'm so glad we did it.

It was still relatively early in the evening when we got done, but we'd had a full day already, so we decided to take things easy for the evening. We'd seen this maze on the way into our resort, so we decided to head back and check it out.


The Glacier Maze, a life size, 3-D maze with 1.5 miles of passageway. We divided into two teams. Dallin, Dailie and Audri vs. Mom, Dad, Eliza and Daniel.

Not only did you have to find your way through the maze, but you had to make your way to each of the four towers, to receive 4 different stamps on your card. It was lots of fun. Dallin, Dailie and Audri won : ).


After the maze adventure we headed to the Huckleberry Patch for our first try of huckleberries. We got huckleberry shakes, huckleberry ice cream, and huckleberry pie. We learned that huckleberries only grow in the wild, in the mountains of Montana and Idaho. Many people have tried unsuccessfully to cultivate them. WE read an article about a botanist who was successful in transplanting some huckleberry bushes, but not only had half of them died after a few short years, but none of them had ever born fruit. I found them fascinating, and after tasting them, I was a believer. The best way I can think of to describe the taste is kind of like a cross between a blueberry and a black raspberry. So yummy, and so fun that you can't just buy them anywhere.
Wednesday may have been our break from hiking, but that didn't mean we didn't wear ourselves out by the end of the day!! We were happy to hit our heads on our pillows at the cabin at the end of this day as well, only this time we had the lingering taste of huckleberries in our mouths....

Day 4: Many Glacier and Grinnell Glacier hike

Along wit h enjoying beautiful views at Glacier National Park, we also hoped to get a look at some wildlife we're not likely to find here in Illinois, including mountain goats, bighorn sheep, mule deer, elk, moose, and bear- black or grizzly. Before we left, based on reading that we were doing about the park, Rick and I decided that we should talk to the kids some about bears. We talked to them about what to do if we encountered a bear on a hike, how the worst thing to do is surprise a bear, so making noise is actually your best defense. Now, as far as offense, we taught them about backing, not running, away, curling up into fetal position if the bear approaches, and bear spray. Yes, this is like pepper spray, only bear style- more concentrated and much more serious. Apparently this little talk we had with the kids had more of an effect than we had imagined. As you may have already guessed, we were NOT ever attacked by a bear. But, while he didn't ever show signs of being concerned about it while we were at Glacier, since returning home, every prayer Daniel has said has included a "thank you that we were not attacked by a bear at Glacier". Anyway, Tuesday of the trip was the day we thought would be the most likely for us to see elk, moose, and bear, as the plan was to travel to the East side of the park where these animals are more prevalent. We got up and drove ourselves across the park on the Going to the Sun Road.

A couple more pictures that give you a feel for this engineering marvel.

Can you see the road skirting around the mountain across the valley?

Passed the farthest point we'd been to on Monday, we came to this beautiful viewing area of St Mary's Lake, and Wild Goose Island (a tiny little island that is a little hard to see in this photo, due to the pines- it kind of just looks like an extension of the pines). This is an oft photographed spot of the park, and very beautiful.
By the time we got to the area known as Many Glacier, it was time for lunch. We had our picnic lunch in an area with lots of instructions about not leaving garbage or food around the picnic tables, because of bears. We all had the desire to see a bear, at a safe distance, so we were careful to follow all the rules. After lunch, we started out on the trail to Grinnell Glacier. Before leaving, we spoke to a ranger who informed us that without ice picks and other snow hiking gear, we would not be going all the way to the glacier, but we could get within viewing distance.
This was another beautiful hike, with even new and different flora, fauna and terrain. This photo is of a flower called bear grass. It's not actually a grass, but from the lily family. It was named by Lewis and Clark, and it was always a delight to see.
This hike started around Lake Josephine and then continued up toward Grinnell Lake. Several photos from the video are from this hike, and I wanted to let you see some different ones. Maybe after my description you'll be able to pick out which ones in the video are from this hike. The above photo is Grinnell Lake, and I just thought it was so beautiful. I loved seeing it, and I love looking at every picture that we have that contains it. The color of the water, which can also be seen in other lakes and rivers in the park comes from glacial flour, small particles of rock eroded by the glacier that are now suspended in the water. Such a pretty color.
As we made our way up the trail, we met some hikers on their way back down who told us about a mama grizzly and her two cubs they had seen about 200 yards off the trail near the top. They said she was a comfortable distance away, and we got excited at the prospect of seeing her. Now it's true confession time. We didn't buy any bear spray. We intended to, but never took the time, or spent the $40, or however you want to look at it. Mostly, we felt like the chances of our group of 7 surprising any bear on the trail were pretty slim. We were not exactly the quietest hikers in the park, by a long shot. In this case, having noisy kids was a plus. We continued to hear about the bears from hikers crossing our path.
But by the time we got to our stopping point, which was here at this partially snow covered waterway, the bear and her cubs were no where to be seen. Bummer. They had crossed the path and headed down into this slope and had gotten far enough away that we couldn't even spot them by the time we were at the top. Interestingly enough, we just read an article about the famous zookeeper and animal handler Jack Hanna encountering a mama grizzly and her two cubs on this very same trail, just days after we were there. He had to use his bear spray. Maybe it was better that we didn't see her....

Once again the kids were great. This hike was 7.5 miles round trip, and while I'm not claiming that they never complained, they were definitely troopers. I think they were starting to get the idea of the rewarding views these hikes could bring.

The way back down from all the hikes always went so much faster. Once we got back to our car this day, we still had a 2.5 hour ride back to our cabin, and it was already getting late fast, so we decided this would be a good day to try some local eats. We stopped at the Two Sisters Cafe, which is only open 3 months of the year and was serving bison burgers. Dallin, Rick and I each had one, and it was yummy!!We actually didn't take any pictures at the cafe (I'm not sure why not), but I pulled this one off the web, of the exact table we sat at. We all enjoyed the license plate collection. Each one is in the geographical correct location to form the USA. Fun and yummy. Double good.
We didn't see a bear or elk or moose at Many Glacier, but as we drove past Logan Pass, we were treated to the sight of these mountain goats. They were fun.

You'll have to keep reading to find out which day we did finally see a bear. Fortunately for us, it was much less eventful than Jack Hanna's encounter, or these other encounters that have all happened SINCE we got home. Are there more than normal, or am I just more aware of them? Who knows?
Bear crashes in runaway car
1 dead, 2 injured in Montana bear attack