Montana was pretty warm, however, and this would be the first time we had to camp in above 60-degree weather (it was...85-90 during the day and luckily in the low 70s at night). We decided at Rising Sun campgrounds, which were near the other side of the park, allowing us to drive through most of the park (well, on the road we were on) in the beginning so we could decide which parts to revist. Logans Pass, the continental divide and highest point, was a definite must but all the views and terrain were unsurpassed in their beauty. It was amazingly gorgeous and completely different than anything else we had seen. The fact that there was still snow on the ground was awesome and it got pretty cold up there.
At one of the stops along the way, we (and a bazillion other tourists) got to see a few mountain goats (and fawn) and extremely friendly marmots cavorting around looking for a hand out.
It might be a marmot or a squirrel. Either way, these things are everywhere.
After we ate dinner, we went back to Logan's Pass and did a nice 1.5 mile hike up the mountain to a lake-side view that just stole our breath. It was a pretty arduous trek as the atmosphere thinned significantly (I believe we were up 8000+ feet) and the entire hike was up. We ran into even more mountain goats (some less than 2-3 feet away) and saw a wolverine crossing the snowbanks (though it moved too quickly for me to snag a photo). Despite the grandeur of the Grand Canyon (no pun intended), this was the single most amazing sight of the entire trip for me. Devastatingly brilliant.
Oh yeah...
We had planned on hitting Yellowstone in Wyoming as well but we ran out of time, unfortunately. After getting up at the crack of dawn (well, more like 7am), we began our long drive through Wyoming to make it back to Denver. The rest of the drive through Montana was really, really boring. It's like they save all their best stuff for one area and then the rest is just grassland with nothing on it. Also, we locked our car keys inside the car at a gas station and that was no fun.
I forgot to mention that we stayed in Missoula, Montana before hitting the park and that was pretty cool. It's got a nice, small, art-town feel (thanks to the university presence), and we had a really nice dinner. I actually had some organic, free-range Bison (is there any other kind?) which was excellent and they gave us colored pencils and I drew robots all over the paper "table cloth." And we actually did stay at a hotel, despite my overactive imagination (regarding The Shining). I kept thinking a dead, bloated corpse would crawl out of the bathroom and strangle me but whatever.
Anyway, so while Glacier National Park rules (and Missoula was pretty neat), the rest of Montana can jump off a cliff. No, that's too harsh. But it made for some boring driving and an embarrassing memory.
Wyoming was just a drive, really. But it was damned more interesting than Montana. The road was also red. What? It looked like it was made of clay almost. But while the drive through Wyoming was very pretty to look at (until it just became pitch black), there's not much else to say. The Super 8 was nice? Well, it was.
And then we come full-circle as we returned to Denver the next morning. There, our buddy Mait showed us the biggest goddamn REI I had ever seen and we had some drinks before we headed off to meet my friend Lafe for the evening.
Lafe is an old, old friend of mine from high school whom I haven't seen for years. Currently he's working for some government agency as a physicist and spends the rest of his time doing judo and jiu-jitsu. Despite the number of years, it was very easy to fall back into the familiar rhythm of friendship and that was great.
Now we're sitting in Dallas/Ft. Worth awaiting our flight to take us back to Hartford where we'll drive up to Boston and I go to work the next day. Woohoo! Fun fun fun.
And I just remembered that I didn't get a chance to snag a photo of any of the Seattle crew NOR Lafe and that sucks. Oh well. I'm sure Rebecca will give a great closing post for this entire trip after we get back so I'll end it here. At the airport!
--Eric
Sunset in Wyoming
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