Day 51: Glacier National Park

Missoula, MT

We had a pretty nice 4th yesterday. We went down to the river, and there was a weird place in the river where the water broke and made a continuous small, curling wave. The water was otherwise rushing really fast, but there were nevertheless several river surfers out there riding the one wave. After awhile, they'd each fall and get pulled down the river pretty fast, but somehow kept making their way back. It looked really fun, but dangerous. The day was beautiful and the water was freezing! We also took a dip in the hotel pool.

Dean and I took a road trip to Glacier National Park today! It was absolutely fantastic -- possibly the most beautiful place I've ever been in the world (I'd say it's neck and neck with Geiranger Fjord in Norway). We took one of the nature trails and stopped at every chance we could to take photos. All the way there in the car and the entire time we were in the park, we just kept saying, "Wow! WOW! Oh, man! Look, look, look!" We also saw some new (for us) species of animal, including a giant black and blue bird that looked like a giant bluejay, kind of, and prairie dogs! I'm really glad we went.

Ever since we got to Montana, we've just seen tons and tons of bicycle tourists. It's WAY more than we've seen anywhere else -- several per day. We saw a few on the Going-to-the-Sun road at Glacier, and I thought they were totally crazy. Not only was the road busy and narrow, with NO shoulder at all, but I can guarantee that not a single driver was watching the road. It was so stunningly beautiful in every direction, that looking at the road was impossible. I hope the bikers made it okay!

I'm going to pepper the entire post with pictures from today, since they can explain it better than I can (though they still don't do the park justice), and move on to other subjects.

This morning I went straight to the Adventure Cycling Association (ACA) headquarters, about a block from our motel, and bought a Lewis and Clark map leaving from Missoula. We are getting on the road again tomorrow! The day after tomorrow we will begin what is hopefully our swift and decisive conquest of the rockies. Really, I'm nervous about getting back on the road after so long off, and of getting back on the road in the rockies after so long off. It's been about a week since our last bike day!

This route will take us through Idaho, Washington and Oregon, still ending up in Seaside/Astoria. I am excited about going through the twin cities (one in Idaho and one in Washington of Lewiston and Clarkston. I can't remember if we'll hit Pacific time at the Idaho border or the Washington border, but it's soon! I'd say we have three weeks left on the trip. That kind of makes me sad! And it kind of makes me relieved.

I really hope we make it through this next week in the rockies!