Glacier Park 2012 - blog 1

[my favorite photo from the trip]

This evening we returned home from a very enjoyable trip to Glacier Park, Montana. I am still on my vacation 'high' so I think it is best to jump right in with a post and photos tonight. I have so much to write about and many photos to share, so this adventure will spread over a few posts, over a few days.

Corey, Kya and I were very happy to have a buddy along for this trip – Corey's mom Andrea – the four of us departed Bismarck on Saturday, June 9. We took the Montana highway 12 route and stayed in Helena mid-way Saturday evening. We arrived at Glacier on June 10. For the trip home, we stayed in Bozeman and took the interstate most of the way home. Both road trips were enjoyable with minimal fussing from Kya. The drive through Montana can take a few different routes, none of which are 'perfect' when driving to the northwest corner of the state ... but I'm happy to report that both our routes had minimal road construction, plenty of good places to eat and many clean potties for our toddler.

While at Glacier, Kya leaned a few new words and has a few new favorites: waterfall, hiking, backpack (where she rides), mountain, trees, bear, moose, glacier, forest.

The last week yielded some wonderful early-season lighting (and very few other park visitors! yay!) and I had three very special subjects to photograph. The famous Going to the Sun Road was still closed because of late season heavy snowfall but we found many other trails to hike and things to do to keep us entertained.

Yeah, we had fun.

. . . 

Saturday, June 9

Mass in Helena, MT

It'a rare that Corey and I agree on a hypothetical "if we were to move, we'd move here" location, but we both agreed Helena would be on the list. Helena is a great small city in a breathtaking setting in the mountains. Oh and downtown Helena has an amazing walking mall with a huge local toy store and TWO ice cream shops. What's not to love?

Sunday, June 10

Just a few miles outside of Helena, in a national forest, is a small remote cabin that is owned by Corey's distant relatives. The cabin used to be a vacation spot for his family and cousins so we had to make a quick stop to reminisce. It would be generous to say the road to get to the cabin was questionable - especially in Corey's sedan car - at one point, we high-centered it! Note to self: take an SUV or truck.

The drive adventure was well worth it ... the cabin is amazing! I sincerely hope that we are able to spend a weekend here sometime. 

Corey's mom's great uncle was a priest and had a little chapel built on the land. After seeing the chapel, I gave Corey a hard time about why we didn't get married out here.

The cabin backs up to a creek (which was more of a river when we visited, as there was lots of rain coming down). The outhouse is in the background.

On the way to Glacier, we stopped at a lake to stretch our legs and explore.


And I found lupines!

For the next five nights, we called Apgar home. This was our cabin.


Apgar is located 2 miles inside the west entrance of Glacier National Park (circled area on map).


Our cabin opened to McDonald Creek, which drains from McDonald Lake (also just a few steps away). We planned ahead and brought groceries and grilling supplies so most of our meals were cooked right here on this grill.

Lots of rock skipping (and throwing) happened here.

Boats available for rent on McDonald Lake.

The McDonald Lake Apgar boat dock.