It took me lot of time and resources to gather the amount of pics and videos we had taken during our trip to Glacier and Yellowstone. Mind that we had our Cell phones as well as a DSLR Camera to cover our memories.
Travelling to National Parks with Kids isn't easy. It comes with its own challenges. Do they have Restaurants ? Will there be Restrooms ?? Do we have to take GPS devices ? Will our Mobiles have Network Coverage ??
First Things first, We haven't comes across any restaurants inside the national park. There might have been some, but may be due to Covid or some other gracious reasons, we haven't seen any open. Coming to restrooms, there were few, but we never dared to get inside it. So iam clueless how well they were maintained (Iam sure the services would have been good)
There shall be no network coverage, so i either suggest to carry your own GPS device or purchase a mobile app called "The Gypsy Guide". I seriously fell in love with that app. That's your one solution for everything. Its your GPS, Tour Guide and Map. It provides verbal information about the place/park. it also suggest some beautiful places or pitstops to take to view the most scenic places.
Coming to Food, Since we knew there wont be any, we packed our 3QT instant pot along with rice and lentils. As soon we landed in Bozeman, we visited walmart and brought all the essentials like Apples, Bananas, Oranges, Bread, Jam, Peanut Butter, water, Cookies, cupcakes, Chips, Cake slices and much more...
we kind of folded our third row in our car, which gave us enough of space apart from luggage to place a blanket for our girls to play, color and doing all kinds of nonsense what they are meant to do.
For those who were following my journey to three National Park, Here's the Day 1 -
Glacier National Park.
We booked our Stay at Hungry Horse (Yes its the name of the place where we stayed). Its a small town with only one General stores and couple of Gas Stations apart from Hotels. After a tiresome and beaten up ride to mountains, a warm and cozy bed made our day. We woke up to a beautiful cloudy day in the mountains. I didn't realize that our stay was within the Park and its serene.
First thing after breakfast, we planned our trip. We wanted to cover all the serene and scenic places which includes Lake Mc Donald, Logan Pass, Going to the Sun Road and St Mary's.
One thing which I had in my mind was whether the girls were up to Hike or not. when i checked with Pari, she said she wanted to have kid friendly hikes. But Daddy wasn't sure that the girls were up to it. But we still made up our plan and checked out of our cozy Hotel..
As soon as we entered our Apgar Visitor center, The Rangers provided Pari with Junior Ranger Activity Kit. If she could complete all the activities in the Kit, she would be honored as Junior Ranger For a day.
Our first pitstop was the Sprague Creek. Just a few miles before lake McDonald. This is a small picnic and camping site. But trust me, its the most beautiful one.. Here's a glimpse of Sprague Creek.
Here are some of our family pics.. (mostly Mine lol...)
Next Stop.. The most Beautiful Lake McDonald.. Trust me.. one should not visit the lake in a rush.. Take your own time to breathe and love the nature. Its amazingly beautiful. Pics do not do justice to the place.
Girls had a blissful day at the lake. There were couple of seniors at the lake, who were also visiting like us, they loved the way the girls were playing with the pebbles and shoving they hands in water, i mean who doesnt like kids doing silly nonsense things. These amazing people came to us and checked if its ok to teach rock skipping to the girls. We were more than happy to let them learn.
After reminiscing the beauty of Lake McDonald, We were enroute to Going to the Sun Road. (yes its named Going to the Sun).. It was the most beautiful path through the mountains, we were gaining altitude with every turn. As said earlier each and every turn had a different view of the valley and lake.
Our Next major stop was at Trail of the Cedars. Our little Pari jumped to joy when she learnt it was a hike.
I did setup my camera along with Tripod inside the falls and set it to lowest shutter speed to capture the beautiful angelic view of the falls.
Next we took a random pitstop and found this gem of a place. This small lake is formed with the melted water from the Glacier.
As we were tracing our steps back to our car, we came across this artist, who drew this amazingly beautiful canvas of this beauty.
We passed though weeping wall, towards the Logan Pass. It was freezingly cold. bruhhh...!!!!
I had no choice but to change to anything and something warm to save myself from freezing to Death. We made sure the girls were bundled up before we stepped out of the vehicle.
Once you get out of the vehicle, you will feel the breeze sweeping down through the Glacier towards you. Trust me, if you are not prepared for the cold, i suggest you to pass. But its a must visit place. One has to take some time and hike towards the Hidden lake from the Logan pass visitor center. The Hidden lake is one of a kind place to see. Being so close to the Glacier is an once in a life time opportunity and do not miss it for anything. I have seen couples hiking with their tots and infants in their carriers.
One of the challenges which Pari had to achieve being a Junior Ranger was to talk to an actual Ranger. So we approached Ranger Bob at the Logan Pass and man trust me.. she had numerous questions in her mind, ranging from "How old is this Glacier to How do animals survive here in winter ??" To which Ranger Obliged and answered very patiently to our Pari.
At the Logan Pass..
Thats the Trail to the Hidden Lake.. Check below how far we had to travel..
Thats our Summit..!
I did not carry my camera to the trail, Fearing of damaging or losing my dearie. But hubby's Samsung came to the rescue when i saw this amazing view through the trail walk.
Once we were done with our Visit at the Logan Pass we resumed our travel towards St Mary's. We came across Sun Point Nature Trail. This was one short Trail we did with our Pari, as Ruhi was already knocked out asleep in the vehicle. So Sashi stayed back, giving me and Pari all the time in the world to walk around..
St Mary's visitor center was our last stop at the Glacier National Park, where Pari had to submit her Junior Ranger Activity Book and had ceremonial activity to obtain her Jr ranger Badge.
Yes, we were so close to Canada Border that we can actual travel to Canada through the Glacier National Park.
We then planned to descend the mountain and travel towards our Next destination which is Yellowstone National Park. It was already 6 PM and were pretty sure we cannot reach our stay at Yellow stone before dark. So we thought to check in on the way, which will provide enough of time for us to recharge for the next day and the girls can have much needed sleep time before the next adventure begins.
During our Descend we came across a beautiful viewpoint named Goose Island. It has its own Folk tale. i shall try to explain it in simple terms..
"One day a strikingly handsome warrior from one tribe noticed a beautiful woman from the other tribe swimming towards the island. he couldn't resist her beauty and swam to meet her on the island. The two met, clicked instantly, spoke for hours, exchanged numbers, followed each other on insta, facebook, twitter and other social media accounts and promised to meet again tomorrow morning on the island. Well the two lovers used to meet there everyday until their tribal leaders found out (Looks like Network was very feeble and couldn't inform each other). Fearing for their lives they prayed the Great Spirit, who turned them to Geese who flew away and were never found by their Tribal Leaders."
Look at this amazing Wild Goose Island.
Here are few beautiful pics which we managed to grab during our descend (mind that Sashi was already annoyed with my "Stop the car for a one quick pic". Sorry cant help myself when i come across something as beautiful as this). So here's to the Blissful, Serene and eventful DAY1 of our journey.. (it feels we did cover a lot on Day 1.. Wait and Watch for Day 2)..
And let the exploring saga continue...
Comments