Route 49 into the park was tricky. The cliff faces above threatened to dump rocks and boulders onto the road surface, which was already in rough shape with evidence of recent rock slides, severe cracks, dips and potholes. The opposite side of the road had narrow to non-existent shoulders supporting guardrails, beyond which was a steep drop down to a place we didn’t want to go.
Just a short time after we entered the park, the weather changed its mind. Everything was grey and a cloud had wrapped itself around the mountains like a shroud. The weather forecast had said it should clear up and warm up in a day or two, so we set up camp in our beautiful drab setting with high hopes for the days ahead. We stayed at the Two Medicine Lake Campground, and chose a site toward the end of the lake with a beautiful view of it.
That evening at the amphitheater, one of the Rangers gave an excellent talk about bears and bear safety. He said he loves his job, and will probably quit when he has two bad days in a row. Shouldn’t we all be so lucky?! He was very entertaining as well as informative, providing interesting facts about the local bear population and some stories of his own bear sightings.
Back at our campsite, the dampness added to the chill in the air, along with the stiff wind coming off the ice-cold lake. I went to bed that night with Ken chuckling at me, and I couldn’t blame him. I wore thermals under my pajama pants, a thermal under a t-shirt which was under a hoodie, wool socks, a knit hat, and a bandana covering my face so my nose wouldn’t freeze and I could breathe warm air. Although goofy looking, it worked. We also stuffed our fleece liners inside our sleeping bags, and our mummy bags inside that. This worked well too, in spite of the temperature dropping to the mid-thirties each night we were there. The problem would be getting out of the sleeping bags in the freezing morning air!
Our second and third days both started out with a little sunshine poking through off and on, and chilly temperatures.
I started each day with some pictures of the Columbian Ground Squirrels who lived in our campsite. They were numerous, always very busy, and not terribly shy. They reminded me of their relative the prairie dog in their appearance and behaviors, so I became obsessed with them!
We drove around exploring different areas both days. Unfortunately, the Going to the Sun Road was still closed due to snow, but there was plenty of scenery to take in.
Back at camp, the pesky cloud would settle back into its apparent nightly resting place. We had a hot dinner, after which we planted ourselves in the Jeep to watch a movie before retiring.
On day 4, it was raining and there were at least two inches of standing water throughout our whole campsite when we got up. Rather than slosh around making and eating breakfast, we treated ourselves to a late breakfast at a place in town. We’d been eyeballing the signs for Huckleberry Pie every time we drove by them, and we couldn’t fight it anymore. Bad weather severely weakens our resistance to indulgent food. We had breakfast, and huckleberry pie with huckleberry ice cream for dessert!
After breakfast, the weather continued getting worse, prompting us to check the NOAA forecast. They were calling for up to 20 inches of snow in locations above six thousand feet, and we were somewhere between five and six thousand. There was no way our tent would hold up under that kind of snow – it would collapse under the weight. Aside from that, Route 49 had already been closed the day before due to rock and mud slides. Other local roads could follow suit and leave us stuck there for days. By the time we got back to the tent, heavy wet snow was already falling.
We broke down camp as fast as we could in the freezing cold. When we started to take down the tent, there were already two inches of snow on it. I scraped it off with a small dust pan, and it kept accumulating as fast as I could remove it. We folded up the tent with whatever snow was left on it, and stuffed it into the Jeep – a real chore, now that it probably weighed about 90 pounds. Since the big tent has to be packed first, all our other gear had to be unloaded, sit out collecting snow, and then get reloaded – making the whole process that much longer and more tedious. We wrapped some of the cloth items like backpacks and such with a tarp, but pretty much everything was wet to some degree when we re-packed it into the Jeep. Ken was smart enough to have his rain suit with him, so he stayed pretty dry. I, on the other hand, in all my genius, decided to leave my rain suit in Florida, thinking just my rain jacket would suffice. So I had to go to the restroom to peel off my freezing wet jeans, blot my legs semi-dry with toilet paper, and squeeze on another pair of jeans over still damp and sticky skin! Finally we got on the road, cursing the place and our luck.
This snowplow was out making rounds when we stopped for gas and coffee.
When we were planning this tent-camping-across-the-continent-to-Alaska trip, we researched where we wanted to stop along the way. Glacier National Park is known as "The Crown Jewel of the Continent." It was supposed to look like this and like this. It was NOT supposed to look like this!
Don't worry, Little Miss No Sunshine For Us Crown Jewel... we'll be back with bells on - and with a camper to withstand your harsh and unpredictable moods!
Before too long, we found some sunny skies and dry roads on our way to Great Falls.
We kept looking back at where we came from, glad we had left that place.
On the horizon, we spotted another big storm brewing and hoped it wasn’t where we were headed.
That storm did miss us, but don't worry - we got rained on (and in) for the next three days!
There are more pictures of critters, landscapes, windmill farms, and all kinds of weather in the photo album - check it out!
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