7 posts tagged “mountains”

What would you name your first, or next child? (Girl or boy.)

Fun question.  I'm done having kids but have thought about it.  If I had another girl, I'd name her Lola after my mom.  The name is making a comeback and it would be cute to have Lily & Lola.  Had Lily been a boy, she would have been named Bridger Steele.  Bridger for the Bridger Mountains where we went to college and Steele for the Steelers, of course!

Taken while skiing.

Sun sets over the Bridger mountains "Heaven's light shines where the mountains meet the prairies".  Near Cody, Wyoming.

Which is your favorite from the photos above?

Bald eagle seen in Wyoming on our way home.

That concludes our 11-day adventure!

Show us your favorite winter activity.

Lily skiing at age 3.  We make a trip to Montana every year and spend 2 days skiing.  We'll be going right after Christmas.

Did you go to summer camp?  Which one?  What did you enjoy doing? 
Submitted by Something Else.

I went to Bible camp my 2 years in middle school.  It's called Christikon and is located in the Rocky Mountains just north of Yellowstone National Park in southern Montana.  I wish I had started going to camps earlier because I enjoyed it so much.  I went along with other youth from my church and one of my good friends.  If you asked me back then, I'm sure what I most enjoyed was the cute boys.  During the week, we spent one night with our group one a sleepaway hike in tents.  We got rained on one year but we were by a beautiful, little mountain creek.  I also remember trail bread.  If anyone is familiar with it or has the recipe, I'd love to have it!

The Going-to-the-Sun Road crosses the Continental Divide at Logan Pass which has an altitude of 6,646 feet.  It's chilly, so don't forget a coat.  Logan Pass is a sub alpine region so there are few trees.  However, the wildflowers cover the mountains like a blanket.

There is a small visitor's center on Logan Pass with a backdrop of Mount Clements.

Several hiking trails begin on Logan Pass.  We decided to take the trail up to Hidden Lake, one of the most visited places in Glacier.  It is a 3 miles round trip hike around the left side of Mount Clements.  The 1st portion is a bit of an incline but there is a boardwalk with steps to make it easier.  However, by the time we'd reached the top of the incline, I needed a breather!   There were amazing views to be seen from the trail.

 

There were several small waterfalls along the trail and many animals.

 

At the end of the trail lies the Hidden Lake Lookout.  You can hike further and go right down to the lake but our group wasn't prepared for that long of a journey.  Would you believe my batteries started dying on my camera here, of all places?

I think Hidden Lake is one of the most beautiful places in Glacier.  I was surprised by the lack of snow and glaciers throughout the park.  According to a video at the visitors' center, the remaining 12,000 year old glaciers will be completely melted by 2030.  Don't wait to go!

 

I felt like I could stay here and take in the beauty forever.  Unfortunately, our stomachs were telling us they needed nourishment!  Next time, I plan to pack a lunch and hike all the way down to the lake.

Mountain goats were also abundant on the trail and quite tame.  When Amy, Lily, and I were hiking back down together, I came around a bend and there was this mountain goat coming on the trail right towards us!  It really startled me so I put myself in front of Lily and started backing up, knocking her down in the process.  The goat could've cared less about us and continued on his merry way.  My camera cooperated long enough to get a quick photo, too.  This picture was taken after we'd backed up and is not zoomed!

There was one small bend in the trail where it was narrow and a bit steep on the side.  Jace was running ahead of us and suddenly I saw him clinging to the side of this drop off!  It wasn't a sheer cliff, but probably a 45 degree gravel slide and he definitely wouldn't have fallen without injury.  Once again, we discovered that I do not react well in crisis situations with the kids as my response was to yell at Ray, "what is Jace doing"?!  Thankfully, there was an Oriental family between us who spotted him at about the same time as we did.  The woman quickly grabbed his arm and helped him up.  We didn't know whether to be angry at him or hug him as we'd been telling the kids repeatedly to stop running ahead!  I'm still amazed that he never yelled or let go of his disposable camera.  In fact, he claims he crawled back up himself.  Hmm...........

Lily thought she should check out some of the creek water.  Brrrr!

At the conclusion of our hike, we headed back down the GTS Road west.  This time we were back on the inside lane so my heart didn't stop quite as many times.  We were exhausted by the time we got to the bottom so stopped for a quick supper at an A&W and then collapsed into our beds.  Tune in again tomorrow as we get reacquainted with the relatives!

I finished off yesterday where we'd just come off our little hike to Baring Falls.  From there, we continued up the east side of the Going-to-the-Sun Road.  I had memories of the GTS Road from our trip to Glacier when I was 12.  I think I spent some of that drive on the floorboards or wishing I could.  As we traveled up the east side, I thought it wasn't too bad.  It certainly helped that we were on the inside lane next to the mountain.  The east side of the GTS Road was completed in 1933 and is 10 miles long.   Along the road, there are numerous bridges and culverts which take waterfalls and creeks under the road.

At the top of the GTS Roads is Logan Pass, the continental divide, at 6,646 feet.  This picture is taken from the car as we're nearing the top of the east side. On the 1st day, we just stopped briefly at the visitors' center on Logan Pass.  Then, we proceeded to head down the other side of the mountain on the west side of the GTS Road.  At the first lookout point, there were some very tame mountain goats. Going down the west side of the GTS Road wasn't too bad either.  Of course, we were on the inside wall again.  However, the road is narrower on that side and there were a few times I thought Ray was going to scrape the Yukon against the rock wall. Watch for Segment 3 tomorrow.

The 1st part of our journey took us over the Montana Hi-Line.  It's the northern part of the state which is flat and covered with fields of wheat.  It definitely made me think of "amber waves of grain"!

We spent the night in Havre and headed west the next morning.  It was only a few hours when we got our 1st glimpse of mountains. We entered the park on the NE side at the town of St. Mary's.  We started up the east side of the Going-to-the-Sun Road by St. Mary's Lake.  There were numerous fires burning in NW Montana so it was pretty smokey.  We stopped at the head of several trails that went along the lake and picked the shortest one, .7 miles each way, to Baring Falls. We had to cross this scary bridge made of 2 logs and a railing on one side. It was well worth the reward, though. To be continued...............