(This was written a while ago before the trip up the Grand and should have been posted earlier, but I'm a little off with the blogging right now.)
So, it has been a while and I apologize… I lost my blogging stride a little after going off to Glacier for the Fourth of July. We had quite a blast and it completely wore me out.
So, one my favorite new things about the park service is their policy on holidays. They’ll never screw you out of a holiday if it falls on your day off (colleges should think about instituting this…) Basically, the Fourth fell on a Saturday and I’m normally off on Fridays (I work 4 – 10 hour days) so I got of Thursday. YAY for a three day week, while getting paid for four!
Anyway, so Anna and I left for Glacier! Alex, her fellow intern, and his roommate Matt joined us as well. The drive wasn’t too bad, around eight hours in the green rolling hills of Idaho and Montana. Saw a few interesting things on the way… First, for some reason all bales of hay in Idaho are square. Kinda looks like a farmer’s version of modern art. And, apparently, there’s nothing else to do out in the middle of nowhere…. Sad.
On the first night in we stopped at Charlie’s Bar in Babb, MT on the eastern side of the park… the local bar on the res. It was a very interesting outlook on local Indian/Park relations. Definitely a decent amount of animosity between the two, especially concerning the most recent fire out there that originated in the park and spread to the reservation. And the place was carpeted…. Eeeww. (But, all together, totally worth going. Plus, Babb is the coolest town ever. Had to get a Babb T-shirt.) Ended up camping in St. Mary’s in the park. Okay campground, but not fabulous, campsites were WAY.
Second day was our day in Glacier … The plan was to do the Highline trail but we had heard that it wasn’t open yet. We ended up going to Iceberg Lake and then up the scree field to where the Shangri La Trail is but ended up sliding on our butts all the way back down. Tons of fun, but hard on the knees. Made our way across the park on the Going-To-The-Sun Road (just as awesome as last year!) and anna and i jumped in the flathead on the side of the road. CRAZY COLD. But super fun.
And the culmination of the trip....... POLEBRIDGE. My first ever hippie commune. Living off the grid at its finest. (And, the mercantile is on the National Register of Historic Places, so it was totally educational.)
Frisbee and beer games and music all day long. Met tons of awesomely hilarious people camped on the banks of the river with a huge bonfire.... If only I hadn't lost my camera somewhere in that crazy town. :(
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