Happy Birthday, Scott.

After a great night's sleep in our cushy suite, we got up early and hit the road, headed to Glacier National Park in Montana. We left at 7:35 AM and a chilly 47 degrees and turned the car south toward the US border. I will say, it did warm up as the day progressed and by the time we arrived at our hotel, it was 86 degrees and a good time to zip the legs off of my hiking pants.

The drive began through more flat yellow prairie land and as we moved south, suddenly there they were, on the distant horizon, in an early morning haze…the mountains. They began to rise ever so slowly as we drove southwest and I began to feel the anticipation and excitement. We saw small towns with homes and businesses clustered in the landscape, huddled in the shadow of the foothills. And we saw cows grazing with great gray rocky mountains as a backdrop. If only they knew. We began to climb in elevation as we made our way through the foothills, and the angular ridges of the rocks got more defined and their glacial snow got whiter and brighter under the rays of sun.

At 10 AM we crossed the border and were back in the US. This was the easiest crossing yet, as there was no line and the border agent didn’t ask many questions. He had a great sense of humor suggesting, when we told him we were from Florida, that we must have taken a wrong turn at Albuquerque.

By 9:30 we had arrived at the entrance to Glacier National Park. Now, this was our third visit in that many years. The goal is always to drive the Road to the Sun, which crosses the park and offers incredible views of the glaciers and lakes. The first time we arrived from the west and our plan was to cross the park west to east. But road construction prevented us from venturing past Lake Macdonald, which is only about one third of the way. The following year, we had a plan to approach the park from the east and cross from east to west. But a fire had the east entrance closed, so we had to drive around the southern end of the park and enter on the west side. We drove as far as they would allow, which was up to Logan’s pass, but not through it. This year we were determined to see the illusive east side and today we were successful. We drove up to and through Logan’s Pass and beyond it, then turned back and exited the park, since we had seen the west side twice. And we were not disappointed.

The vistas in this park are incredible. And those of you who are headed here in a couple of weeks, you are going to love this place. It is a feast for the eyes. The park has large, although shrinking, glaciers nestled in crevices and adorning the faces of the angular ridges of the grey majestic walls. And framing these powerful images are tall dark green Douglas firs intermixed with the white-barked aspens and their delicate leaves floating in the breeze. Wild flowers spring to life around every corner and lakes of deep blue create a carpet so calm and smooth, they reflect a perfect image of the mountains above them.

We took it all in, I snapped about 200 photos and when our senses were filled, we turned and headed down the road toward Great Falls. Along the way we saw free range cows (almost hit one as it was crossing the road) and American Indian reservations such as Blackfeet, each with their casinos and tired little towns. And a few lucky landowners were reaping not only hay and wheat in their fields, but the black gold that is pumped up from deep in the ground by those colorful hammers bouncing up and down in a rhythmic cadence, making someone rich.

We arrived at our hotel at 4 PM and were delighted to find that they had upgraded us to a suite with 2 rooms, a fireplace and a huge whirlpool tub. Who could ask for more? Tomorrow we head further south, stopping in Casper, Wyoming on our way to our very favorite state in the lower 48, Colorado.