Montana & Glacier Nat'l Park (Sept 27th - Oct 11th)

Big Sky Country.

Montana. Oh Beautiful Montana.

My dad joined me for 2 weeks to camp throughout Northern Montana in and around Glacier National Park. It is hard to take a bad picture there, so I hope you enjoy...

This adventure began with the Southwestern awards banquet, celebrating the successful summer our team from Colorado worked so hard for.





From left to right: Lindsay Jones, Dan Clymore-Greene, Tyler Williams, Myself, Casi Smigelsky, Lauren Bittinger, Jonay Jones, Devon Ferguson and Henry Albert Lee III. And the rest of our awesome team who couldn't make this awards Banquet: Kyla Young, Katie DiLorenzo,Maryellen Powers, and Adam Berrier

 To the best organization in Southwestern. I love you guys.



Pearl Jam! Thanks to Jamin Dailey and his father, I got to experience Pearl Jam for the first time live in Missoula. What a great show!!

Next, we drove into wilderness...



This picture is taken near Lake McDonald, the western beginning of the popular 'Going to the Sun Road'. The majority of the road was blocked off due to construction, so we found a campsite in the backcountry and set up camp. It rained all night and we woke to snow-capped mountains...!

Beautiful fall colors in Glacier National Park

Nice work with your tripod Daddio

 Beautiful view from the eastern end of Saint Mary Lake, on Going to the Sun Road

 Dad at the Sun Point viewing area

Dad and I decided to take a hike into the mountains...

 Neat reflection in the puddle at sunset

That night we slept at the KOA in Saint Mary. Chad Dailey's friend, Peter Brooke and his father Will let us stay in a warm cabin for free. What a blessing. Thank you so much for opening your campground to us.

 

Ahh! the next day was so great. Blue skies! The snow highlighted the unbelievable beauty of the park

 Grizzly!! There were two grizzlies hanging out near the road for us to watch for about 10 minutes. They were the first grizzly bears either of us had ever seen. What a day!

 Grizzly is eating some berries off the trees

 Dad is talking with a nature lover from the east coast. These guys are taking pictures of a black bear with their awesome cameras

 Unreal!

 This is another grizzly Dad spotted near the road. Good find Dad! We watched him by ourselves for a good while. Dad hooted at the bear to get this great photo.

 After our trip in Glacier Park, we met up with Jamin and Chad Dailey at Stanton Lake for a few days camping in the woods. What a great place! We hiked about 45 minutes through the dark to arrive at this location, where none of us had ever visited.

What a view from our camp spot!



 Chad was the master at catching fish for us. They tasted like...fish. Fresh fish. Delicious!

Jamin, myself and Chad the moment before they left on their hike back home. What great campers!



Dad's backpack. Look comfy, eh. He carried this to and from our campsite. What a haus.



This view is from the Prince of Wales hotel in Waterton, Canada

Another angle from the Prince of Wales hotel

Our first night in Waterton, which connects to Glacier Nat'l Park, it rained throughout the entire afternoon and evening. We found a campsite and began to cook some salmon and rice. While raining, Dad expressed how he'd wish to stay in a hotel. Hotels were over $100, so we decided to tough it out and sleep in the rain.

I decided to walk to one of the hotels to watch Monday night football and some playoff baseball. I ordered a couple drinks and relaxed while introducing myself to the locals. Coincidentally, I met a man named Thom McCann who is very friendly. He asked me where I planned to stay, and I answered that we had a camp spot. I mentioned my Dad had a bad back and he could tell I wasn't overly enthusiastic about our situation. So he offered the two of us a free room with 2 queen beds. Wow!! What an awesome gift. My dad was super stoked. We continued having fun at the hotel bar because they were having a send off party for one of the employees. Thom was very generous to pick up our entire tab as well. Thanks so much Thom, this generous act will come back to you sometime soon.

Montana! What a great state. And a great chapter in this story...

Namaste