Current Location: East Glacier, Montana
I know it’s been an awfully long time since we’ve posted, and after such a busy summer riding the rails, I’m certain you’ve all been waiting on pins and needles to see our favorite stops. I promise folks, this post is worth the wait because Glacier National Park is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever set eyes on.
The first leg of our journey had us taking the Empire Builder from Chicago to Portland. Since we were desperate to see the Montana mountains, we were gleeful to discover that Amtrak has a station in East Glacier Park Village on the Empire Builder route. The station is right on the outskirts of both the Park and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.
The history nerd in me was even more thrilled to discover that the Glacier Park Lodge, built in 1913 by the Great Northern Railroad, is less than a block’s distance from the station. We didn’t stay at the Lodge (I would’ve had to sell a kidney to afford it), but it was amazing inside and from the Lodge’s vast windows we got our first view of the Rocky Mountain Front. Surreptitiously, for our last afternoon, we posed as guests so that I could conduct a job interview and K could recover from food poisoning before getting back on the road.
Instead of hitchhiking or cycling into the park, as many of our fellow campers did this season, we rented a truck and set out with our backpacking gear. Naturally, we timed our stop at Glacier National Park to perfectly coincide with both wildflower season and (as always) tourist season. I was certain that all the campsites would be taken (they were) and all the trails would be crowded (they were). But we were not prepared for how occupied everything would be, or how gorgeous everything was.
Nothing could dampen our spirits once we entered the Park because Glacier is simply a masterpiece. Every view is a postcard, and every lookout is a painting.
himheradventure.com 