Idaho and Montana
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On a roll, we stayed at another Wal-Mart the next night in Montana. This one was much smaller, kinda dumpy, and I threw up twice that night. Too much partying with the RV crew....well,not really.
On our way up to Glacier we came upon the National Bison Range. This was a pretty cool place. It's a piece of land that was set aside by T. Roosevelt for the Buffalo to just roam. You pay the entrance fee and you drive this gravel road around the range. Right along the road gives you good views of Elk, Bison, and prong horns. Nice country and a good primer for Glacier and Yellowstone.
The next day we made it to Glacier National Park and this is a place worth writing home about! Somebody called it the American Alps and I think that describes it perfectly. High mountains covered in lush greenery, created from the aftermath of glacial work at it finest. You can't help but feel like you've stepped into the "Sound of Music". We even saw some mountain goats perched on a small hill and that was the clincher for Steve. He was fascinated with them. I was, too. Yeah - those things were very cool. Never seen anything like them before. They were white all over and then they have these black beady eyes and horns and little hooves that spread apart to give them grips on the steep cliffs. I hung out and watched them for awhile. Not too often you see one of those running around San Diego. We had to gawk at them for a little bit.
Glacier also introduced us to the wonderful world of huckleberries. They grow seasonally in alpine areas. So far we've bought huckleberry jam, huckleberry body lotion(for me, of course), and a huckleberry candle for the van. I think we're hooked on the little guys.
Glacier was a wonderland for us. We didn't spend very long there and yet we had grown a sincere fondness for the place. The landscape was amazing and we'll always remember it. It seemed the real way to view this park is to go backpacking up in the mountains for a couple of days. Such a grand place. Every little part of it that we explored was exceptional. We figure when we do our Alaska trip we'll stop through Glacier N.P. on our way and explore it a bit more. You could easily spend a couple weeks here and just hang out in the mountains. It was a bummer leaving it, but i know i'll be back.
From Glacier we drove south through the wide open plains and big skies of Montana. It was beautiful country, although for stretches there was nothing to see but hay bales. Country was about the only radio signal we could get so we tuned in to the XM for our entertainment along this stretch of the journey. The next stop would be Yellowstone.