26/50: Montana

From Wyoming, we continued North (and a little West) to STATE 26: Montana, stopping for a few days in beautiful Bozeman. We stayed at a little campground called the Bozeman Hot Springs Campground, which, unfortunately, sounds a lot cooler than it was. The campground was nice, but the hot springs part was misleading.

Since it is not that far from Yellowstone National Park, we assumed natural hot springs would be serene and safe to soak in, but we were very wrong. Come to find out, the “hot springs” were essentially a series of manufactured indoor and outdoor pools kept at different temperatures with a band stage and athletic club gym. So, it was more of a party spot than nature’s spa. Nonetheless, downtown Bozeman did not disappoint with its small-town charm mixed with Big Sky Country vacation vibes. The historic main street had a nice variety of coffee shops, restaurants, timeless bookstores, outdoor supply shops, and everything else in between. We didn’t spend much time in Bozeman, but we would certainly like to come back one day.

From Bozeman, we continued five hours further Northwest to one of our favorite places in the country: Glacier National Park. This would be our second time here (our first visit was on our “trial run” before the tour in 2016), but it was our first time bringing our Airstream home with us.

A bear had visited the Many Glacier Campground just a week before going after some fish scraps. The campground had to implement a hard-shell-only camping policy, leaving everyone camping in tents to vacate. In addition, we were truly entering bear country for the first time, so we had to research bear spray, bear bells to wear while hiking, and being extra careful of leaving no food outside or even in our truck.

In further preparation for staying at Glacier, we had to invest in a solar panel since the campground didn’t have hookups. Kendra did an intensea dive into all the solar options, and we landed on getting the Zamp solar panel since our Airstream came pre-wired for it. Unfortunately, our Airstream-Zamp connection must have been wired wrong because we had to use the battery clamps to get our panel to work (we later had this fixed at an Airstream dealer).

Once our panel connected and in the right spot, we were ready to disconnect the rest of our lives and experience Glacier National Park to the fullest.

However, it was July 4th, and the park was going to be crazy-busy with holiday travelers, so we opted to drive north across the border into the Canadian portion of the park at Waterton Glacier International Peace Park for the day.

It was evident that a wildfire swept through the area recently (a year before we were there in 2017 and then again months after we were there in late 2018), but both times the Bavaiian-style Prince of Wales Hotel was spared.

Even with the burn scars of the fire layered over the hills, there was still plenty of evidence of life growing in abundance around us, including bears! Beyond a field of wildflowers, we spotted a momma bear and two cubs clumsily following behind her.

As we kept driving through the park, we saw more and more bears. One gangly teenage bear crossed the road behind us, and then just further up the road, another momma bear and her cubs were up in tree branches. In all, we saw 12 bears in just this one day.

We made it back across the border and back to our Airstream late that night and started the following day again into Glacier National Park. The Going-To-The-Sun Road through the park is the most breathtaking drive you can take in the USA; I can’t imagine a more scenic and, at times, nerve-wracking route.

As the snow piles continued to melt, the waterfalls, rivers, and lakes ran full. They were too cold to touch, beautiful to watch, peaceful to hear, and perfect to skip rocks on.

On this first day, we kept driving around, pulling over, exploring, and admiring the views. On our way back to the campground, somehow, a bee got in the car, and Kendra made me pull over immediately to find it and get it out. When you’re on the side of a mountain, there isn’t always a place to pull off.

Once we confirmed that the bee must be gone, we continued back towards the campground near Logan Pass, where we caught a glimpse of a herd of big horn sheep. It was cool, but Kendra was more excited about the cute ground squirrel.

Many Glacier Campground was on the far eastern edge of Glacier National Park, so by the time we got back, we caught a black bear foraging in a nearby field as the sun was setting over the mountains and Lake Sherburne.

It was such a beautiful clear night that I stayed up extra late and drove back out to capture the stars. Even without DSLR camera settings, the moonless sky lit up in a blanket of stars as the Milky Way slowly moved across the sky. It was unreal. Even by the time I got back to the campsite at 3 AM, the stars showed through the treetops.

When we first visited Glacier in 2017, we stayed in the tiny North Fork AirBnB “Green Zucchini” in Polebridge on the park's West side. We wanted to come back again for a quick visit and off-round drive to Bowman Lake.

We only spent three nights at Many Glacier Campground, but we could squeeze in plenty of hikes and day trips throughout the park.

This St. Mary Falls trail winds through an area that experienced a wildfire in 2015. The area was already healing three years later, with plenty of undergrowth growing amidst the ashes and wiry tree trunks scattered across the mountainside.

One of my favorite mornings was when we woke up early, made ourselves the last bit of Madcap Coffee we had left, and went for a sunrise walk from the campground past the historic Many Glacier Hotel to where water from the Swiftcurrent Lake tumbles down to replenish Lake Sherburne.

We were planning to kayak that brisk morning, but heavy winds would have made it less enjoyable, so instead, we opted to enjoy a slower morning. On our walk back to our Airstream to make a hearty breakfast for the day, we saw a dollar bill on the side of the road. Then about 15 feet further ahead, we got another dollar bill, which means we technically got paid to go for a walk. Not a bad start to the day, huh?

Our three-night stay in Glacier National Park finally ended, but thankfully, we weren’t going far. Instead, we hosted our STATE 26: MONTANA project in nearby Kalispell, MT, with the great folks at Highline Design. Just a bit outside of Kalispell, we set up camp at Spruce Park RV alongside the Flathead River for the next four nights.

After a day of moving and two full project days, we had one last full day in Montana and one more hike that we wanted to do at Glacier to cap off our time in one of our favorite states on the tour: the Trail of the Cedars trail to Avalanche Lake and back. The hike follows the aqua-colored Avalanche Creek upstream as it cuts through the earth on its way past you to Lake McDonald.

One of the days within the park, we desperately needed WiFi to send/receive a few emails in preparation for the Montana project. So we sat in the truck with our computers plugged into the power adapter in one of the visitor center parking lots. Unfortunately, the signal was extremely weak and slow, so it took forever for an attachment to load.

As I waited as patiently as possible, I saw this single cloud on an otherwise cloudless sunny afternoon. As I watched it move and transform across the setting sun sky, it granted me this realization of how beautiful clouds are and led me to jot down in one of my notebooks to one day do a series of cloud paintings.

I write this as a reminder to myself to revisit this idea in the future, and if/when I forget, as permission for you to hold me accountable by reminding me of it. Let's not forget the little things in life that make the simple act of living so beautiful and worthwhile.