Glacier National Park

My sister and I will also be blogging about this on the Weekend With Sisters Blog, but for now here is a short summary of the FOUR DAYS OF DRIVING, HIKING, and PADDLING.

The water on Middle Waterton Lake was glassy while we were kayaking.  Two hours later a thunderstorm blew in.

Jones Lake hike.  The trees were groaning and swaying in the wind.  It was creepy.  We also got lost, which didn't help.

On this hike we came across a group of people taking pictures of a fungus.  They called it Indian Pipes and said it was quite fragile.  The part that was above ground resembled filmy white flutes huddled together for warmth.  I referred to the plant as Lady Pipes for the rest of the trip much to my sister's annoyance.

My adorable sister.  The hotel in the background is Prince of Wales Hotel.  We were in Canada - eh.

After we kayaked we saw a black bear and her two cubs frolicking about on the shore.  They were cute and we were extremely glad that they weren't right next to us.

By far the prettiest hike of the trip.  We crossed paths with a mountain goat.

Note the t-shirt.  It was warm.  I didn't pack for warm.  I packed for cold.  Glacier was in the park name so I figured chilly was implied.  What I learned was that of the 127 glaciers that were there when the park opened, only 27 remain.  Most are extremely small.

Regardless the park is phenomenally beautiful.  So beautiful that you can't quite comprehend it.  Next time I want to camp and see the stars at night.  (I say that, but you all know that when I say camping I mean a trailer with plumbing, right?)

Coeur d'Alene.  We topped off the trip by taking a walk on the longest floating boardwalk in the world.  It was so hot I debated renting a jet ski to cool off.  Note the farmers tan.  This day we dressed for driving, which means shoes that didn't match, stretchy pants and a shirt with no sleeves.