Glaciers to Malls

As we drove towards Glacier National Park, we hit Kalispell and Columbia Falls, MT which were more or less the last towns before entering. Even though the area near Glacier is sparse, I think the park is a big draw because in Kalispell there was an airport, much like at Yellowstone. Kalispell seemed to have nearly everything a bigger town back home would have. 

As for the mountains, being from Illinois I’m continually impressed by the magnitude. Approaching Glacier, while you’re still at a high elevation (relative to Illinois) the mountains jut out from flat land seemingly straight up as far as you can see. This was similar to the East side of the Tetons that we drove around where it is flat nearby but the mountains form a rocky wall.

When we came to the entrance of the park we were unfortunately greeted by a big “Road Closed” sign. The main road cutting through to the other side of the park was not passable. This altered the trip in two ways: not only did this make it so we couldn’t see the entire park, but it also meant we had to alter our route through the park to head east towards North Dakota. We approached the ranger station at the entrance and the ranger informed us that while the road was closed we could still drive halfway through the park to Avalanche where there was a good trail to hike. We paid our entrance fee, gathered the park information and headed to Avalanche. It wasn’t more than a mile before we had to stop for some photos at Lake McDonald. We stopped at one end of the lake and could walk down to the rock filled bank and get a great view of the whole lake with the mountains in the background.

Our next stop was Avalanche Lake, which we needed to hike 2.4 miles to get to from where we parked. While the hike was considerably shorter than at Cape Alava in Washington, it had much more elevation and felt a bite more off the beaten path. The trail was by no means expert difficulty though and I would recommend it for the views we got to see. The hike had a wide variety of landscapes…

The reward at the end of the hike.

After reaching the end of the trail and seeing Lake Avalanche we headed back down, this time with some daylight unlike at Cape Alava. We had to backtrack some because of the road closure before we could head back east through the rest of Montana.

I’ll now put a plug in for Montana. While the rest of the Epic Tripsters didn't seem to care for the “boring” drive I thought it was actually entertaining. The state was geographically diverse with the high mountains in the West and near-flatness in the East near North Dakota. I got to drive in-between where it was wide open range and a whole lot of nothing… but a good, scenic nothing. Love it.

We had a long evening of driving from Glacier to Great Falls, MT. On the way we stopped in at a Pizza Hut in Cut Bank, MT. Before judging us for the dining choice, keep in mind our location. It was really the only thing we had available, outside of more turkey sandwiches from the cooler. We arrived in Great Falls to find that nearly all the hotels were full due to various high school and college athletic events. It was for sure some bad timing, and the next nearest town where we were told that “might have hotels” was a couple hours away. We decided to crash in a sub-par, overpriced Super8 and it was a good thing we did because as we found out the next day there’s a whole lot of nothing until Fargo, ND.

We stopped in Fargo at the Sidestreet Grille & Pub for dinner near the river, the border with Minnesota. I had my 7^th burger in 8 days, Jami had a chicken wrap, Amy a chicken caesar wrap, and Chris had a Fargo dog. I didn’t notice the Fargo dog on the menu but I wish I would have tried it: a hotdog wrapped in bacon, deep fried, with pulled pork on top with melted provolone all on a bun. After another good meal we headed for St. Cloud where we spent the night before going to the Mall of America on Sunday. We had a slightly easier time finding a place to stay this time, but we still had some bad timing with apparently several weddings blocking up many of the rooms.

Sunday was Mall of America day, our final destination before returning home. We had a short hour drive from St. Cloud down to Minneapolis. We picked a good day to go on a Sunday because the area didn't seem nearly as busy as one would expect and we had no trouble finding really close parking. It didn't take too long before Chris and I split off from Amy and Jami to explore the mall with the goal of walking all 3 floors before we left. Amy and Jami already had their destinations planned before we arrived at the mall and were on a mission for some good finds. Think of your local mall, then take two more and stack them on top of each other, that really is what the Mall of America is like. Although, I doubt there is an amusement park with roller coasters outside of your Sears. Also, while they had the standard food court options, they also had many of the chain sit-down restaurants and some fancier dining venues as well. Another Mall of America trait is to take a standard mall store and multiply it. A hat store? Try three of them. Sports memorabilia? Three as well. Best Buy? Just two of those. You need coffee? Just turn the corner, any corner, and you can get your caffeine fix. As for the amusement park, Chris and I kept eyeing some of the rides thinking it might be fun as we walked around the mall. When we met up with Amy and Jami we decided to try a couple. You might think being at a location such as this one, the prices would be insane but they were reasonable. We couldn't convince Jami to go on the first ride but after some more attempts we finally got her to ride the second coaster. We had a blast, and after the adrenaline rush we were set to head home.

In line for the ride.

Ride #1.

We're on the road now in Iowa, and just came through Cedar Rapids. We plan to arrive fairly late this evening but with smiles on our faces and another great Epic Trip in the record books.