A few years ago, my friend Anne went to Glacier and told me I would love it. She was right. There is something about forests, water, and snowy peaks all in one place that is breathtaking. I probably also said that Badlands and Yellowstone were breathtaking, but Glacier was even more breathtaking than them.

At Yellowstone, I had decided not to hike because I was terrified of running into a bear. That was fine for Yellowstone because there’s a lot you can see from lookout points that you can get to from your car, but it’s not the case for Glacier. I was determined to face my fear of bears. It didn’t help that as soon as I arrived, I heard that a man who had been missing at Glacier for a few days, was just found dead from bear wounds. I told myself that since I would only be doing popular hikes, I was less likely to run into a bear, because there would be more people around. If I got to the trailhead and there were no other cars there, I wouldn’t do the hike.

On Saturday, I did a short 2 mi hike to Rocky Point. I chose a short one to reduce the time I had to run into a bear and ease myself into hiking. I let my parents know what hike I was doing so that they could send someone to look for me if they didn’t hear from me by the end of the day. Armed with my bear spray, I started the hike. The whole walk to the top, I was either praying that I wouldn’t see a bear or clapping and singing the children’s book “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” to alert potential bears of my presence.

We’re going on a bear hunt.

We’re going to catch a big one.

What a beautiful day!

We’re not scared!

Oh-oh! Grass!

Long, wavy grass.

We can’t go over it.

We can’t go under it.

We’ll have to go through it.

We’re going on a bear hunt.

We’re going to catch a big one.

…

I kept making up the obstacles because I could only remember the grass. I made sure not to sing the part about getting to a dark cave, because that’s when the kids find the bear in the book and I did not want to find one.

As I ran into people on the hike, I asked them if they had seen a bear and they all said they hadn’t. That was a relief. The view at the top was beautiful! I was so glad I faced my fear and didn’t miss out on the view. Since there were no bears in sight, I sat there for a while, looking out at the lake and the mountains. At one point, a couple came up. They live in the area and told me about their favorite hikes that would be accessible at this time of year. They also told me where I could find harlequin ducks. They’re beautiful ducks that are only around this time of year. They told me not to tell anyone where they were so there wouldn’t be too many people there to scare them away. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to look for the ducks as I had to drive to a nearby city to get a tire rotation.

Since Saturday went well, I did a longer hike to Avalanche Lake on Sunday. There were a lot of people there, so I wasn’t very worried. There were a few deer on the trail and they couldn’t care less about the humans. One of them walked the trail ahead of me for a few seconds and others were eating a few feet away from where I was walking. The lake was beautiful! I’m going to say that things were beautiful a lot in this post. As I was sitting at the lake, I was thinking about how happy I felt in that moment. I thought back to the last time I wrote in a post that I was happy. It was when I was in Asheville and the Blue Ridge Mountains. I might need to move to the mountains.

As I was hiking back from the lake, I passed some people who said a mama bear and 2 cubs were up in the trees near the trail. Someone had seen the bears cross the trail earlier and said the mom was a bit aggressive, but she had shepherded the cubs across and up into the trees. When I got there, I could see something that looked black and furry way up in a tree, but I’m not sure if it was a bear or not. While I was looking for the bears in the trees, I met Calvin, a retired Floridian who is a on a 3 week road trip. I ended up walking the rest of the way back to the trailhead with him.

Monday was a rest day. I drove to Lake McDonald and sat there for a while with a book. Then I drove to the East side of the park. I had been staying in the West side, but my last 2 nights would be at the East side. My cabin was almost in the middle of nowhere. Nights were pitch black and very quiet. I could see so many stars! I thought about going out to see the stars, but then I realized that if I sat out there in the dark, I wouldn’t be able to see if I bear walked up to me. I decided to look at the stars from my window instead.

Yesterday, I hiked to Baring, St Mary, and Virginia Falls. At the parking lot of the visitor center, I met Beth. Her daughter lives in the area and is moving to a new apartment, so she’s here for a few days to help her move. Since she was also at the park alone, we decided to hike together. It was really fun having company for the whole hike and it made me forget about the bears. The waterfalls and the mountain views were amazing! Beth invited me to visit her in Lake Placid sometime. I might need to plan another road trip to visit the people I meet on this one.

Today, I drove to Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. On my way, I took a detour to drive through a part of Glacier I hadn’t gotten to see. It was rainy, windy, and foggy, but the views were still, you guessed it, beautiful.

When I got to the border, the officer asked me if I had any weapons in my car. When I said no, he said “So you’re not a real Texan?” What is it with these Canadian officers thinking that I’d be stupid enough to bring a weapon to Canada if I owned one? The officer at the border near Toronto said a similar thing in February.

The first few hours driving in Alberta were hard. It was all flat and boring, though seeing the Rockies far away in the distance gave me hope. The closer the mountains got, the more excited I felt. They started out on my left and then, all of a sudden, they were in front of me like a giant wall. I few minutes later, I was driving among them, dwarfed by their giant peaks and awed by their beauty. For the next few days, I’ll get to see them outside my window. That makes me very happy.