If you’re from the East Coast and have never driven across the western states, I cannot fully express how vast and relatively uninhabited the state of Montana is, particularly on the northernmost route. There is lovely farmland that stretches for miles southward and north into Canada, as far as the eye can see. There are also badlands that just appear out of nowhere. Most of the towns are small and have just a few businesses and restaurants. For two kids and a mom who does most of the driving, it can get a tad repetitive. Still…it’s far different than what I’m accustomed to and that makes it feel rather remarkable.

Another notable difference for this East Coaster is the timing of sunsets in the far west of Montana. It had to be close to eleven at night before the sky finally darkened. The upside to this is that the kids could still hit the pool after they ate dinner. The downside is that it totally screws with your circadian rhythms. Although, when you have the view that we did from our camper, you can’t complain.

Recently, I’ve been seeing a lot of news about how all the National Parks are swamped and it’s too crowded to enjoy yourself. I’d expect that to be the case in Yellowstone, because they have a serious road- and foot-crowding issue. We were crowded out of one of the major attractions at Yellowstone a few years ago and we were bummed to never make it in on other days. That’s not a new thing, though, and we knew going in that it would kind of suck to miss some of the popular areas, but we rolled with it. However, as far as Glacier was concerned, we didn’t find crowds to be an issue at all. As I mentioned, they have a timed entry system that – although quite the nail-biting experience when acquiring a ticket – really helped to mitigate the issue of not getting to see high-demand sights due to parking issues. I think there was one visitors center that was too full to visit as we travelled west on the Going-to-the-Sun Road, but it was perfectly easy to get in coming east.

One of the driving factors behind my desire to take the family to Glacier was the rate of glacial melt here and elsewhere due to rapid climate change. I wanted them to see the glaciers before there weren’t any left to see. So, although every moment we spent hiking and taking photos was awe-filled and exciting, there was a bittersweetness to the whole experience. In fact, it was in the nineties the day we drove through the park. Thank goodness for the natural cooling waters and air off of the glaciers!