We learned some things on the trip to Glacier-
- You know all of those pictures we all stare at when we hop on Pinterest or google “National Parks”? The ones where some tranquil wild animal is just grazing peacefully way out in the wilderness… and then, you think to yourself, “Wow. I bet they took quite the hike to get that shot! Maybe they even did some backcountry backpacking or camping… just, wow.” Well, friends, there’s a good chance that those photos are caught while there’s a crowd of people standing nearby trying to catch a selfie with said animal. Thanks to a lot of editing these pictures capture wildlife in its natural habitat… the one that just so happens to be a National Park with thousands of visitors gawking about, each day. See, even we are guilty of this on our travels. We have taken some pretty fantastic pictures that we are proud to share and proud to look at. But, they aren’t nearly as wild as they look. Which brings me to our number two lesson learned:
- National Parks are pretty similar to taking a trip to the Mall of America during Christmas season. They are packed. So, so packed. While we have cherished our trips to the National Parks, in hind sight, we would have planned to visit them all in the off season. There are the usual haunts for the ultimate, all-American, family road trip- Glacier, Yellowstone and Yosemite. All of these places have got some serious foot traffic in the summer months. There is definitely a part of us that is a little disappointed that we didn’t get to spend the time we wanted exploring some of these parks, due to masses of people and horrible traffic/parking conditions. But, we will all confirm that we are so proud of our National Parks! It is such a beautiful thing that these parks are available to each family in our country. They all offer wonderful hikes for everyone from the elderly, to the disabled to the single college kid to the family with ten kids. These parks are a national treasure in that, everyone has a chance to see what a gorgeous place we live in. The parks are a place to stop the rat race and just really SEE what God has made. After this trip, and seeing how many people really do visit these parks, I have mixed feelings. But, the stronger of them is just so incredibly proud that I live in a place that offers such inclusive places for people to get out and explore.
That being said, once we left Montana, our next stop was Yellowstone. After asking around on some of our “Fulltime Families” facebook groups, we decided that Yellowstone was just going to be too dang busy. We made the tough decision to skip over Yellowstone and beeline straight back to Minnesota to see the grandmas and grandpas.
A Tale Of Ten Feet 