Glacier and Canada

Glacier National Park is big. We were able to see quite a lot from the Going-to-the-Sun road that twisted up and down the mountains. We crossed the continental divide. Water to the east of the continental divide will end up in the Atlantic Ocean, and water to the west of it will end up in the Pacific. 

Waiting for the shuttle to St. Mary Falls

All the kids were endlessly entertained by rocks and sticks. 

There had been a forest fire about a decade ago. It was interesting to see the new life thriving around the scorched black trunks of the old forest.

My favorite part of the park was the teal color of the glacial water. 

St Marys was super impressive. This picture does not capture how powerfully gushy the waterfall was. 

Elliot was very impressed by this large leaf. He carried it for hours so that he could use it to "decorate the Hay's tent."

Trying to hustle the caboose

On the shuttle ride back to our vans, I sat next to a Canadian woman who had been backpacking in Glacier by herself for 4 days. I would never ever want to do that but was impressed by her adventurous spirit. 

We loaded up and headed north to Waterton, Canada. This is actually the same town where my Grammie and Papa went on their honeymoon, but Grammie tells me that there was a big flood that knocked out all the old buildings so it is probably quite different now. All the Canadians we encountered did a great job of fulfilling their cheery stereotype. 

There was literally no line at the border crossing. That is the Hays in front of us.

 If we had to pick one word to describe Waterton, it would be "windy." it was EXCEEDINGLY windy. We had to carefully arrange the camp stove because it kept getting blown out. 

A rather messy Annabelle in Canada

The iconic Prince of Wales Hotel, built in 1920s

The winds were even stronger up here than they were at the campground

Fancy pants door

Fancy pants light fixtures

Lakin braved the winds to take this panorama

View of the glacial lake from the hotel lobby. Very nice!