North America Road Trip - Glacier and beyond...

Welcome back to our blog.  We've been removed from most aspects of civilisation (toilets without electricity and running water, a bed, the Internet etc.) for the last week or so and frankly we are both looking forward to a comfy bed and some creature comforts for a bit (well one night before the dreaded tent is used again).

What have we been up to?  We've been having lots of fun looking at loads of stuff, eating things out of tins and sleeping uncomfortably (most of the time).

Last time we checked in we were heading into Glacier National Park.  Well we've done that now and have some mixed opinions.  The southern end of the park was OK, but nothing more than that really - nice enough to look at, but nothing really amazing to see - frankly have seen better.  The further we drove up through the park, it got much more interesting - the scenery was more dramatic, the roads were more gnarly and there were more animals to see.

Seattle Space Needle (no, this isn't in the national park!) 

A mountain goat!

A creek in Glacier

Swiftcurrent lake

Like at home, it is peak season over here with it being the school holidays and therefore it has been mad busy - there were people everywhere with quite a few of them being really annoying (as Americans often can be!).  If we've heard one American gush about how amazing a piece of moss looks on a rock, we've heard a hundred - they really need a good slap sometimes.  That said, if you go out on some of the walks you can get away from the mental crowds and have a fairly relaxing time.

Yes, that's right, we've been out walking - what's all that about?!?!  Frankly it's been a bit of a shock to the system, but we've managed it, although doing an 8 mile hike in baking heat whilst carting around a load of camera gear wasn't ideal - nice couple of waterfalls at the end of it though :-)

One half of 'Twin Falls' waterfall

We got pretty lucky with the weather - only 1 bad night when a storm hit, other than that we've been stuck in the middle of a mini heatwave (30 degrees C most days).  Far too hot for Lisa, but good for the David Dickinson tan!

Us at Wild Goose Island in Glacier

Us at Hidden Lake overlook

As for camping in the National Parks in the US, well it was certainly an experience.  The campsites are pretty basic, but have just about enough to get by - assuming you can put up with your own 'musk' for a day or two!  With each pitch you get a spot for your tent & car, plus your own fire pit and picnic bench - all sounds quite civilised so far.  However on the more primitive sites, you don't get toilets that have any soap or running water, and electricity is also a no-no.  Going for a dump by torchlight is an "interesting" experience...  To keep clean there are some showers at a couple of the sites and to be fair they were pretty good, so can't complain about those really.  Lisa still hates it!

Lisa feeling great after a night in a tent!

Burning food - awesome

Part way through, laziness kicked in and for a couple of nights, we frankly couldn't be bothered to set-up a tent, so we went for the sleeping in the car option.  BAD IDEA. Incredibly, sleeping in a tent turned out to be way more comfortable.  Admittedly having eating, sleeping and home office facilities all within arms reach was a bonus, but having next to no sleep was a shabby trade-off.

We do think that one night around midnight, whilst we were in the tent, a bear wandered somewhere nearby.  Can't be sure as we only heard the cracking of twigs under foot, but to be honest, neither of us was planning on popping our heads out to double check and potentially have our necks cracked like twigs...

As for animal spotting - well we've done pretty well so far.  We have seen plenty of bears (mainly from a distance), but at no stage have we felt the need to use the Skinner technique and get naked (long story, maybe for another time)!

Our current wildlife count:

• Grizzly bears - 2
• Black bears (including some cubs) - 11
• Moose (bull) - 1
• Mountain goats - loads
• Marmots - 4
• Squirrels - millions!

One of the bears we watched seemed a bit too comfortable with all of the people watching and wasn't bothered at all.  One of the park rangers tried to scare him off using a firecracker round from a gun - didn't work.  He then got us all to shout and make loads of noise - didn't work.  The bear left when he wanted to.  Quite entertaining for us, but maybe not such good news for the bear in years to come...