Disclaimer: I wrote this post prior to leaving Montana so I’m home already and am too lazy to change the post around. Also too lazy to proof read so carry on if I made all the mistakes. 🙂
I can’t believe I’m writing my final Montana post. Remember my last North Carolina post and how sad I was to be leaving there? Multiply that sadness by about 200 and that is how I am currently feeling. Ever since my initial visit West back in 2009 I felt home every time I’m here. Turns out that feeling is still there and even more so after my time here in MT. I knew I was going to like Montana but I honestly did not expect to fall in love with the mountains as much as I did. Speaking of falling in love, obviously a major reason I am sad is because I met my person here and am having quite a difficult time imagining being away from him for awhile.
My dad asked me why I am even leaving Montana and Brad. Valid question. I told myself when I started this whole traveling ordeal that I would not stay in one place for anything or anyone because I can always come back and I stayed in Milwaukee seven years longer than I wanted to for people that ended up tossing me aside. Brad is an entirely different situation in the best way possible but in my stubborn state here I am..leaving a place I love and a person I love to hopefully travel to the Northeast coast for fall! I don’t have an assignment yet but I want to be out that way for the fall colors. I think it would be awesome to be near Acadia for hiking in the fall. 🙂
Moving on. I’ll do a quick synopsis of what I’ve done since I last wrote. The last three weeks have mainly consisted of me trying to get through my three work shifts as quickly as possible so I could move on to the next adventure.
Let’s see. At the end of June Casey and I went to Red Lodge again and Brad accompanied us as well. We did a really pretty hike just outside Red Lodge and then that night Casey and I pitched a tent outside our friend Dylan’s cabin. We ended up making a bonfire and hungout out for the night there. The next day Dylan so kindly drove Casey and I through the entire Beartooth Highway! It’s so beautiful and crazy to imagine people actually building this highway at one point!
I worked three days and then Brad and I headed up to the Canadian Rockies. The first night we set out we camped up near this fire lookout that overlooked the Swan Range. Brad had done some skiing near here in the winter and knew of the spot. It was so so pretty! We actually camped there again on our way back home as well.
We arrived to Canada and stopped at the Radium Hot Springs on our first night there. While we were soaking in the hot spring the air outside was fairly chilly and then started to rain so it was a cool experience. The following day we got up early to hike in Banff and see Lake Louise. To say we were happy we did this early is an understatement. We were hiking by 7am and did a total of about 8 miles which consisted of two different trail loops. By the time we were headed back down to the lake there were SO MANY PEOPLE and the serenity was gone. If you ever go there I highly recommend doing this early.
There are two tea houses along the hikes and they are so cute!! We stopped at one of them and sat outside on the porch and had some tea and biscuits – I’ll post a photo below of how happy I was about these biscuits. You’ve never seen such a look of love.
After Banff we started up the Icefield Parkway. You guys. This is literally the most unreal thing I’ve ever seen. The Icefield Parkway makes the Beartooth look laughable. The Canadian Rockies are unlike anything I’ve ever seen in my life. If someone had a video of Brad and I during this drive it consisted of us saying “whoa” on repeat. The mountains go on forever!! Every time you turn a corner it is more breathtaking than the last. It’s honestly just insane and so indescribable.
There is the Columbia Icefield in the middle of this parkway. This has a HUGE glacier. It’s so big that there are buses that drive over and through the glacier. I posted a photo of it but everything is so big that it is hard to grasp the depth. Please just go to Banff and Jasper. That’s about all I can say. Brad and I had such a good time on this trip. We spent the whole six days camping in the back of his truck and we used a free camping website that served us very well! We stayed in some really beautiful places right on rivers with the mountains behind us for free and it was so much quieter and peaceful than campgrounds. I loved it!!
Last week my friend Lauren came in from Wisco to visit and she, Casey and I went to Glacier National Park for four days!! We also had such a good time! We really threw Lauren right in to the altitude and the hiking. Monday we ended up doing a longer hike which was fine but the altitude gain was fairly significant and we did at noon on a 95 degree day on a hike with no shade whatsoever. The views are always worth the pain but the heat made it quite challenging. We camped two of the nights and then our last night was stayed at a really cool lodge right at the back of the mountains in the park. The weather we had was beyond perfect and saw some more beautiful areas. This state is mind blowing. I love it all.
I am headed home tomorrow. I am lucky that Brad is able to take the time to drive home with me! I am so happy to have a bit more time with him. He’s never been to Chicago so we are going to spend a day in the city after we get back from Michigan for a family wedding 🙂
I will be spending several days in Milwaukee and then head to Switzerland and Austria with my mom the first week of August!!! My next post will be after that trip!
Cheers.
