West Coast -- Glacier, Hidden Lake

Monday morning Jonathan made us huckleberry pancakes for breakfast with fresh huckleberries, purchased for a small fortune at the nearby supermarket. The true Montana experience! (Cheaper, I guess, than local cuisine in Paris....) After a leisurely breakfast we drove up to Glacier and took the shuttle up to Logan Pass, trying hard not to get carsick in the bus. The park is absolutely stunning!! Massive stone snow-covered peaks in every direction, waterfalls pouring down every nook and cranny, huge green meadows on the lower parts of the mountains....just overwhelmingly beautiful. We took a picnic up, but there really was nowhere to sit and eat it. We ended up huddling on the ground against the outside wall of the visitor center in the freezing wind, since there was nowhere sheltered. After lunch we hiked up the Hidden Lake trail. It was unfortunately not completely clear of snow yet and so crossing the snow field was a bit dicey. We were not properly dressed and were hiking in our Keen sandals, so our feet got snowy and cold and it was pretty slippery. The girls got cold and frustrated and when we reached one point that was particularly difficult to cross, we decided it was best if Grandpa Bob and the girls didn't try to traverse it. They were kind of miserable by that point anyway. Nana and Bob stayed on a big rock near that point and Jonathan and I hoofed it around to the lookout point. In addition to spectacular views, we also ran into a huge mountain goat munching away on its cud, practically sitting right on the trail. When we got back to the clan, they were singing away happily with their backs into the wind. We had an easier time going down over the snow, and although the girls were cold, they managed to make it down fine. Jonathan carried Ev over the snow, but she otherwise hiked on her own the rest of the way down. Sierra booked it down with Nana and left the rest of us in the dust. I was hiking with Ev and at some point I pointed out that the visitor center was very close and that was the end of the hike. It still seemed far to her, so I suggested that we count to 100 and then we'd be there, so that's what we did. We managed to arrive at the visitor center on exactly 100, so she was very excited! For the ride down, the shuttle that was leaving right when we arrived only had space for four, so Nana and the girls and I took that one and came back back to the cabin to get dinner started. Grandpa Bob and Jonathan came down on the next shuttle. Ev had slept the whole way up the valley earlier in the day, so on the way down she was literally beside herself looking out the window at the amazing views. She kept insisting that I take pictures of every single thing, so I obliged--even though we had already taken all the same shots on the way up. It was fun to see her get so excited about the mountains! Baked potatoes and chili finished off the day--it was nice to warm up with that after getting chilled on our hike. We have also been cutting up an entire small watermelon each night since we managed to get here with four of them.