The Hazard Chronicles

This week we took some time to go on a family vacation. No friends. No extended family. No obligations. No motive other than to spend time together. It was great.

We have been trying for a while to find a weekend to get out to Glacier National Park. I have to say, it did not disappoint.

This post will be mostly pictures.

Enjoy!

St. Regis, Montana. The town limits fit within about 500 acres, and only about a third of that is populated with the town's 300 residents. Good billboard placement on the I-90 however, has always made us curious to visit the "famous" travel center. I've got to say, the huckleberry shakes were pretty good.

Lots of hiking. This picture and the next one are from the first day of the trip. 

We were lucky to find this great campsite on one of the busiest weekends in the summer

This is how Evelyn cleans the dirt out of the tent. She was very proud and made be promise to post this picture.

These pictures were on the second day. The weather was a bit threatening and nobody except for Addy wanted to do any hiking. Well...the rest of them can hang out in the visitor's center. That's what we said. Here we are on a beautiful 3 mile walk to some lakes. You can't really tell in the photos, but the wildflowers were amazing. So were the mountain goats!

The weather cleared up a little later. We spent a lot of the day in the car driving the Going-to-the-Sun Road, which was perfect during the colder times. We also stopped and took a lot of short excursions to see some of the waterfalls, mountains, and trees. One of my favorite places was along the Walk of the Cedars, where the trees created a sort of haven from all the crowds of people and gave the brief illusion of untouched wilderness (which GNP certainly is not). It was a great day. 

Unfortunately we were so busy doing stuff that we didn't take tons of photos. This one though, I think shows a lot. The end of a good day. Adults are exhausted. Kids are swimming in freezing cold snow water. Sun is going down. You can't ask for more than this.

There are many different corners of this beautiful place to discover, making the return visit all the more enticing. We will definitely be back.

Here is some stuff we did besides our weekend trip. Summer vacation is great! (Can school just hurry up and start now?) It's so fun having the kids home ALL the time! (Seriously.) We certainly take advantage of all the free time! (And getting out of the house is way, WAY easier than staying in.)

Lunch on the boat. Believe it or not, this picture was impromptu- the kids were sitting like this to stabilize each other against the waves on the lake.

Lindsey at the helm!

This is a little place on the lake where you can dock you boat and get some refreshing drinks and ice cream while taking in the view. Yes, please!

A little indoor rock climbing for when it gets too warm outside.

Well...

Have a good week!