Glacier New Year

Hi Everyone!

How were your holidays? Ours were great! We spent a lot of time with family, both Jeff's family and mine. It was great to catch up with everyone and spend time together.

I took almost two weeks off from the blog, too, which was a nice break, but I'm back at it now to share a photo-heavy post of our New Years retreat to West Glacier.

For part of my family's week-long visit, we decided to take a little mini vacation and head over the mountains to Glacier country. We had taken my family to Glacier on a previous visit, over the summer, but Jeff and I know how truly lovely Glacier Park and the surrounding area is in the winter and wanted to share that side of the park with my family too.

The drive from our house to West Glacier typically would take about 3.5 hours. This time, it took quite a bit longer as we had to drive very slowly through a whiteout ground blizzard near Browning. The picture below does not do justice to how harrowing the conditions really were! We could not see from one reflector to the next for a few miles at a time due to blowing and drifting snow. Definitely the WORST winter driving conditions I have experienced! But, as soon as we made it to the mountains, it was all good and smooth sailing from there!

This photo is just for any wheat farmers who may be reading:
See? They have wheat trains stopped in the mountains, too!

We stayed at a really nice guest house we had found on VRBO, called Glacier Ridge House. Here's their listing: http://www.vrbo.com/594060. The house was perfect! Just the right size for the five of us, well appointed, super clean and great attention to detail, comfortable, and most of all, it was close to everything we wanted to do! If you're looking for a place to take a getaway to the Glacier Park area, definitely check this place out! They've got some great winter specials right now, too. :)

Icicles hanging from the eaves looking out the second-story window of the guest house. 

It was pretty cold when we were in West Glacier, with temperatures in single digits, but that didn't keep us inside for long! On New Years Eve day, we bundled up heavily and drove into the park for some cross country skiing. In Glacier, the road is only open to Lake McDonald Lodge, but from there you can hike, ski, or snowshoe on the park road for quite a while. There were a few other trails open, too. My parents hiked a short distance up the Sperry Trail, which takes off right from the parking lot at Lake McDonald.

We received a really nice ski rack for Christmas! Thanks, Santa! :)

Jeff, my brother Ryan, and I decided to step into some skis and head up to McDonald Falls. We ended up doing a route that was 5.5 miles round trip. Most of it was on the well-traveled road, but some of it was more technical, up and down the forested hills along McDonald Creek. Ryan and I, being more novice skiers than Jeff, opted to remove our skis and walk on the packed snow for some portions of this leg of the trail.

This photo is a little blurry for some reason, but here I'm following Jeff and Ryan as we ski up the park road toward McDonald Falls. 

 In the above picture, you can see how well-traveled the main road is. It wasn't groomed, but there were definite ski tracks created by previous trail users. We saw a lot of people out, even though it was cold. After about two miles, we made it to the McDonald Falls overlook and stopped for a few photos.

Overlooking McDonald Falls.

 Then, we found where the trail went down to the creek and to a little footbridge and took some more photos...

On the footbridge over McDonald Creek.

Me and Jeff, enjoying a wintry moment! :)

Ryan on McDonald Creek.

 Ryan did really great on skis, especially since he had little to no experience with them prior to this adventure. He's a natural athlete and picked it up really fast. We all had a great time!

After we crossed the footbridge over McDonald Creek the path was not the well-travelled, hard-packed roadway we had been on up to this point. It was just a single track up and down some hills through a heavily forested area on the west bank of the creek. It wasn't like we were blazing trail, but the nice ski tracks we had been following earlier were not to be found here. There were also some fun hazards like branches in the path and rocks jutting out unexpectedly. We all snapped out of our skis at one point or another, just to ensure that no person or equipment was injured.

Technical skiing through the trees. 

 Just about when it got to the point where we were questioning whether or not we were on the correct path, the trail emerged from the woods and dumped us out onto the road again! Hooray!

Finally made it back to the road!

 Just across one more bridge and we'd join back up with the main park road and head up to the parking lot. After a few more quick photos, of course!

Silhouette of a skier on a bridge.

Looking at the beginning of Lake McDonald. 

Ryan and Jeff.

 Somehow, it seemed like we had to go uphill all the way back to the parking lot, but we still made it back in good time and met up with my parents. We loaded up our skis and headed back south toward the Apgar area of the park. From here, we snapped that classic Glacier Park photo that you see so often...

Iconic Glacier Park view taken from Apgar Village. 

That night, we enjoyed a nice dinner at Three Forks Grille in Columbia Falls to celebrate New Years Eve. We actually did not stay up until midnight to officially ring in the New Year as both my Mom and Jeff had really horrible colds and weren't feeling well. Plus, we were all tired from our afternoon of hiking and skiing in the park. Bedtime at 10:00pm felt just fine.

We did get up the next day and head to Izaak Walton Inn for a little more skiing on their nice, groomed, resort trails. New Years Day was even colder than the day before, and with people feeling crummy and the weather so frigid, only Ryan and I went out for some skiing. I just did laps on one of the small loops that they have, trying to get better at going downhill on nordic skis. Then, we all enjoyed a lovely New Years Brunch in the hotel restaurant before packing it in and heading back East for home.

View of the Izaak Walton Inn from the ski trails. Pretty idyllic setting, huh?

We saw my family off to the airport on Friday afternoon. By then, I was starting to come down with this cold/flu thing pretty bad myself. I spent yesterday pretty much in bed all day with a fever. bleh. Today I feel much better, and tomorrow it's back to school. :)

How did you spend New Years Eve? What are you looking forward to in 2015?