The West Side of Glacier NP

Another reason we had decided to head to the west side was that one of our RAs from the year before (Katie...yes we have a lot of Katie's in our lives...) was working over there for the summer. So we made the beautiful drive on the Going to the Sun road, met up with her and her boyfriend, met her roommates, and grabbed a bite to eat together. All these students were working for a ministry that gets students jobs in the park and then they lead services at the campgrounds a couple times a week. So that evening we stayed in one of the campgrounds where they put on a service and got to attend.

Not a bad setting to worship the Lord, huh? :)

 Naomi had a great time at our campsite that evening, playing with rocks, walking with her stroller, and eating who knows what...

 We made a quinoa, avocado, cheese dish for dinner that was quite delicious...

Then I put Nay down for bed and Katie and I decided just to climb in the tent and read until bed time. Josh decided he wanted to go exploring and a little while later we hear him quickly approaching the tent. We are obviously expecting another crazy animal story (see previous post), but instead he tells us that the sunset is incredible and that we need to go see it, he'll stay here with Naomi. We reluctantly climb out of our comfy sleeping bags and head to the lake...we were not disappointed, but instead stood in awe.

Then Katie suggested we do some jumping pictures...this resulted in lots of laughter :)

The next morning we met up with RA Katie and her friends and headed to the northwest corner of the park. They had learned from the locals that there was this incredible bakery up there is this 'town' called Polebridge so we decided to give it a try and do a day hike while we were there. Well the locals were right...this place was incredible (in fact, we ate there for breakfast, dinner, and breakfast the next day!). And there was literally the bakery, a saloon, a few cabins, and a hostile in Polebridge...that's it. I think when wolves and bears pass through it literally doubles their population.

A Huckleberry Bear Claw

 We asked a 70+ female ranger what hike we should do and she said her favorite was the Numa Ridge Lookout but it was tough and she wasn't sure how Nay would do...we of course decided to do it anyway. Naomi enjoyed part of the way up with her morning nap. This hike was steep. We were all dying. But true to form, Josh hiked the whole thing with a smile on his face even though he had 25 more pounds on his back than anyone else!

Is this not the most incredible and precious picture you've ever seen? (Don't tell me if you disagree) [Photo Credit: Katie S.]

Us with Katie and her boyfriend Eli...such fun to adventure with them!

 When we got back down, we were all spent...it had taken a good chunk of the day to do the hike and it was strenuous to say the least. Everyone decided to rest their feet by soaking them in the lake when we got back down. Did I mention that the water was probably 40 degrees...and that might be being generous? I tried to put my feet in but it was more painful than the soreness that was already there...even Naomi who usually could care less about the temperature of the water had a look of pure shock when Josh dipped her toes in :)

You have no idea how tough all of them are being right now. And did I mention that this lake is 7 miles long? That's right...we never saw the other end even though we hiked along it and above it all day...

Naomi spent too much time sitting in the backpack this day apparently because when bedtime rolled around she was a maniac!! I have never laughed so hard and been simultaneously so frustrated as I was trying to get her to sleep that night. She was so wild and active that I had to take her pj's off her at one point because she was sweating!

Well it rained on us again this night...accompanied with some pretty wicked thunder and lightning. I was scared. I would've gotten in the car if it wasn't loaded with all our other stuff and I wouldn't have gotten soaked on the 25 ft run to it...but I would've, so I was just thankful that I was so exhausted from the hike that even when the storm woke me up I could fall back asleep rather quickly. Over breakfast at the Polebridge Bakery (I think this time we had spinach and feta rolls, asiago and something rolls, and some chocolatey pastry) we decided we should probably get a room again because the tent and rain fly were soaked and it wasn't looking like the weather would clear enough for them to dry out outside. So we found a KOA and got a little cabin for the night.

We enjoyed a fun afternoon of entertaining Naomi :)

 Katie and Eli joined us for dinner and brought Huckleberry Pie for dessert...Yum!! Then late that night our friends Caleb and Elli got into 'town' and stayed with us too! So the next day we went off adventuring with them :)

All of us at Avalanche Lake...Naomi napping as she loves to do in the backpack :)

 We did a few small hikes and a beautiful drive this day...enjoying good company and conversations while taking in the beauty around us. On this bridge we played the game where everyone picks a stick, throws it in the water upstream, and rushes to the other side of the bridge to see whose was fastest. Well...the water was roaring so fast that I think we only saw one stick still on the surface after it went under the bridge :)

Katie and Eli joined all of us for dinner at our campsite this night as well and it was so fun to have so many dear friends sitting around a picnic table in the middle of Montana when our common thread was a small school in SoCal called APU :)