east glacier national park (8th Oct)

woke up pretty early...somewhere in the middle of the night it turned colder... coz my socks clad feet were feeling a wee bit numb with cold. hahaha.... today we'll be heading to the east side of Glacier National Park.
Upon looking out the windows from our 'chalet - Two Bears', seemed that the rain had stopped! And we can finally get to see some scenery outside our 'chalet'. That's a plus point. I mean having no rain is really really a plus point coz its really horrible when it rains. U can't get good pictures and moving around is difficult etc.

Scenery outside the chalet we stayed

morning misty mountains

The cottage we stayed in

Cottages

Morning dew on pine needle

After washing up, taking our breakfast and preparing our lunch, we were all good to go. However, we must definitely take some pictures before we head off to the National Park. hee hee.....Coz the scenery is just too nice to give it a miss....Then its time to head into the national park. My sister thought it would be good to drive to Apgar's Visitor Center in the West Glacier. Coz its the only visitor center in the National Park that was still open in that season. So that's the 1st place where we head to. The ranger there told us about the weather conditions and also where exactly the roads are closed and where would we probably have sightings of bear! hahaha.... i guess being able to see wild life in national park is a plus plus point.... and exciting also. As for the road closures... they were expected.... coz my sister and I tried to do up some checkings of road closure in the National Parks, prior to coming to US. So instead of being able to take the well-known 'Going to the Sun road', we had to take the super long road hat goes around the National Park. Coz we were heading to 'Two Medicine', Saint Mary, 'Logan Pass' and if possible 'Many Glaciers'. It was a super long drive... coz it took us about 2.5hrs to 3hr to reach 'Logan Pass'. And its at Logan Pass that we'll have to stop and 'U' turn back.

The road to Two Medicine

Lower Two Medicine Lake

Mountains covered with snow 

My sister drove today (it she will be driving all the remaining 7 days). Along the way, when we see fantastic scenery, we'll stopped and take pictures or well get down to use the toilets. I must say.... in the mornings... could be due to the morning mist and fog, the scenery was beautiful but as the day goes on, the sun comes out... the scenery becomes even more fantastic. For those photographer enthusiasts and artists, they can take superb pictures or paint superb art pieces here! It just really really wonderful.

Entrance to East Glacier National Park

trying to be innovative

As we passed Saint Mary and continue driving up to 'Logan Pass' we saw snow along the way. And as we head up higher, there was more snow until the scenery changed from green, yellow colour to completely white. At Logan Pass, the snow was really really thick and it was snowing... when the wind blows, u just want to hide. Hahaha... coz the snow keeps getting into your face and land on your camera lens and that can be pretty irritating at times.

straight road to Saint Mary

scenery changed to mountains & the lake

Family photo

Saint Mary Lake

Logan Pass. U know that the Glacier National Park is shared between the USA & Canada? Well if you go further north, u'll hit Canada 

That's me at Logan Pass

Misty mountains

Looking down at the valley

After trying to wait for awhile for the sun to appear and shine on the tops of the mountains on the opposite side, we gave up waiting... coz the winds were just too strong. We left Logan Pass and head to Saint Mary instead. And hike a little to view the Saint Mary falls. It was about 1mile from the carpark to the falls.

scenery we see as we left Logan Pass

Scenery seen at Saint Mary falls

Saint Mary Falls (it a pretty small waterfall)

flowing downstream

After viewing the falls, we decided to leave the National Park and head to Greatfalls, the next town that we'll be staying for the night before we head to another town before entering Yellowstone National Park. Coz it was going to be a long long drive to Geatfalls. And we were also worried about our accomodation. Coz we did not check out what were the available accomodation the night before. And my sister said, worse come to worse, we'll stay in 'Super 8' one of the cheapest sort of motel/hotel.

blue lake, snow-capped mountains

Chains of mountains along our way, bidding us 'goodbye' as we left the national park

Bye bye!

And 'Hello' yellow flat plains & straight road

the moon has emerged @ 5pm (Montana Time)

So when we reached Greatfalls, it was already nightfall. Coz when its autumn, the night comes much earlier. And we relied on the GPS to search for accomodation. and we decided to stay in "super 8'. Luckily, there were still rooms available. We got 1 room with 2 Queen Sized beds. Put down our stuffs and head out to look for food. Coz there was no kitchentte. So we'll need to eat out today.

We wanted to eat at 'Applebee' that night. However, there were so many people waiting to be seated. I doubt we can get a table within that hour (coz there were close to 20 people waiting to be seated). Hence we decided to drive around and just could not decide what and where we were going to eat. In the end we found ourselves in the downtown area. We saw a diner 'Tracey's Diner' and decided that we'll just eat there. I must say that the food is not bad.... me & my dad ordered the beef. The beef was over-cooked... otherwise it would have been a perfect meal. hahaha..... the ambiance as pretty good. Coz stepping inside, gave me a sort of feeling that I've stepped into the 1960s era shown in the movie "Back to the Future' sort. Even had a juke box at a corner.

Turkey Noodle soup

my very over cooked & dried steak & mashed potato

After dinner, we went to the Ross outlet that was just beside our hotel. However, there nothing that we were interested in buying. Hence headed back to the hotel, however, we wanted to get somemore stuffs.... so we drove out of the town area to a Walmart that was next to a oil refinery. Wah i must say the air was super smelly due to the refinery. But we managed to get the supplies we wanted then headed back to the hotel to crash out. Tomorrow will be an interesting day for us! Just can't wait!!! =D

going eastwards to Glacier National Park (7th Oct)

Yay! today is the start of our adventures to visit 1st of the 3 National Parks on our itinary. Today after checking out from the apartment which we've been staying for the past 7 days, we drove to Marriott to leave our huge baggage whilst we each carry a small backpack. we reached the airport pretty well on time.... but because we thought we were still early... we sat around and drank coffee before we checked in. Because we did not have any baggage to check in, we got our boarding passes pretty easily... only thing was... we had to head to the boarding gate to get our seats.

By the way, we'll be taking Alaskan Airlines to Kalispell, Montana. My sister had sort of planned out the route... I was just a passenger/tourist here to enjoy. Coz prior to coming for this 2 wks trip, I was really busy with my Soka Activities and also pretty nervous about the conference and super busy with my work.

Anyway back to the airport, when we were at the boarding gate, we were the last 4 passengers who have yet to get our seats! oops... seems like we were pretty slow huh.... The plane we took was 1 that was operating on propellers! Yup! not joking... this is a 1st for me. And we'll be on board that plane for 2hrs. (in fact on the air ticket its 3 hrs as Montana is 1 hr ahead of Seattle.) The airlines was Horizon Airlines (think its the sister company of Alaskan Airlines).

Horizon Airlines (the plane that we were going to board)

Seattle Airport taken as we took off

I must say that I'm pretty impressed. Hahaha... the plane was pretty stable. Like most budget airlines, they also serve some drinks and snacks on board. but the ventilation was bad... really bad.... coz think 1 of the passenger in front of us farted twice.... and we smelt it. it was really bad....  soon... we arrived in Kelispell.

Kelispell, Montana from the skies

but it was raining and it was raining rather heavily. Kelispell was much much colder than Seattle. As in the temperature then was about 10 degrees Celsius. But the face that it was raining.... makes the temperature even much colder... coz once u get wet, u feel colder. After we got a car (Ford car) and drove to the city center of Kelispell. Needed to get out supplies coz we're intending to get Motels with kitchenett so that we can do some cooking for our daily dinner.

Luckily my sister brought a GPS, hence we were able to find our way around the town. After getting our groceries, we drove to West Glacier. We wanted to try our luck in viewing some of the sights in West Glacier. Coz we do know that parts of the road "going to the Sun' road was already closed. at least from the gateway of West Glacier, we were able to drive another 16 miles before we had to U turn back. Along the way, we saw some fantastic scenery. The only super down side was it was raining rather heavily. However, my sister and me will get down the car to take photos despite the rain.

Entrance of Glacier National Park

yellow & green trees dripping with rain water

mini waterfalls

After we reached the 'close off' point, we turn back and head to the town 'West Glacier' to our 'chalet' at the 'Great Northern Whitewater Resort'. The owner was out but she left us a note and the key to the resort that we were staying in. I must say that the 'chalet' we had was amazing. it had a fireplace (but it was fake wood but real fire) and the heat given off by the fire produce the heat coming from the heater and also warm up the entire 'chalet'. In fact the chalet allow up to 6 occupancy (coz there was also a sofa bed). Too bad my brothers were not here with us.

my dad & sister trying to get warm at the fireplace

In the midst of preparing for dinner, the owner, Victoria, came and check if we've managed to find our 'chalet'. She came and talked to us. Really nice. Coz i guess she is worried that we may not have made it to the resort. After talking to her for a short while, she left and we tuck into our dinner (cooked by my mum). After that we call off the day. Coz we could not do much that night as there were no shopping places for us to visit coz we were a little far from the town center and it was still raining. Really hoping that tomorrow the weather will be great. Coz we've still so many things to see and explore in Glacier National Park.