Summer In May
May 12, 2012A family trip to Glacier National Park and the inspiration for the Montventure blog
Sunny warm weekends in May in Montana are not to be squandered. With forecasted highs in the 80’s for Missoula we packed our camping gear and headed north for an early season visit to Glacier. It turned out to be opening day at Sprague Creek campground and we scored a lake side campsite for the weekend. The next morning the skies were clear and the lake was calm creating a mirror for the beautiful scenery.
As the day warmed we set out to hike to Avalanche lake. It starts off on the Trail of the Ceders boardwalk which worked well to get the kids moving. There is something about a boardwalk that just makes kids want to run. We took our time exploring and playing on the hike up to the lake. We started with freeze tag, progressed to hide-and-seek, and finally resorted to searching for gummi bear trees for the final push to the lake.
That evening Audrey and I took out a borrowed packraft (thanks Laurie!) on Lake McDonanld and paddled around for a bit. Having a boat that you can strap onto a backpack opens all sorts of interesting possibilities. It’s also much easier to throw in the car when you already have camping and biking gear. Audrey had a great time and even tried her hand at paddling.
The next day we loaded up our bike caravan and took advantage of the early hiker/biker access on the Going to the Sun road. I pulled the Chariot which ranged from empty to carrying two kids and two bikes. There was an amazing number of people out biking and lots of kids. We found out from a friend of mine that apparently it’s a tradition in Kalispell to bike the Going to the Sun road on Mother’s Day. We all really enjoyed the scenery and the riding.
It was an incredible start to the summer camping season. We’re looking forward to many more outings over the next few months.