The Road To The Sun

In planning our trip to Washington for Sage's Run we decided that we would take a different route home.  We tossed around some ideas including Yellowstone National Park and decided we would do that next year when we had an extra day.  We ended up visiting Glacier National Park.  They claim to have some of the most "beautiful and dramatic natural scenery in the continent" and they are not exaggerating.  It was incredibly beautiful! 
We entered the park about 4pm and really had no idea what to expect.  They hand you maps and pamphlets on protecting yourself against bear attacks.  I immediately read all about bear---just in case.    We hadn't driven very far when we pulled over and started hiking on a trail. When we reached the bottom there was a wooden bridge that crossed over a river with beautiful white water rapids.  The sound was incredible!

I thought our little "hike" was going to do me in...climbing back out ...well let me just say, "Can You Feel The Burn!" 

For those of you that don't know it I am petrified, terrified, scared to death of heights!  We got back into our cars and continued on.  We made some more stops to admire the beauty and walk around and we got back in and continued to climb. 

We saw all kinds of animals just calmly grazing.

I was so scared taking pictures of the kids.  At this point the roads were barely wide enough for two cars.  We followed John and Amanda's SUV and I swear their running boards barely cleared the TINY rock made guard rail.  Crystal and I both were "White Knuckling" the entire trip.  I'm serious when I tell you that I prayed we would not fly off the edge.  Nobody would be able to rescue you.  I think you would just become bear or mountain lion meat!

So with that said we wanted photos because it was incredibly beautiful.  Crystal got to scared and went back into the van yelling, "MOM I can't believe you are out there!"  I made the kids sit down on the ground and we held their legs----YES IT WAS THAT SCARY!  Notice the waterfall coming out of the mountain just above Jayden's head?  Well I remember thinking gosh that is way up there!  Little did I know we would go "UP THERE" and even higher....thus the name, "The Road To The Sun!"

These trees were knocked down by an avalanche.  It was so very green there.

Waterfalls will come out of the mountain and fall right on top of your car!

The trees and grass were the most amazing shade of green then right in the middle of it would be random patches of snow/glacier.

The temperature when we started at the bottom of the mountain was in the low 80's.  The temperature dropped rapidly every 5 minutes until we were in the 40's!  I loved it!

Water would flow out of these triple arches under the road.

We are now above that waterfall...it was so high up...my heart starts pounding just thinking about it

The vegetation was amazing.  These huge white flowers were everywhere.

Just after I took this picture Crystal noticed a tiny trail just behind her on the other side of the street.  We hiked down below and it was so pretty!

There was a little tunnel under the road with the prettiest little streams and waterfalls.  It was dusk and all Grandma could think about was BEARS.  We were warned that dusk and dawn were very dangerous times to hike and there we were being a total tourist.  I kept telling the kids to scream and yell so we would scare off the bears.

The park encompasses over 1 million acres, with 300 lakes, more than 1,100 different species of vascular plants, 400 species of moss and hundreds of species of animals.

Those are the clouds!  We were so high up that the clouds would swirl all around us.

There were fields of wildflowers! Pinks, reds, yellows, orange, purple, blue and white flowers just covered the ground as far as the eye could see. 

Bear sighting.  The boys didn't want to get out of the truck because it was too cold.

The bear-a speck in the field. 

I thought of hubby often and I hope one day we can go back and bring him along.  He would have loved it.  I know I would go back but seriously I was so scared that they might have to drug grandma before we do.  I was reminded the entire time that Heavenly Father exists.  He created this beautiful earth for us to live on and enjoy.  Standing at the cliffs edge and taking in the rugged beauty all around is very humbling.  I can't imagine how beautiful everything will be when the earth is renewed and receives it's paradisaical glory because this place already seems like paradise.