Glacier National Park

When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world. - John Muir

So long ago, John Muir saw the affects humans had on the wilderness. How much harm we could do. Glacier National Park had about 150 glaciers in 1850 and most were still there in 1910. By 2010, there were only about 25 glaciers larger then 25 acres left. By 2030, it is estimated that there will be no more remaining glaciers in Glacier National Park!

Glaciers are another amazing part of the wilderness. The lakes that come from them are such a unique color of milky blue. It was really important to me that the kids got to see this before the glaciers are all gone. So, we got up super early to be on the road by 6 am! That was hard considering we have been walking up at 9 am.

Being out that early was so totally worth it! I can't even describe how the fog and the clouds all looked, it was just so peaceful.

The forest in the lower part of Glacier was so thick! We drove to catch the shuttle to take the "Going to the Sun Road." It is said to be one of the most beautiful roads in the world.

On the start of our drive, the fog started to lift into the sky...

and they revealed amazing peaks in the distance.

One of my favorite parts of the drive is how many waterfalls there were. They were around every turn! I couldn't believe it. There were so many I lost count.

This waterfall was awesome, going under the road.

My least favorite part of the drive was how close we were to the edge of a straight cliff most of the way. There was even still a bit of ice on the road. Even though it freaked me out, riding in the back of the bus with a driver that I didn't know, I was still able to appreciate the beauty. Can you imagine building that road? I sure am glad many others have driven over it before me. It looks like it can just crumble.

SNOW!

The only hike that was open at Logan Pass (the highest part of the drive) was to Hidden Lake Lookout. Everybody that was in the park decided to do that hike.

Can you see that line of people going along the trail? It was like we were all being herded or it was Moses leading the exodus Egypt.

It got a bit cold in spots.

The ranger said we could go anywhere on the snow as long as there was snow. We were not aloud to walk on any vegetation. Of course, Craig had the idea to walk straight up the hill in the snow. It was a little more work, but the kids had fun.

More wild life! There were a ton of mountain goats. So far on this trip, we have seen about 3 black bears, 3 grizzly bears, elk, tons of bison, deer, marmots and mountain goats!

There were tons of goats and babies. They were everywhere and didn't seem to notice all the people staring at them. 

Hidden Lake! We made it to the look out. The actual lake is closed because of grizzly activity. I wish we could have seen another one. The grizzly's we saw were so far away, we couldn't really see the massiveness of them.

On the way back, little C tried to slide on his feet. Every time, he'd end up on his butt.

Another waterfall on the road!

Back in the bus for the ride down. This time the friendly bus driver let me ride in the front with the window down. (I didn't feel so well on the way up!) Much better on the way down.

See the color of the river? It is so pretty. It is even more blue in a lake that is the direct melt from a glacier. We only did one hike because it took so long and the kids were exhausted. I really wanted to do a lake, the lake we were going to do had about 8 waterfalls going into it. We are definitely going to have to make another trip to Glacier National Park and spend more then a day there!

Before heading back to the cabin, Craig wanted to stop at the lake and take a nap. Only after skipping a few rocks.

Finally, we couldn't leave without getting sworn in as Junior Rangers. This Ranger works at Joshua Tree National Park in the winter! Someone from one of our home parks. What a huge contrast, Glacier NP to Joshua Tree NP!

I'll see you next time from Bend, Oregon.

DIY Trellis

Mr. C is totally motivated to get our garden going again. He just got to read his Mother Earth magazine this week and was very excited about the trellis made of sticks from the yard and we definitely have plenty of sticks laying around.

Isn't he just so sexy?! I just love it when he's being green. :-) Working on our garden and doing it with little impact. A man after my own heart.

We had our 2 kids + 3 more this week and Mr. C decided to do it that day, he took all 5 kids on a little hike down our very steep hill and collected all the sticks he needed for the trellis.

Here is the finished trellis. This box will hopefully grow snow peas. We will see in about a month.

Don't you just love all the weeds around the outside. That was my brilliant idea to grow alfalfa as a cover crop. That stuff sure was a pain! Oh well, you live, you learn.

Kristen

Mother's Day

Mother's Day is one holiday I love. It's my excuse to make all the decisions about what I want to do on that day and I don't have to feel guilty about asking my husband to do all the cleaning. Mr. C knows I love flowers and gardening so he decided after breakfast that we would go to Armstrong to pick a couple potted flowers.

I let little C be in charge of pictures this morning. Here are the daisy's I got. I want these to grow huge and wild. We have so much dirt, I just need some pretty wild color.

Here is a little 6 pack of something that is supposed to get pretty big.

Here is Mr. C posing for a picture while planting some more beans and corn. Those salva were planted last spring and they were tiny. The pink flowers kept getting eaten by the rabbits until I started planting onions all around the flowers. The onions work wonders! I also use some stinky stuff called "Rabbit Scram." That works pretty good, but it stinks. The onions are much better and I get nice organic onions out of it.

Here are some flowers we planted as seeds in egg cartons a couple weeks ago.

I'm transfering them to these so they can get bigger before I plant them with the big bunch of flowers outside.

At church last night C and L made me a card with flowers in them. One is zinas and the other is daisy's. I love how wild daisy's grow. I'm so excited for those.

C is making sure that L doesn't water his side... It's always a battle.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms in blogland. I hope you have a wonderful, peaceful day doing what you want.

Kristen

The Garden is Planted

I am SO excited! I have been waiting and waiting for the huge plant sale at the arboretum. Finally, this weekend it was here.

Here is what my planter boxes have looked like since we got a huge truck full of soil that we had to shovel into the boxes.

At least I have some other stuff growing in the garden all year.

We just planted this a few months ago. I actually planted 3, but this is the only one that really took off. The other two are small.

Lots of onions and some garlic.

I got to the arboretum by about 10:30 and it was already a good 85 degrees. That's ok, I just wanted all my organic veggie plants. Once we got in I went straight to the organic booth.

All in all, I ended up with 48 plants for about $56. I know it doesn't look like 51 plants, but some of those like the pole beans have 4 or 5 in one container. They are pretty easy to split.

Here is my first planter box, remember the peppers? Well, I got one more and added some basil and garlic to the box. The garlic didn't transplant well so it doesn't look so pretty. I also added one more pepper. A yellow one.

You can click on that picture to see the 5 bush beans in one little container. :-) That is so exciting.

In this box, I have 12 corn, 8 pole beans and 4 cucumbers.

Here I have, 1 crimson watermelon, 5 bush beans, 1 muskmelon, 1 zuccini, 2 butternut squash, 1 squash with a hard green outer shell and the rest I don't know because Mr. C planted them and didn't keep the tags. So, it will be a surprise. But there are 16 plants in all. So fun! I will have to show pictures in a month so you can see the growth. I just learned that the butternut and other squashes with the hard outer skin will keep all winter long. I hope I get a ton.

Here are 5 tomatoes, 3 celery (transplanted), 2 peanut plants and 1 egg plant. I am totally excited about the peanut plants. They will be very fun!

Last, I have these 2 cucumbers that Mr. C is trying. It's a new self watering space saver thing. So far, so good.

Can't wait to see it grow and eat it up!

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