Jen's Epic Road Trip: Glacier National Park

Only a few months late... the final leg of my Epic Road Trip: Glacier National Park.

I'm a psychopath when it comes to mountains, so despite the fact that we had a day to get from Bozeman, MT to Spokane, WA (a 400 mile trip), I decided we had to add Glacier National Park in. We wouldn't have time to hike, but we'd have time to take the rumored-to-be-stunningly-incredible Going to the Sun Road through the heart of the park. Just a 271 mile detour for a total of 671 miles in one day. NBD.

We had to wake up at 6 AM and I was a bit nervous that these two wouldn't make it...



Also, who wants to wake that up? But I was planning on getting a breakfast sandwich from the awesome Bozeman Food Co-Op, so I was determined. It was worth the extra 15 minutes, too... if you're in Bozeman, make sure you get this. A biscuit, a fried egg, and cheddar. SO. GOOD.

And then, we were off!

The Going to the Sun Road was just as beautiful as promised. It's a small, 50 mile-long, two-lane road that takes you from one side of the park to the other, climbing up to 6,646 feet at Logan Pass (where you cross the Continental Divide) before heading down again. The road is very narrow and windy, but don't worry, Mom, I definitely drove extremely carefully. It's open from mid-June to mid-September, so we got through near the end of the time it was open. A week or two later, it was closed with heavy snow!

See the line on the left mountains? That's the Going to the Sun Road.

The mountains in Glacier National Park are quite dramatic because of all the glaciers for which it's named. The glaciers carve away at mountains as they move, so the peaks are much more jagged. They're actually not that high -- by Western standards, at least -- only six of them are more than 10,000 feet tall.

I have to say, though, in the interest of "keeping things real," that the area surrounding the park, particularly to the west, was very isolated and there were more than a few nasty stares that Sourabh got when we stopped at a gas station. We felt uncomfortable driving through the area. It was really odd, since it was the only time we felt like that on our entire trip. For that reason I'm not sure we'd go back to Glacier, but it was a stunning place to visit.

And that concludes my Epic Road Trip posts! Let's see, it's only been, oh, four months since I

By the way, I was contacted about a cool website that allows you to take an interactive, virtual drive down Highway 1 (AKA the Pacific Coast Highway, which I took from San Francisco to LA). It's a neat website -- check it out if you're interested in the route!

Jen's Epic Road Trip: Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, and Bozeman, MT

So close to the end, folks! After this recap post I'll just have Glacier National Park left. In a way, I'm kind of bummed. This trip was so incredible and I'm sad that I'm nearly done recapping!

After leaving Utah, Sourabh, Mason and I continued our trek northward. We decided to take a slight detour so that we could drive through Grand Teton National Park and spend the afternoon in Yellowstone National Park. 

I'd been to both the Tetons and Yellowstone before, but it had been 9 years so I'd forgotten just how gorgeous the area is, stretching between Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. As we drove along, Sourabh asked me how they decided which areas were national parks and which weren't. Good question -- when it's all so gorgeous, how do they decide??

As soon as we left Jackson, Wyoming, we started driving alongside the Tetons. It's a fairly short mountain range but it's stunning because it seems to just rise out of the flat prairie. Since the altitude is so high (7,000 ft) you don't realize that the peaks actually reach up 13,000 ft from sea level! Those are the kinds of heights this Washington-bred girl can appreciate.

Thank you, fence, for providing a conveniently photogenic foreground to my photo. It was early September, but fall colors had already hit the Tetons due to the altitude.

Finally, around 3 PM, we made it to Yellowstone!

Yellowstone covers approximately 3,500 square miles. It's big. It's not as mesmerizing as the peaks of the Tetons or the depths of the Grand Canyon. Instead, it's incredible to think of 3,500 square miles of wilderness.

Oh yeah, you're also up pretty high in the park, ranging from 7,000 to 9,000 ft elevation in different parts.

In case you didn't know (or rather, in case you aren't a geography dork like me), the Continental Divide is a hydrological divide. To the west, all water eventually drains into the Pacific Ocean. To the east, all water eventually drains into the Atlantic Ocean (or, far north in Canada, into the Arctic Ocean). I think it's pretty cool.

Yellowstone is also incredible because it rests on a giant caldera, AKA a volcano. Yes, Yellowstone is basically a supervolcano that, if it ever erupted, would probably decimate most of the United States. NBD.

BUT it means there's a lot of extremely cool geological stuff happening in the Park. There are thousands of tiny earthquakes every year because of all the seismic activity below the surface. There are geysers and multi-colored springs and mudpots (do not step into any of them or you will literally be boiled to death).

Steam rises from all sorts of ponds and lakes around the park due to the heat coming from geothermal pockets.

We also couldn't walk away from the parking areas to check out the multi-colored springs and mudpots since you can't take your dog on the paths and we had Mason with us (and we weren't going to leave him in the car). I understand why dogs aren't allowed -- the dogs could run into the springs and be hurt or knock someone off the path if they got rowdy --  but it's definitely a bummer for those traveling with dogs and something to know before you go.

We got to Bozeman, MT, around 8 PM, but luckily there were still some restaurants open. After several days eating at places like Subway and Starbucks -- if we were lucky -- we were both in dire need of a good meal. We found a tapas place on Yelp and decided that sounded perfect.

And it was! We both really enjoyed our meal at Over the Tapas in downtown Bozeman. Although we didn't drink, it looked like they had a terrific wine and beer menu as well. I'd definitely recommend this place to Bozeman visitors. I can't remember what we had since I was slightly delirious after roughly 500 miles of driving in a day, but it was all delicious.

The following morning, we left Mason in our hotel room with lots of toys and treats and drove into Yellowstone for a hike. Since he'd been fine while we were gone for an hour the night before, we assumed he'd be okay for the day. (Spoiler: he was. Give Mason a bone and some peanut butter and he's happy for hours.)

It was roughly 90 minutes to the park from Bozeman (we stayed there because it was much cheaper than hotels right next to the park), so we chose a hike close to the north entrance: Bunsen Peak.

The hike was an out-and-back up then down Bunsen Peak, with an elevation gain of 1,278 ft in 2 miles. Along the way, you got incredible views of the Gallatin Mountains to the west.

Once we reached the peak, Yellowstone spread out around us. Seeing the park from this vantage point really brought home just how wild the park was and how far that wilderness stretched.

With the wilderness in mind, I made sure Sourabh and I kept up conversation for the whole trek, no matter how winded we got in the last, steepest ascent to reach the peak. Bears are a real and present danger in Yellowstone, and the best way to avoid them is to make noise since few bears will try to go after you. Rather, if they hear noise, they'll typically run away. Many hikers wear bells, but since we didn't have any, we had to use our voices to make sure wildlife knew we were there.

The weather changes pretty quickly in Yellowstone, and at this height (roughly 8,900 ft) we could see the clouds moving across the sky at an incredibly fast pace. No wonder days go from sunny to stormy so quickly!

After climbing a mountain at a high elevation, we'd worked up an appetite. We headed back to our hotel to check in on Mason and give him a short walk before heading to dinner.

Bozeman's restaurant scene officially rocks. We were both surprised that we had two great meals here, but I guess since it's a university town, there's a large enough population that demands good food! We ate at Blackbird Kitchen, where I had a fantastic kale caesar salad and Sourabh had a great lamb and eggplant dish. We also split a mushroom pizza baked in their wood fire oven.

I also grabbed breakfast the next morning at the Bozeman Food Co-Op, where I had a terrific breakfast sandwich. Egg and cheese on a biscuit -- SO GOOD. They also had a great selection of snacks for hiking, a tasty looking salad bar, and a great juice and espresso bar (I enjoyed a green juice and coconut milk latte).

Jen's Epic Road Trip: Utah

Yes, nearly two months after the conclusion of my epic road trip, I am still getting around to recapping the trip. 

It's a shame I've waited so long to talk about Utah because I absolutely loved the state, despite the terrible thunderstorms we hit driving through. I thought Utah had an incredibly diverse landscape, friendly people, and some of the coolest places to run of my whole trip. 

If I could sum up Utah with one word, it would be: GO. Seriously, go visit Utah. If you like to hike or climb mountains or go bike riding or run or do anything in the outdoors, then go to Utah. The state is truly picturesque.

We left Sedona in the middle of a torrential downpour, which was not fun to drive through. We had a long drive ahead of us, including a few hours in Zion National Park to break it up, so I was not happy about the storms. Thankfully they cleared up enough for us to see the views as we went over an extremely high mountain pass that took us along Route 89A toward Utah.

This doesn't look high up, but it was nearing the top of a roughly 2,000 ft climb. You could see out over a large valley to the red rock cliffs on the other side.

In fact, those red rock cliffs were the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, only we weren't able to get a good look at them due to the heavy cloud cover. Guess I'll just have to go back!

The promised land! Zion National Park was one of the places I was most excited about on the trip. I'd heard that it was an incredibly stunning place, and I thought it met its reputation, despite the overcast skies.

Unfortunately, photos don't capture the scope of the rock walls or how neat the formations were -- this one looked like a chess board!

The colors of the rocks also varied from one end of the park to another, changing as we drove along the main road from east to west.

We took a break to stretch our legs and climbed around on these wave-like formations for a bit. They looked like ocean waves that had been calcified.

Then, the best part of the park: driving through a long tunnel and emerging into a deep canyon.

Unfortunately, the pictures simply cannot convey the scale of the canyon. As soon as we exited the tunnel, I started laughing at the sheer massiveness of the rock walls. Unlike the Grand Canyon, where you're looking down into a canyon, at Zion you're surrounded by canyon walls. It's a totally different experience and somehow seems a lot more "grand" than the Grand Canyon.

Mason was unimpressed, however. Really, he's not impressed by anything that isn't edible.

Part of the reason I loved Utah so much was the fantastic experience Sourabh and I had exploring one of its state parks. When yet another day of thunderstorms was forecast for Bryce Canyon, the next national park we meant to see, we decided to stay close to St. George -- where our hotel was located -- and check out a state park.

And as it turned out, Snow Canyon State Park was awesome! There were many trails, two of which were open to dogs, and I was able to get in a gorgeous run in the morning while Sourabh walked Mason.

We liked the park so much that we decided to go back after dinner! It was only a 15 minute drive from our hotel, so we took Mason along the other dog-friendly trail in the park.

We have so few pictures together from this trip since I was more concerned with getting shots of all the mountains and canyons. Oops. Luckily we got one at Snow Canyon!

We were lucky enough to see a beautiful sunset light up the canyon walls in the distance as we walked back to the car. I can only imagine how gorgeous the park would be in sunny weather!

The next day, as we left St. George, UT, we stopped at Starbucks for breakfast and made sure to get Mason a pupacinno -- a mini cup of whipped cream. Mason had never had one before but judging by the whipped cream on his snout, I think he liked it.

This was also the day that I was set to try for 20 miles, but the thunderstorms got in the way. I ran 5 miles on the hotel treadmill then we headed off toward Park City.

Along the way, we saw this gorgeous dirt road in the middle of a valley, so I got in another 5 miles. At roughly 6,000 ft elevation. I listened to superhero movie music to help motivate me (it worked like a charm and the run felt fantastic).

Finally, I fit in the final 10 miles of the 20 miler along a paved path in Provo. This is another place I'd love to go back and explore further. Provo was nestled into these mountains and seemed like a fantastic place to run or hike. I don't ski, but I'm 99% sure it's also a fantastic ski destination.

Sadly, we didn't get to Park City till 8:30 PM, and by then all we wanted to do was eat then sleep. And since we had 470 miles to drive the next day, we didn't really get to see it the following morning. Add it to the list of places I need to go back to!

Leaving Park City, we drove through another area of Utah: the flat ranch lands.

Looking back through these pictures has me missing the expansiveness of the west and the jagged topography of the Rocky Mountain states. I need to go back ASAP! Anyone want to plan a trip with me?


Have you been to Utah? Where else should I go if when I make another trip out there?

Jen's Epic Road Trip: Grand Canyon and Sedona, AZ



 Have you ever planned a trip somewhere and added a random stop, not really knowing what it'd be like, and then that stop ends up being incredible?

 

That was my experience with Sedona. Originally, the Grand Canyon and Sedona weren't even on the itinerary. We were going to go to Yosemite and bypass Arizona. But once the giant wildfire in California started, we didn't want to risk having part of our trip ruined, so we cut Yosemite out and added the Grand Canyon.

 



Part of the reason we weren't going to Arizona? I thought it was mainly flat desert with this one big canyon. Yes, I know, I'm an idiot. These were the views we were greeted with when we first entered the state of Arizona. So I knew right off I'd be happy -- non-flat topography! My favorite!

This was how Mason spent the majority of the car rides.

We spent Friday night in Williams, AZ, which was a lot cheaper than the towns that were only 10 minutes from Grand Canyon. It was a 50 minute drive Saturday morning, but I thought it was worth it to save $100!

It's kind of hard to appreciate the scope of the Grand Canyon. It is, on average, 10 miles across, and at its widest it's 18 miles between the north and south rims. And it's over a mile deep!

We walked along the Rim Trail for a while before heading east toward the Bright Angel Trail. I'd heard that the best way to appreciate the vastness of the Canyon was to hike down into it, so that was our plan.

If you do the entire trail, it's impossible to complete in a day. Most people hike a mile or two down then head back up. Because you go down first, it's easy to go further than is safe given your time and fuel, and then you're stuck with five steep miles to climb back up. Plus, remember that the altitude is 7,000 ft high at the rim of the Canyon, so you have to contend with thinner air as well.

It's definitely worth hiking down into teh canyon, though! Even if you don't go too far, you can appreciate things like the geology of the canyon better when you get inside of it.

And you might run into a friend from college! Somehow, on a trail entering the Grand Canyon, we ran into a friend from the East Coast (although she lives in California now). Maryam, Sourabh, and I were all on the parliamentary debate team in undergrad. We hadn't seen her in two years, so it was great to catch up!

Like I said, the trail is steep! It also does not allow dogs, which we learned partway down, so we had to turn around and head back up. Sourabh and I would have liked to go further, but we didn't want to get in trouble for having Mason with us.

However, we definitely want to return and attempt a lot more of the trail! There's a lodge right at the trailhead, so it'd be a great place to stay if you wanted to do most of the trail in a day.

The Rim Trail is over 18 miles long and allows dogs on it, so we headed to a different portion and hiked along it for a bit.

Obviously we had to take a "family portrait" at the Grand Canyon!

One of the coolest things about the Canyon was seeing the cloud shadows over it. You can see the shadows going on for miles and miles.

Around 1 PM, a storm started moving in, so we headed out. We were lucky since storms had been forecasted for the whole day, but they didn't start until the afternoon.

As we drove out of the park, we were hit by intense rain and even some hail! The hail got so bad that we pulled over and waited for it to stop. There was also lightning hitting the fields near our car. I've gotten a bit more used to intense thunderstorms living in New York, but since I grew up in Washington, where you rarely get anything like that, thunderstorms still freak me out. Driving through that was not fun -- and the rain continued as we headed to Sedona.

Thankfully, it cleared up as we drove down Oak Creek Canyon and into Sedona. We got to see the incredible red rocks in all their rosy glory!

What's so cool about entering Sedona from Highway 89A is that you take this tiny windy road down into a canyon, then it slowly opens up to this incredible landscape of giant red rocks and the town of Sedona.

Sedona itself is quite the hippie town. They believe in energy vortexes, crystals, and things like that. But they also have some incredible hiking and biking, if crystals aren't your flavor (they're not mine).

We checked out Sedona a bit, had a nice Indian meal, and then went to bed early since I was going to be running 20 miles the next morning.

Unfortunately, the elevation (4500 ft) and rocky trails did me in. I only got in 8 miles before I had to stop because I felt so nauseous. But I got in the 20 miles the following Wednesday, and getting to run around these incredible views made the aborted run well worth it!

I wouldn't recommend it for running, but for hiking, the Bell Rock Trail would be fantastic. It meets up with the Courthouse Butte Loop, which circles the big rock on the left.

I hope I can return to Sedona at some point for a hiking trip. It was completely different from any place I've been before -- the colors are so vivid and the entire area feels like something out of a painting. I'm so glad we ended up going there!