We flew out of Chicago Midway early on a Wednesday morning, changed planes in Denver, and finally arrived in Spokane, WA a little after noon Pacific time. We picked up our rental car and headed east. Seven hours later we had crossed Idaho and were in Montana where we stopped for the night.
The next morning we drove to Kalispell, MT on the edge of Glacier National Park where we went whitewater kayaking. I had been whitewater rafting before (in Colorado and Alaska) and had done a little but of kayaking on the East Race, a man-made waterway in South Bend, IN. But this was a real river, and I hoped my brother and I would be ready. The river turned out to be much easier than we thought, however, and we easily ran the rapids while enjoying the magnigicent scenery.
My mom, brother and I hit the trail in Glacier that afternoon, hiking a couple easy miles to Avalanche Lake. The hike is mostly through dense woods, finally opening up as you reach the lake. This only makes the view more spectacular as the lake is surrounded on three sides by towering peaks. My brother and I then recreated a picture we had taken on the same spot thirteen years before. Because of its relatively high effort/reward ratio, Avalanche Lake is an extrenmely popular hike (you won't go more than a few hundred yards without seeing another hiker) but it is one I would definitely reccommend to anyone visiting Glacier.
Our hotel that night had tremendous views looking out over a lake towards the Rockies. There was also a small river that flowed into the lake where I tested my fishing luck but was unsuccessful. There was no TV in the lodge, but its hard to beat sitting out on a deck watching the sun set over the mountatins.
We got to bed early that night to rest up for the next day's hike: the 13 mile Highline Trail.
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