East Glacier - St. Mary

East Glacier – St. Mary July 17

So I chickened out on the GTSR… I’ll rephrase. Ruben needed the driving experience and GTSR was a little too intense so we decided to take highway 2 around the southern part of the park. It was a spectacular drive, and although it wound around the sides of mountains and through valleys with lakes and streams, it managed to have a line down the middle and a shoulder on both sides the entire way. Ruben drove, he’s up to 28 hours and he needs to get to 50 by the time we get back so he can get his license. We had some road construction along the way, but nothing too frustrating.

At one point we saw a large black animal bottom moving into the brush on the side of the road and thought it was a bear, until I looked back and saw a herd of angus right next to the road. There were so many amazing views that we stopped pulling over to take pictures. We just enjoyed the drive.

Because this song belongs in every roadtrip playlist

When we arrived at St. Mary campground we were disappointed. Our site was roomy, but there was no tree cover, and it was windy. The forecast calls for high wind and 40% chance of rain for the next two days, and we immediately set up the tent, put on the rain cover, and covered the entire thing with my giant blue tarp. I only had 6 stakes, so I got creative with the rope again, and me moved the picnic table to weigh down one side of the tarp. 40Mph gusts may just rip it all down anyway. We will find out. Probably at 3am…

We have better cell reception here, so I found us a spot to go for a lunch/dinner at Two Dog Flats on the GTSR about 15minutes away from our campsite.

The next morning…

Dinner in two dog flats was really good. Ru and I had burgers, and he kicked my butt at a game of chess while we ate. When we came back to camp, it was still blowing and drizzly so we braved a couple games of yahtzee and then headed to the car for a movie. It wasn’t cold really, 60 degrees or so, just windy and damp. We watched Pirate Radio then headed to the St. Mary center for a show of Native American Dancers.

Two Dog Flats Grill

We are pretty evenly matched

Watching Pirate Radio on the small screen, in the warm car

The show was sold out, so we walked the beautiful path, through the flowery meadow, over a wooden bridge, and back to camp. I brought my umbrella, but we didn’t need it. When I saw the tent again I realized that the way I had done the tarp would never hold up to wind, so Ruben and I re staked and tied everything and went to bed. It was so windy, and the tarp so noisy, that we put earplugs in. When the wind blew in the big gusts it pushed the tent walls down on hour heads, which were at least a foot and a half from the side of the tent. We ended up sleeping in a huddle in the middle of the tent.

The trail to the show was so pretty. All the wildflowers in every meadow are in bloom. 

We could have joined the group watching through the back door standing by the
porto potties, but um no. 

The wild roses were so prevalent you could smell them all over the campsite. 

At about 3 am (my prophecy came true) the tarp worked out of its stakes and blew off. I re-staked it, but couldn’t fall back to sleep. It blew off entirely an hour later. It wasn’t raining then, in fact, when I got up to put the stakes back in I stood a moment in the wind taking in the beautiful view. Wispy clouds were racing across the sky, sometimes covering a nearly full moon that shone so brightly I didn’t need a flashlight at all. The moon on the mountains was surreal.

Ruben had to get up and help me, and we untied the wet knots and shoved the useless tarp into the car. The rain fly was on the tent already, and I used the stakes I had to stake down its lines. Like all tent rain flys though, it was basically useless, and we woke up with a puddle of water inside the southeast corner of the tent. Fortunately Ruben has a plastic suitcase so it wasn’t the worst thing.

The first thing I did when I woke up was to check the weather. It has called for light wind and sprinkles yesterday. I saw a high wind warning for morning and for Thursday night so I called the hotel we are staying at on Friday, and asked if they also had a room for Thursday. They did and I booked it immediately.

As I write this the rain is falling harder, pushed through my leaky tent seams by the strong SE wind. Oh, actually it just started hailing. As soon as it stops I’m packing like a crazy woman ;).