hungry horse, montana

we just spent an absolutely wonderful 2 1/2 days in Glacier National Park in Montana. no cell phone or internet access. just camping and trees and hiking and moose and mule deer and grizzlies (who were in such abundance in the area near our campground, they had closed off almost all the hiking trails due to 'grizzly activity') and glaciers and wildflowers and mountain goats and marmots and cedars and lakes and rivers and waterfalls and gorges and so many good very good things. so pleasing. it has been determined that yesterday was my official birthday for this year since we went on a 10 and a half mile hike with a kick-ass elevation gain that took us almost 6 hours. it was awesome. in the first third of the hike we had just taken a break to eat some trail mix and suddenly there was a huge bull mule deer trotting down the path straight at us. it shocked the crap out of us so much, we tore off behind some trees thinking it might be a moose or elk. we were wrong, but he was still big and really, really beautiful and hung around for a bit before he finally took off further down the path. he had velvet on his antlers. they were amazing.

the first day we went on a quick hike in the early evening and saw a mama moose out in a lake taking a bath, while her two little babies watched from shore. she was watching us as much as we were watching her.

we only saw one grizzly and it was pretty far away, but still rather magnificent. :)

the hike we went on was so freaking incredible. the terrain was so varied and crossed so many different elevations that there was just constantly something new to oogle or sigh at or just stand in freaking awe and amazement thinking, 'we are so lucky to be on this amazing planet that holds so much majesty.' and then you look at the glaciers that are barely holding on to their glacier status and you think, 'for such a lucky bunch of motherfuckers, why do we have to destroy everything we touch?' but that's a topic for another time.

yeah. glacier needs to go on all of y'all's lists.

:)

yeah.