From Marylin, we drove towards Glacier National Park, more specifically to Kalispell, where Lance and Shelley Jo wanted to host us for the next two days. A short 6 hour drive and two stopovers in a small town next to a river and at the Garden of One Thousand Buddhas later, we arrived at their house where they were waiting for us with dinner. Once again, so nice! Lance is a typical example why couchsurfing in USA is so much fun, totally relaxed, helpful, funny and interested. The same is true for Shelley Jo, his wife, who is a super creative artist and enthusiastic participant of the Burning Man in addition. You can see that an artist lives in the house. There is small, crazy, self-made art work all over the place! One example: the mirror in the bathroom is attached to a very old suitcase hanging on the wall, so it’s used as a bathroom cabinet. They had two other guests the same evening, Evelyn from Germany who drives her bike through the West of the USA, Canada and Alaska and Willis who cycles from New York to San Francisco (when we met him he was on the road for over 2 months and makes around 100 miles a day :-O ). Especially Willis was really easy to talk with and he gave us some hints for New York plus his mobile number in case we don’t find a host there. Summarized a really nice evening!
The next day we drove to Glacier NP. You’ve never heard of that one? So didn’t we! There is a quite famous picture, which is every here and then in movies, so you might recognize it. Anyway, it’s one of the oldest and most traditional parks in the States and also quite famous with 2 million visitors per year. The main attraction is, as the name implies, the glaciers. Roughly speaking, the park consists of the Rocky Mountains in the center of it and the core of the park is a pass crossing them. Obviously, climbing and hiking are the main activities besides driving along the road, but there are also countless glacier lakes totally different in colour and sizs. Most of the 2 Mio visitors stay on the road, making even the main hikes not too crowded. We did a hike to a view point on the “Hidden Lakes” (the hike to the lakes itself was closed due to bear danger 🙁 ), along the Highland Track and to the Avalanche Lake. First we wanted to swim there, but it was that could that we just put our heads under water… The park is really idyllic which was really pleasant and surprising after experiencing the crowds in Yellowstone.
We had another very nice evening with Lance and Shelley Jo and actually wanted to leave the next morning to Canada. However, it was the 4th of July, Independence Day, which is the most important public holiday in USA. That’s why we couldn’t resist watching the parade in the city with Shelley Jo and the two kids of them. Probably not as extraordinary as in a big city, but really authentic and funny! After that, we drove over the border to Canada, but this is part of the next post 🙂