Cousin Love!

This past weekend was Memorial Day in the US–a perfect time for family to get together! And my cousin Delia flew out to visit us with two of her four children–Juniper and Steve–who are also cousins, just a different generation. But we all had a great time hiking in Glacier and biking Going-to-the-Sun Road on e-bikes! Here are a few photos from our adventures…

Juni, Steve & Delia arrive!

We rented e-bikes from Glacier Hikes and Bikes to ride the Going-to-the-Sun Road. And when we arrived to pick up the bikes, we discovered that their beautiful Golden Retriever was also named Juniper!

GTTSR is still closed to traffic at Logan Pass, but you can hike and bike either the east side or the west side. We chose the west side of the road, which gave us about a 40-mile round-trip ride from Lake McDonald Lodge up to the “hard closure” that’s now only about 2 miles from Logan Pass. And we got an up-close-and-personal introduction to why the road is closed. Yes, they are still plowing snow at the very top. But for the last 4-5 miles of our ride to the closure, there’s no snow–just piles of rocks and debris that have fallen from the mountains over the winter, collected courtesy of giant backhoes. And the wooden guardrails along much of the road are missing–they actually get bolted on each year and are still stacked up along the opposite side of the road. My strategy for coping with the gaping holes on the cliff-side of the road was basically no looking, no stopping, no taking pictures. But we got some amazing views from the places we did stop, enough to help our cousins understand why Glacier is called the Crown of the Continent!

We also got in a few hikes, including a memorable one to Rocky Point! The minute I told Delia about the Rocky Point hike, her eyes lit up just as I knew they would. Because Rocky Point is the name of an amusement park we used to go to when we visited our grandparents in Rhode Island as kids. This Rocky Point has no rides, booths, or concessions, but is a beautiful hike along Lake McDonald, where Steve skipped rocks with just as much skill as his namesake grandfather, and Juni took a chilly little swim!

And of course we made it over to the east side of the park to hike some trails at Two Medicine and St. Mary, including St. Mary Falls where we were followed by some curious deer and chipmunks, but fortunately no bears!

So happy the weather cooperated and we were able to show them a good time! I think they got a little taste of why we love this itinerant life so much. Sadly, we didn’t spot this little bear cub until after our cousins left. But he sure is cute!

The only bears these cousins saw were friendly, harmless, and made entirely of wood!