Moving to Rising Sun Campground, Glacier National Park

Tuesday July 31, 2012

Today is moving day.  We've had a nice stay at Avalanche Campground.  The weather has been beautiful!  And despite the fact that it felt like 'apartment living', it was one of the quietest sites we have been to all summer.  The camp is pretty empty all day since most everyone hikes, and they must be pretty tired when they come back, because it certainly is not noisy in the evening!



Lake Saint Mary

When we talk about where to go next, we decide to go to Rising Sun Campground on the other side of the park (near St. Mary).  We've been there before.  If you remember from our stories of our original trip out here about 8 years ago, this is where the bear came thru the campsite early in the morning and Ed quietly got Buddy into the truck before he came to tell me I might want to move to safety!

It's also the spot I got chastised by a Ranger for leaving our dishwater out when I left the campground.  (We're more careful now:)!)

Rising Sun Campground is less then an hour away by the Going-To-The-Sun road, but you can't bring campers on that road, so you have to go around, which is a 3 hour ride.  Ed decides he wants to get a good site at Rising Sun, so we're going to go (without the camper) to the campground early in the morning and pick out a good site just as people are leaving.  All of these campgrounds are full before noon. Now I am not thrilled at making what, to me, seems like a double trip, but we do it.

And he was right. Someone was just leaving from a really good site when we arrived.  We were able to put out a couple of our chairs and pay for our spot and then go back to pickup our camper, drive over the long way, and not have to worry about whether we will be there in time for a site.

There is construction on the Going-To-The-Sun road, so the hour and a half round trip really turns into almost three extra hours.  But it is a beautiful day, and that view can't be beat!

It looks like we'll be staying in Northern Montana for the rest of our trip before we start heading for home.  Probably even Glacier National Park.  Ed (and Monty) would prefer to go to the National Forests, but most are way far away from towns for groceries and Internet for me.  Good thing he likes to hike in Glacier!

If Ed was doing these summer trips by himself, I guarantee you he would find the most remote sites he could find!  But traveling for two requires some compromise. The hikes here are the best (says Ed) and the views can't be beat.