We’re taking you on another Pacific Northwest trip to explore two amazing national parks for some of the best hikes in North Cascades and Glacier National Parks. Both parks offer amazing mountain views, gorgeous green scenery, and great hiking trails. You can experience both parks in just a few days, we’re giving you the highlights you have to do – which you know include the best hikes in both parks!

If you are spending more time in Washington and want to check out Mt. Rainier & Olympic, we have a Washington’s 3 National Park Itinerary for sale on our website: Washington’s 3 National Parks Road Trip

Best Hikes in North Cascades & Glacier National Parks – Episode Transcript

1 (37s):
Welcome to this week’s episode of the Travel Squad Podcast, North Cascades and Glacier National Parks.

4 (1m 2s):
If you recall, these two national parks, North Cascades and Glacier are continuations from last week’s episode and our squad trip that we took to Mount Rainier and Olympics national park, and after dropping off Zayna and Kim Britton, and I continued on our own adventures. Now, North Cascades is the third of Washington. State’s national parks, and it’s located Northeast of Seattle and Britain. I even continued on further east crossing state lines, making our way all the way to Montana to go to Glacier.

2 (1m 35s):
So I’m super excited about this episode for three reasons. One, the pictures that you guys posted were insanely beautiful too. I can’t wait to get into you guys getting there because you said that you were in a race against time to get to your hotel. So I can’t wait for you to unpack that. And three, you almost didn’t make it home. So I can’t wait for you guys to unpack that this episode is going to be off the charts.

4 (1m 58s):
Wild.

3 (1m 59s):
I can’t wait to hear it too. I’m bummed that I couldn’t say for the whole thing, but I’m glad I got to do the first half of it. So let’s just jump right on in with some tips. Some of these tips are going to be the same as last week’s episodes, since they do apply to the other two Washington national parks. But we said before rent an SUV, I’m still in support of that.

4 (2m 21s):
It’s definitely a clutch. One more specifically for this and North Cascades. Cause we’ll get into it. North Cascades is pretty remote. And one of the hikes that we did, one, which is one of even the most popular hikes in the park, oh my God, you take a road that I don’t even know how to describe it. It’s wild. You need an SUV. I literally thought I was driving to my death on that thing.

3 (2m 41s):
Oh my God. Okay. Offline maps definitely need them,

1 (2m 46s):
But we need offline maps. North Cascades is in a remote area. You’re going to need offline maps and then just tracking from the North Cascades area all the way to Glacier National park in Montana. Wow. It’s wild and remote out there. I feel like I have seen all of Montana and its glory and there’s not a lot going on in terms of when you’re on the road. And so you’re going to be in remote places when you’re on this drive.

4 (3m 14s):
The same tip has last week as well, get to the trail heads early. A lot of the hikes that we’re mentioning are the more popular ones, but even after doing research, even though they’re the more popular ones they are for a specific reason, their must do is so you don’t want to fight the traffic and spaces for parking, particularly when we get onto Glacier because the parking is very limited in Glacier National park. So do keep that in mind, get to the trail heads early.

3 (3m 40s):
When you say early, how early would you recommend a wall?

4 (3m 43s):
At least in Glacier National park. We’re talking 6:37 AM. Whew early,

1 (3m 52s):
And we’ve cited so many times already. And we’ve just barely started the episode. We’re in some remote places pack or buy our cooler and bring snacks or lunch into the park.

3 (4m 2s):
And again, we’ll link the cooler, the Collapsible cooler that we have in the show notes. So if you’re interested in purchasing one we’ll link, the one that we recommend it’s

2 (4m 10s):
Legit.

1 (4m 11s):
So Kim, and Zayna what time was your flight out of Seattle? And what time did you guys get to the airport?

4 (4m 17s):
Cause remember from last episode we just dropped them off at the airport in Seattle. They couldn’t hack it with us and didn’t want to continue on.

2 (4m 25s):
I think our flight was somewhere around four o’clock. And so you guys dropped us off.

3 (4m 29s):
I think we, I think we got there, run for a flight was at seven. So we had some time to kill a little extra time since we wrapped up earlier. But I do want to say, it’s not that we couldn’t hack it. It’s that we’re smart travelers and we just fit in what we could with the time we had available, but we didn’t need or want to spend, or could spend 10 days or nine days in this Washington park trip. Like you crazy people.

4 (4m 52s):
I think the fact that you’re 30 are now making excuses, Kim, but you know, that’s another topic for another time.

3 (4m 57s):
I’m in high demand. I can’t be with you guys all the time,

4 (5m 2s):
But that’s okay.

1 (5m 3s):
We dropped Kim and Zaina off at the airport and Jamal and I were heading towards North Cascades at National Park and we were going to stay overnight in concrete, Washington.

3 (5m 13s):
How long did it take you to get from Seattle to concrete

1 (5m 17s):
From Seattle to concrete? I would say it was probably like

4 (5m 21s):
Was about two hours.

1 (5m 23s):
Not bad. It wasn’t too bad.

4 (5m 24s):
It’s actually not far from Seattle at all. Again, North Cascades in general is Northeast of Seattle. Concrete is not right in North Cascades area, but it’s the closest town on the Western side of North Cascades National Park. But let me tell you something going from Seattle to concrete completely different world. I’m just like, oh, this whole time we were there. I could realize, oh, this is the Pacific Northwest, you know, going from Mount Rainier and Olympic and obviously being in Seattle and then you get to concrete. And I was like, dude, I feel like I’m in a completely different state. This is not what I imagined watching

3 (5m 57s):
It.

1 (5m 57s):
Well, let me just say that. I looked up concrete, Washington in Google maps. And you know, when you can pull up a city, it’ll show you like the gas stations or the bars or restaurants that are nearby that you can walk to. And I pull it up and it’s like two blocks as a total town. And I could even find like a legit gas station. So I said to Jamal, you know what, Jamal let’s stop at the biggest city near concrete, fill up in gas just in case if we need anything to eat, let’s grab it now because I looked up some of the restaurants and they closed before we were going to get there. Oh, the latest thing open was the grocery store and it was going to close by like 8:00 PM.

1 (6m 39s):
So it was a mad dash to concrete because also our hotel, which was actually really, really nice, but they were going to shut the office down at seven and we needed to get our keys as well.

3 (6m 51s):
Oh my God. These two are going to turn the vampires at 8:00 PM or what

4 (6m 54s):
I guess. So, but you know, it’s really funny. Like Brittany said, it’s just a small town. It’s supposedly historic town out there as well, but really two blocks, not very much going on in there, but really the hotel that we were staying at was the nicest hotel that we were at the entire trip. So I don’t want to say shocking, but that was a very pleasant surprise.

1 (7m 16s):
It was called Mount baker hotel and they had a, probably about six rooms, but every rooms had a theme. So we

4 (7m 23s):
That’s how small the town is. Keep that in mind, a North Cascades isn’t very well trafficked for what it is. So not a big town.

1 (7m 30s):
Our room was seaside themed. And so it had a whole bunch of like trinkets and nautical themes going along throughout the whole hotel room queue. It had a living room with a fridge microwave sink area, its own private bathroom and then a separate bedroom.

4 (7m 47s):
So it was really like an apartment. You just didn’t have a full kitchen. There was no stove top or oven, but like those other amenities that Brittany said they did have them. So it was very, very quaint in that regard. And I really liked how it was set up like an apartment and the furnishings and it was quite nice as well. So this was the nicest hotel that we really did stay in. I enjoyed

1 (8m 7s):
It a lot. It’s only a hundred bucks for the night.

3 (8m 9s):
Wow. Did you see any of the other room themes?

4 (8m 12s):
I’m trying to remember what the names were because

1 (8m 16s):
Like a lover’s theme. Why didn’t you guys get

4 (8m 21s):
To pick when we booked it on Expedia that shows like a couple rooms, but they didn’t really give the name? I don’t think so. I don’t know. I’m trying to remember off the top of my head, what the other themes were. I really don’t remember, but getting back to what Brittany was saying earlier, you know, the town doesn’t really have a lot. I mean, they had a really good bakery that looked good, but by the time that we wanted to leave in the morning, the bakery didn’t open until well after that. So we’re like, all right, well, what are we going to do for breakfast? We went to the grocery store, had to make sure we got there before it closed. And we picked up like instant oatmeal that we would be able to microwave inside the National Park. There’s really no amenities at all and very remote.

4 (9m 3s):
So we’re like, what are we going to do for lunch? And again, that’s where the cooler comes into play. We picked up some Lunchables from there and we had Lunchables. So we had a beet cheese and crackers, which was actually quite delicious. Believe it or not. So do be sure to get those things because you’re not going to find anything to eat in the park. That’s number one. And depending on what time you’re starting your day, you’re definitely not going to get breakfast. There’s not even fast food places. Like literally you need to go to the grocery store and get stuff to eat.

2 (9m 32s):
Do you live in a Mickey doc? Like a McDonald’s now you’re going to Nicky D’s no.

3 (9m 36s):
Ooh. Do you guys remember

4 (9m 38s):
Knowing this is like a small little BoomTown I’m telling you is like two blocks wide. There’s nothing there.

2 (9m 43s):
I just can’t imagine a place without the golden arches.

4 (9m 46s):
No golden arches.

3 (9m 47s):
Do you remember if the grocery store had like a deli that makes sandwiches

4 (9m 50s):
They did. And we thought about taking a sandwich to go. It’s not the place I would get a sandwich to go from. Let’s put it that way. Okay.

3 (9m 58s):
Noted.

4 (9m 59s):
Yes. Yes.

1 (10m 0s):
So for North Cascades National Park, there’s actually a major highway running through the entirety of the park. And because of that, North Cascades is free to enter because they can’t really monitor this major highway since it’s open to the public and North Cascades, National Park features these beautiful jagged peaks in the north cascade mountain range. And there are so many glaciers, waterfalls, turquoise lakes, like Diablo lake and just beautiful mountain scenery taking over the entire park. So the first hike that we were going to do with called cascade pass, and it was six and a half miles round trip, and you actually have to take this unpaved road to the trail head.

1 (10m 42s):
And this is where Jamal says, you need an SUV. Jamal, tell us about that road again.

4 (10m 47s):
Yeah. So one real quick, Brittany was saying earlier that there’s the main highway that goes through the North Cascades. That is very true. This hike that we went on is not off of that main highway. You have to shoot off of that main highway. And then it becomes an unpaved road with just jagged gravel, dirt and rocks, very steep, windy turns. So the SUV is clutch, but even though you don’t really have to drive too far of a distance on those windy roads because of how the road is. It takes a long time. I think how, how many miles was it? It was about like 15 miles. Wasn’t it?

1 (11m 24s):
15 to 18 miles.

4 (11m 26s):
It took us an hour to an hour and 15 minutes just to drive that, to get to the parking lot off the main road because of how jagged it was. So I’m like telling Brittany, like, where the hell are you taking me? Like, what are we going to get to on here? You’re saying that this is a popular trail. I don’t see any cars here. Like where are they coming from? I feel like I’m going to be led to my death. Like somebody’s going to be out here ready to like prey on us. Cause we’re alone and something to keep in mind on the National Park website too, they do advise because it is in such a remote area. There is a lot of petty theft and break-ins and cars in the parking, lots out there. And I thought to myself, that’s weird. I’ve never seen a National Park. Really say that. And then I was on this road and I thought to myself, oh shit, I see what they’re saying.

4 (12m 8s):
Like there’s no like legitimate city, east or west of it. Then you go in on these crazy ass roads, like to get there so I can see how people prey on visitors like that. So

3 (12m 19s):
It’d be like, there’s only one culprit. The only other person there,

4 (12m 23s):
I guess that’s true. Or people that live in the town. I don’t think there are other visitors of the park. I think there are actually people that live in the area if you will, but that’s neither here nor there we were on this road. And I said, where the hell are all the people. Then we get to the parking lot. And I see all these cars and granted there’s a campground that semi-close to that parking lot. Maybe they came from that like, where are all these cars? I didn’t see anybody on the fucking road because at some point it’s like, you can’t even have two cars pass you, you know, you’d have to pull to the edge. The edges is at a pretty steep. Like I feel like I would fall over and I was worried about coming across it. And I get there and all these cars appeared out of nowhere and I just don’t know where they came from. So rest assured when you get there, it’s quite populated, but when you’re driving it, it has that real eerie feeling to it.

1 (13m 5s):
We were driving on the road and we’re halfway there. And Jamal looks over at me, gives me a stink look and he goes, you sure know how to pick them.

3 (13m 14s):
I can picture that in my head now.

2 (13m 16s):
Well, you know, a Jamal was saying his commentary about like, where are you leading me? There’s no one out here. Like I can see him saying that to you, but that comment is even better.

1 (13m 27s):
So once you get to the parking lot, there is an outhouse toilet. So you can relieve yourself before you start your hike and you start to steadily climb through the forest. And there’s like 30 switchbacks that you’re going to go through within the first three miles of the hike. So

3 (13m 42s):
It’s very steep.

1 (13m 43s):
It’s pretty steep

4 (13m 44s):
For the first portion of it. It’s very steep, but you forgot to mention what can you see from the parking lot? Brittany glaciers glaciers right up close, just right on the mountain. Head’s right there. So it’s really, really nice. You get the view of the jagged mountain tops and then you see the glaciers there. But yes, there are steep switchbacks on the initial hiccup, but it’s very enjoyable, but you do get to a point where it flattens out, but what’s the purpose of this. It’s called the cascade pass trail. Brittany, what’s the payoff. When you get up there,

1 (14m 12s):
The payoff is the view and kind of thing, the meadow in between the mountains. So when you get to the top, like Jamal said, it flattens out and you actually continue straight across a rock field before you round the bend. And when we were on that rock field, we actually thought mountain goat climb across. And it was so cool to see and just like be up in nature. And then when we were on that past two, we pass some people and they’re like, oh, just be aware. There was a bear near the path at the

4 (14m 40s):
Head. Be

3 (14m 42s):
Aware

4 (14m 43s):
To be

2 (14m 43s):
More aggressive.

4 (14m 44s):
Well, so, well first did we mention this was six and a half miles round trip. Yeah. Okay. I forgot if we did or not reminder six and a half miles round trip. But when you get to the top, Brittany saying, you walked across this little rock field and the Rockfield she’s talking about, there was an avalanche of sorts and it brought a whole bunch of big boulders down. So you get to a level that you’re crossing and it’s just a big sheer, like 45 degree angle cliff of just Boulder rocks. But the national park service has actually made a trail out of that. So you can actually see where they’ve moved the rocks and literally like flattened it for you so that you can walk across it instead of literally bouldering over these things. And as we’re rounding the bend on that little rock formation path, then a mountain goat comes around and it’s just walking on the path and it’s getting closer and closer to us.

4 (15m 32s):
And we’re thinking to ourselves, oh shit, one. I’ve never seen a mountain goat. This close. They’re pretty cool. It was a nice white majestic one, by the way, A little side horns as two little side horns, I wouldn’t say they were big ass ones. You’re probably thinking of like Rams that have like the curly horns. These ones had a little small little devil. One’s almost kind of how they really were. But we were thinking to ourselves shit, are these things like aggressive? Like if it comes charging at us, I can’t climb up. And there’s only one way to tumble down this little rock path and then it comes closer. And then all of a sudden it just decides to climb up. And I mean, maybe people know this, maybe they don’t, but goats really good climbers. And you just saw this thing, like jumping on these Boulder rocks, doing some crazy climbing.

4 (16m 13s):
So we sat and enjoyed that for quite a little bit. I’ve never seen a mountain goat on any of our hikes that we’ve ever done. And that was quite enjoyable to see.

2 (16m 20s):
Yeah. You know, when we were in Arkansas, I think we hiked up a trail that was called mountain goat mountain or something.

7 (16m 26s):
It was called Rocco.

2 (16m 28s):
Yeah. And Kim was like, it’s cause like goats, like to rock out and like yeah, of course they do. They love to jump and rock out on the mountains. Like just pump

4 (16m 36s):
Up. Oh, well this one did. Yeah. But we rounded the corner, got to the payoff where you have the beautiful view of the valley. And there is a trail that continues on that you could do more hiking and do some serious, like remote backpacking and camping out there. Obviously we weren’t doing that that day. We came across people on the trail who we talked to, who actually were, but we didn’t round the corner and see the mama and her Cub like the people coming back so that there was there. So unfortunately we didn’t get to see it, but it was quite windy up there because you’re at the top of the valley looking down and you can just get the gust of winds and it was quite cold, but it was really beautiful up there. I was pleasantly surprised. Not that I was disappointed with what I saw.

4 (17m 18s):
Cause again, beautiful jagged rocks glaciers. But that valley overlook that we had was just absolutely amazing. We stopped there and had some snacks and enjoyed ourselves for a little bit.

1 (17m 28s):
And one thing to know about North Cascades National Park is a lot of the hikes are really long. Like a lot of the research I did were for hikes that were like eight to 12 miles. And I was like, I don’t know if I want to do a hike that long. And so a lot of the reviews that I read on this trail world, it’s kind of like the best trail to do for the mileage you’re willing to do. And I felt like the reward and the views were definitely worth it. So from this trail head, we drove to trail of the Cedars and this trail crosses the Skaget river via another suspension bridge. And then you just meander along an nature trail. It’s a really, really short trail. It’s a less than a mile in length, but there’s so many signs about the flora and the fauna around you.

1 (18m 13s):
It was just nice to relax and walk through and just kind of do the interpretive trail and no one was on the trail with us. So we had it all by herself.

4 (18m 21s):
Yeah. I really loved how at the trail head, if you want to call it that there is the suspension bridge that you have to cross over the river, but the trail is only a mile long round trip as a loop. It’s very informative walking through there. And some people like this, some people don’t, but this was actually one of the very few National Park trails that had signs all over the place that we really stopped and read each one, one, because it was such a short trail, but it was very informative talking about, oh, these are the difference between the Cedars and the other types of trees that were here. They even had an electric power plant that was there back in the old days before they turned it into a National Park. So then you come across that and you just have all these information about nurse logs and just super informative about the life cycle of the

3 (19m 8s):
Forest. And what’s the nurse log

4 (19m 10s):
And nurse log is a log or tree that has actually fallen. And then from that sprouts, numerous new trees. So you can see a dead tree if you will. And it’s old trunk. And from that, let’s just say four or five trees have sprouted upward off of all that one tree. Yeah. So they had all that informative information, again, talking to the lifecycle of things that happen in the forest and very informative. And we even came across a woodpecker. This is the first time I’ve ever seen a woodpecker in person, Brittany and I again were the only ones on the trail and we heard something and we’re like, what is that? Like, do you hear that tapping noise? And then I said, I think it’s a woodpecker. And then we were looking around, we found it.

4 (19m 51s):
And we had a good time just watching that thing, like hit its head on the tree for like a minute. It’s quite impressive.

3 (19m 57s):
So much wildlife

4 (19m 59s):
There really was.

1 (19m 60s):
And another squad tip About this National Park. We did say, you know, it’s in the rugged mountain area and it is remote, but you can enjoy this National Park. Even if you’re not a hiker, there are a lot of short trails that are in the park. And then there’s also a lot of outlooks and Vista points. And so the next place we stopped at was called Diablo lake Vista point. It was a 15 minute dry from trail of the theaters. And it’s right along highway 20, which is the major highway said does go through the park. And it just provides magnificent views of these brilliant turquoise waters in Diablo lake. And I actually want to tell you guys why the lake is sow turquoise.

1 (20m 41s):
So there are Glacier surrounding the whole area. And so as the glaciers melt, they grind the rocks into a fine powder and it carries it into the lake and that mineralization gives the color to the lake and turns it turquoise. That’s so nice.

3 (20m 57s):
So pretty.

4 (20m 59s):
Yeah. And as Brittany was saying again, you know, most of the hiking trails themselves are longer into the back country, but off of Washington state highway 20, the main through fare through the National Park, they do have those vistas and overlooks. And we continued on after Diablo lake to Washington pass overlook and from the Diablo lake Vista point, it’s about 30 miles, half an hour to get there. And it’s a short quarter mile loop that gives you beautiful views of the surrounding scenery. And the overlook is the highest elevation on the north cascade highway that you can reach by car. And if you’re driving through, this is definitely something that you should check out as you pass on by.

1 (21m 42s):
So we traverse the park from west to east and we decided not to backtrack and go back to concrete as much as we love concrete, but to continue on to a town on the other side of North Cascades, National Park called a Winthrop. And that’s where we called it a night.

3 (21m 57s):
Where did you stay in Winthrop?

4 (21m 59s):
We stayed at the Abbey Creek. N I would say it’s a budget hotel, but even though it’s budget, it was definitely very nice in terms of its amenities. I’m not going to say luxury, but you know, for the price really nice Winthrop itself again, and this is where I was saying earlier about concrete. I just don’t expect this, this isn’t the stereotypical image of Washington I had in my head. I felt like I was somewhere out in the rugged, almost desert area of California, not like hot desert, but just, you know, little foot Hills, dry arid. The town itself was small. The historic buildings were still like made of wood. Like it was a boom town or a mining town. So it was really, really unique in that.

4 (22m 40s):
Right. And you know, when you’re at Winthrop, it is small. So not a lot of places to eat, but there are a few options such as the old school brewery and east 20 pizza, we chose the pizza place and it was pretty good. But let me tell you something, it smelled and looked better than it tasted. Not that it was bad, but when you ate it, you’re just like, oh wow, it’s kind of a let down for how good it smelled when she said,

3 (23m 4s):
Yeah,

1 (23m 5s):
I agree.

4 (23m 5s):
I mean, of all the places we look at it, we’re like, oh, this looks so good. It was right by her hotel. And I higher expectations based on the look and smell. Let’s put it that way. I know, kind of sad. So not saying don’t try it, but do keep in mind. That’s the reality that we experienced and look into old school brewery and, you know, get yourself a beer. If you’d like,

3 (23m 26s):
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4 (23m 49s):
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1 (24m 2s):
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2 (24m 15s):
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1 (24m 37s):
So the next day we went back into North Cascades National Park, and it was kind of on the edge, kind of on the outskirts. And we hiked a trail called the blue lake trail. It was five miles round trip, took us about two and a half hours, but this lake is very secluded and it’s surrounded by granite peaks and forests. And the hike is just a very serene and it’s a very doable hike to, cause there’s not a lot of gain and elevation. So it’s a pretty moderate hike and it was definitely what we needed after doing a cascade pass and Mt. Storm king, the prior days,

3 (25m 13s):
Would you say it was actually moderate or more on the easy side?

1 (25m 18s):
Probably more easy. Easy to moderate.

4 (25m 20s):
Okay. What did you like about blue lake Brittany?

1 (25m 23s):
The water was just so clear for a long time. We had the lake to ourselves. There wasn’t a lot of people at the trail head when you walk through the forest. Part of it is on a boardwalk platform that you walk through on the forest too. So it was just really nice to be out in nature. You can really smell the trees and just feel the breeze. It was just really beautiful

3 (25m 43s):
New environment over there.

4 (25m 46s):
That was one that was one of my favorite things about North Cascades. Again is really the remoteness of it. Even though I was saying on the first hike that we did, we came up to the parking lot more people than expected based on what I saw on the road. But it really is so remote that you get to experience a lot of these beautiful nature sites all to yourself, which only enhances the experience.

1 (26m 10s):
So after we hiked blue lake trail, Jamal and I were crazy and we were like, fuck it, let’s go to Montana. Let’s go to Kalispell so that we can head up Glacier the next day.

3 (26m 19s):
So we guys are wild.

1 (26m 21s):
We took an eight hour drive through, Through Washington to Montana to get to Kalispell.

4 (26m 29s):
So I tripped it out driving as I always do. I always

3 (26m 33s):
Do well. How was the road windy

4 (26m 35s):
Straight? You know, it actually wasn’t too bad. So once we got out of North Cascades, you’re on Washington highway 20, which is actually pretty good. I’m trying to remember some of the few side highways that we took. It wasn’t terrible. We actually drove through the apple producing regions of Washington. So whenever you see those Washington apple stickers, when you pick up your apples in the grocery store, I actually just drove through that spot where they grow them. So no I did not, but I did see the farm area of it. So it actually, wasn’t too terrible of a drive. Eventually you get onto interstate 90. So we drove through Spokane Washington, which takes us through the panhandle of Idaho and then into Montana itself.

4 (27m 18s):
So a good portion of it is on legitimate highways and even the Montana highways getting into Kalispell after we get off of interstate 90 are pretty legitimate. So I wouldn’t say it’s too bad at all of a drive. And the roads were actually quite decent.

1 (27m 34s):
Yeah. Do you guys remember back when we were in port Angeles and we were driving down the middle of town and we saw a place called frugally and it was jam packed and we were like, what is this place we’re going to have to look it up because why is everyone going there? They had a fruit goals in Kalispell. And so we’re like, we have to try it. And it’s basically like the Northwest version of in and out.

4 (27m 58s):
Dare I say, when we had it better than in and out, dare I say, dare I say unpopular opinion, but saying it,

2 (28m 6s):
Ah, what’d you guys get just like a burger and fries,

4 (28m 9s):
Burger fries, and a milkshake. And we did an in and out style too. We got a half and half in terms of half an hour and a half strawberry

3 (28m 16s):
Milkshake right now. That sounds so good.

2 (28m 18s):
As soon as I said milkshake, I was like, Ooh, do you guys have any ice cream here?

4 (28m 21s):
But let me tell you something frugal is, is bomb. So if you’re up in that area and you see a frugal, whether it be in Washington, whether it be, if you continue on and we inspire you to go to Glacier National park, do check out a frugal. It’s not to be missed. You. Won’t be disappointed on that. But we chose Kalispell because Kalispell is the largest city close to Glacier National park. And why don’t you tell us a little bit about Glacier National park and what we did the following days after our long driver, my long drive.

1 (28m 52s):
So Glacier National park is internationally known. People want to come to Glacier, just like they want to come to Yellowstone. It’s just a super famous park and it’s famous due to the glacier carved peaks and the valleys. And they have this very famous road called going to the sun road with amazing views of the valley below. And the park has obviously glaciers, waterfalls, Alpine lakes, and just a beautiful, rugged peaks. And so even if you’re not a hiker, just like North Cascades, you can enjoy the beauty of the park at all of the different viewpoints and overlooks and lakes. And there’s so much wildlife along the road, too.

1 (29m 33s):
We knew going here that we were in bear country,

4 (29m 37s):
Grizzly country to be specific

1 (29m 39s):
And that we needed to get bear spray.

4 (29m 41s):
Oh man, I almost forgot about the day before and the shit show that ensued with the bear spray. But first just want to say this Glacier National park does have an entrance fee. It’s $35 for seven days. So unlike North Cascades, they do charge an entrance fee here. But like Brittany was saying, we were in bear country after our long eight hour drive. We’re like, what are we going to do? Both hikes that we’re going to do are known to have frequent bear activities, specifically Grizzlies, not even black bears, black bears, you know, they, it could be concerning, but I’m more, I don’t want to say scared of Grizzlies, but cautious of how dangerous they can be. And one of the other trails that we were going to do a week before we went, it’s not like, oh, we saw this video on YouTube and it’s been up for awhile.

4 (30m 25s):
Like no, literally week before we went, one of the trails that we’re going to do, someone filmed a video of a grizzly chasing hikers on that very trail that we were going to do. They ran, they ran someone someone’s who’s at a higher elevation. Zaillian at the hikers. There’s a grizzly down there. Don’t run. Don’t run. They still end up running, which causes the grizzly then to chase the hikers and squad test squad tip,

2 (30m 49s):
Bear spray is what happened on that video

4 (30m 52s):
That the hikers run out of shot. They’re really filming the grizzly run. Eventually it does stop. It doesn’t continue chasing them, but it chases them on the trail for a good amount of time.

3 (31m 2s):
The squad tip, Do you not run from grizzly bears,

4 (31m 9s):
Do not run from grizzly bears.

3 (31m 11s):
What are you supposed to do? Instead?

4 (31m 12s):
You are just supposed to back away as slowly as you can. It’s not like black bears where you want to make yourself look bigger. Grizzly bears. You just want to back away and seem non-aggressive towards it.

3 (31m 24s):
And then if it does attack you, they say to play dead, right?

4 (31m 26s):
Play dead. Yes. You’re supposed to turn over onto your stomach, cover your hands on the back of your neck so that it can’t swipe in that sensitive area. And it does once you to put your legs together versus spread apart. That way it’s harder for the bear to flip you over and buck you up from the front. Huh?

3 (31m 48s):
There you go. There’s your bear protection tips.

2 (31m 51s):
Why aren’t you supposed to like, why can’t you make yourself look big to the gristly

4 (31m 55s):
’cause then it’s like a threatening gesture towards them. Even though bears or bears, you know, different ones, different species, black bears, you know, they’re less aggressive than Grizzlies. So if you make yourself seem bigger or threatening, they’re less inclined to want to do something. Whereas Grizzlies, that’s just not their nature. When that happens,

3 (32m 14s):
These are ready to take you on. They’re

2 (32m 16s):
Like bring it on pitch.

4 (32m 17s):
Yeah. So anyway, we were like, all right, where are we going to get bear spray? Because if you remember Kim, when we went to Yellowstone and grand Tetons, we’re like, all right, they have bear spray here to rent. Very easy to do well in Glacier National park, they have a spot within the national park where they do rent the bear spray at a, but they don’t open up until I think it was like eight 30 or nine o’clock right, Brittany.

1 (32m 44s):
Yeah. It might’ve even been later than

4 (32m 46s):
That. And as we were saying earlier, if you get your bear spray that late and start the trail that late, you’re going to have a very hard time finding parking. So we’re like, all right, well, does anyone inside Kalispell actually rent it? No, they do not. And so you’re really left to buy the bear spray so you can go to Walmart, they sell it for an arm and a leg. They have other sporting goods stores there, sell it for an arm and a leg. And I was like, oh God, like, do I really want to pay like 45 bucks for one bear spray for Brittany, another 45 for me? So $90 and yes, it’s good insurance. But man, I feel like I’m getting totally screwed right here.

4 (33m 27s):
Spending close to a hundred dollars. So finally I called Costco because they have a Costco on Kalispell and asked if they have bear spray. I said, oh yes we do. I said, oh, how much? I said, oh, we’re selling a two pack for $30. I went to Costco and I picked and I picked up some bear spray. And let me tell you something, you can’t put bear spray on a plane. And so I was like, well, even though it’s 30 bucks, I have no place to return it. I don’t want to get rid of it. So I mailed it back to myself. So I have our bears spray.

3 (33m 54s):
Okay. That, that was just going to ask you that because doesn’t Costco take anything back as a return.

4 (33m 59s):
They do, but I’d feel really shiesty, like picking up bear spray, and then returning bear spray. You know what I mean? Like

1 (34m 5s):
To take it out of the packaging to hold onto it. So we’re like, are we going to be those people?

3 (34m 10s):
It’s very honest with you.

4 (34m 11s):
Yeah. I don’t want to do that. So I sent it to myself and I actually have it here. So we pick that up. So if you go in, I would recommend picking up your bear spray at Costco, the likelihood of you needing it is very slim. But believe me, it’s one of those things that you don’t want to be without if you truly need it.

2 (34m 28s):
Yeah. I just want to say, I mean, like, even if you do have to shell out the $90, I mean your life is worth more than $90.

4 (34m 35s):
Well, that’s true. But at the same time I was thinking to myself like, fuck, I can’t even, I can’t bring this on a plane and you know, what am I going to

3 (34m 41s):
Do? More rental places. Yeah.

1 (34m 43s):
Yeah. I was actually really disappointed about that. That they didn’t have like rental places. And there was a place I want to say, I called REI. They said, yeah, we do rent it. But because of COVID they were having to quarantine that cans for a 40 hour period. So they were like, yeah. And then they were like, we’re, we’re not letting anyone touch them for 48 hours. They won’t be

4 (35m 4s):
Available

3 (35m 5s):
Disinfected what

1 (35m 6s):
They won’t be available for you until like two days from now. And I was like, well, that doesn’t do me any good.

4 (35m 12s):
Did they tell you? And then other, and then I don’t remember how much it was, but cause at that point we’re like, it’s not even a consideration for us. And then other places that maybe had it available, they didn’t open until like later. And like we said, you need to be in the park early because we woke up early for our adventures. And we knew one height that we wanted to do was avalanche lake via the trail of the seeders. So not to be confused with the trail of the Cedars that we did in North Cascades, they had another one here. But basically when you enter Glacier National park, there is one main road that go into the sun road that Brittany was talking about. And at first you’re flat in the valley following along a lake.

4 (35m 52s):
So there’s nowhere really to park on the side of the lake. So you only have the hill and mountain side, very minimal parking. We got lucky and got one of the last spots there when we were there at like 7:00 AM. And when we were done Hiking, I mean, you can just see all the traffic pretty much backed up of people like waiting. Hey, who’s that person coming out? Let’s steal that spot. So you want to get there early, but Brittany tell them a little bit about avalanche lake.

1 (36m 18s):
So first you start off on trail of the Cedars and this is a board walked kind of paved platform through the forest. And then you branch off to avalanche lake trail and you start on a steady incline. This hike is like easy, moderate, and you start going through a pretty thick forest before you’re able to admire avalanche Creek and continuing on. And then you hit the foot of avalanche lake and you were just surrounded by these beautiful mountains that you could tell in the winter are just filled with snow. The water’s pristine on the way there was a waterfall that we got to see as well. And then just forest surrounding the entire lake.

4 (36m 59s):
Yeah. And these lakes, I mean, they’re literally lakes made off the runoff from the melting snow. So the water is just pristine and clear and beautiful and being up in the mountains, it just has that glass like reflection and Hugh. So just really beautiful to see. And again, keep in mind, this is one of the more famous hikes, not a lot of spots to park and lots of bears do frequent this area as well. Again, that’s why we wanted the bear spray.

1 (37m 27s):
So from here we decided to continue on going to the sun road, which again is the only main road through Glacier National park. It’s only one lane in each direction. And so it does get backed up very easily. And there’s not a lot of parking at the viewpoints and overlook. So it’s kind of a slow down when you get to like a very popular area, but the viewpoints and overlooks are so worth it. They’re breathtakingly gorgeous. You get views of the valley below and then you’re still surrounded by all of the glacier peaks. And I definitely recommend, even if you aren’t able to do some of the hikes going just to go on this, going to the sun road.

4 (38m 5s):
Yeah. And if you do this, you don’t need to do any Hiking because of those viewpoints that Brittany was talking about, it’s about 50 miles. Is it not Brittany? Yeah. I think it’s about 50 miles. And so, like I said, when you first entered the park, you’re following along the lake lake MacDonald, it’s flat in the valley. It’s about, like I said, 12 to 13 miles and then you start slowly but surely climbing up the mountain and the cliff side and the road is literally on a sheer cliff, kind of like zigzagging up and you have these amazing viewpoints along the way. And one of the viewpoints is heaven’s peak and it’s basically the dominant viewpoint on the going to the sun road.

4 (38m 46s):
And it’s very, very photogenic it’s snow-capped at the top. And I can only imagine when there’s more snow on it. Cause we were at the tail end of summer here when we went. But when there’s a little bit more snow on it, if you went in the spring, it would be absolutely breathtaking.

1 (39m 0s):
So we went on this trip in September and Glacier actually has a very, very short summer season. They don’t even open the park up, I think until like late June. And it closes again by like mid October, usually

3 (39m 12s):
On Montana gets cold.

1 (39m 15s):
Yeah. So one of the highlights that we did pass, and it was impressive, but I’m sure it’d be even more impressive in the wetter months or when there’s a lot more snow melt was called the garden wall or the weeping wall. And it’s a cliff wall. It’s a hundred feet long and it’s just on the side of the road and it just weeps out a whole bunch of water from the natural Springs. And if you’re driving under it with your car, you actually would have to close your windows because you would get soaked from all of that water dropping down. But one of the other major areas is called Logan’s pass and there’s a visitor center up there. So one it’s popular because of the visitor center.

1 (39m 55s):
And secondly, it’s a very popular because there are a lot of hikes that branch off of this area, like the Highline trail or hidden lake. And it’s also the highest point in the park that you can reach by car.

4 (40m 6s):
It’s also part of the continental divide. Do you ladies know what the continental dividers is

2 (40m 10s):
It what separates west for east?

1 (40m 15s):
I actually learned this all. I’ll tell you the definition. Okay. So

4 (40m 18s):
The continental

1 (40m 20s):
Divide is it’s like a high peak. And so all of the rivers and run off, run into the Atlantic ocean from east of it and on the west side of it, all of the rivers and run off, run into the Pacific ocean.

3 (40m 34s):
Interesting. So that’s why sometimes you can see rivers flowing one way and another river floating the other way.

4 (40m 42s):
So every so Logan’s passes on the continental divide. So depending on what side you are on, Logan’s pass, it’s either flowing into the Pacific or flowing into the Atlantic. And when we say the Atlantic, I mean the, and part of the continental divide, it could go into the Gulf of Mexico. It could legitimately go into the Atlantic itself. It could be on the Northern side in Canada and going into like Hudson bay, which then flows into the

3 (41m 4s):
Atlantic

4 (41m 5s):
As well.

3 (41m 6s):
Water from Glacier can end up all the way down in the Gulf of Mexico. Yup. That is mind blowing to me.

1 (41m 13s):
Yeah. So again, going on the sun road, there are more viewpoints and stop offs.

3 (41m 18s):
Is there a place what you’re talking about right here, this divide where you can actually see water flowing two different ways in, in the same viewpoint.

4 (41m 25s):
I’m sure there are, but not necessarily in the park that we know of. I just it’s labeled and listed that Logan’s pass is on the continental.

1 (41m 34s):
Okay. So we did pass another Glacier called Mount Jackson Glacier. It’s a seventh largest Glacier in the park and it’s just very easy to see from the road. So it’s a really good stopover to look at. And then we ended on going to the sun road at St. Mary’s lake, where we have been.

4 (41m 50s):
And that lunch by the way, is something that we picked up from the Costco deli. And it was not a Lunchable. We got ourselves a sandwich wrap from Costco, not from the food court, but back in their deli area, if you will, and kind of meat section, you know, they have some sandwiches and things like that to go. So again, cooler coming in clutch, we put that in there and we enjoyed a lunch sitting on St. Mary’s lake and St. Mary’s lake is actually the second largest lake in Glacier National park. And there’s an island in the middle of the lake. That’s called a wild goose island. And it’s one of the most photographed locations in the park. And when I heard that as the description of wild goose island, I thought to myself, all this Island’s going to look legit.

4 (42m 36s):
And then I get there and I see it’s just this little island. And I’m like, why is everyone so up in arms about this little island to take photos of it? I mean, I guess it’s kind of cool, but don’t think it’s anything really special, but nonetheless photogenic, iconic spot in the park.

1 (42m 50s):
Interesting. So we decided, you know, now that we’ve gone all the way east, as far as we can go, you can actually go farther. But during the time that we went, because of COVID, the rest of the glacier national park is on

4 (43m 5s):
Native American

1 (43m 5s):
Land, native American land. They have that park closed. So you can enter the east portion of Glacier National park. So we turned back around and went back towards Kalispell, but still within Glacier National park. And we went to lake MacDonald and this is probably one of the most famous lakes in Glacier National park. It’s a largest lake within the park and it has crystal clear water and the rocks are really colorful. So there, there are reds there, purples greens, greens, blues. And so if you hit the perfect picture, you’ll see the rocks reflecting in the water, and then you’ll get a picture of the mountain reflecting down into the water as well.

1 (43m 47s):
That’s so pretty.

4 (43m 48s):
It’s super scenic. If you just Google right now, or even go to Instagram lake McDonald, Glacier National park, I guarantee you that’s going to be one of the first images that come up is the clear water and the colorful rocks that you can see. It’s absolutely breathtaking. They do have a little lodge there and Brittany and I did pick up drinks and take them onto the beach of lake MacDonald. I got myself a beer. Bernie got herself, a huckleberry margarita. So do check out the lodge there, you can get drinks, you can wonder around with them, but do keep in mind, you know, just because you’re in a populated area, if you will, with a little lodge, doesn’t mean there’s any less chance that a bear’s going to come.

4 (44m 30s):
So I carried my bear spray with me just to be safe.

3 (44m 34s):
Did you see any bears while in this park?

4 (44m 36s):
We did. And we’ll get to that for you coming right up coming right at. Well, it was one of the last things that happened and we have one more day. So we’ll go ahead and get to that here. Very shortly.

2 (44m 46s):
The record you are, right. I just Googled lake McDonald. And the first two pictures that pop up are breathtaking. Like just like, wow, with those raw,

4 (44m 54s):
I have a photo that looks like that, that I took with my own camera. So do yourself a favor, Google lake McDonald with Glacier. You won’t be disappointed. And if anything inspires you to go with, it’ll probably be that. I mean, it’s just so breathtakingly. Beautiful.

3 (45m 8s):
Yeah. And we’ll actually link in the show notes to the place where you can see the picture that we’re talking about so that you can put your visual with what, how we’re describing it. And every place we’ve mentioned in this episode will be linked in our show notes on our website at Travel Squad, Podcast dot com.

1 (45m 22s):
So our second day in Glacier National park, we specifically wanted to hike the hidden lake.

4 (45m 28s):
And this is the one that I told you that a week before we went, we saw the grizzly bear video on YouTube chasing the hikers.

3 (45m 35s):
How hard was it to find?

4 (45m 37s):
Not hard because this hike actually starts from Logan’s pass. And one thing we didn’t mention about Logan’s passing, we were talking about a little bit earlier. Yes, there’s numerous trails that start at that area, but that is actually the largest parking lot that we came across in the park. And it’s still not even very big. I can’t even imagine during summer season when it’s really crowded, how people find parking on there, because if you don’t have parking there, there’s very few like little turnouts on the, going to the sun road that are half a mile to a mile away, if not further. And we saw numerous people walking along the road just to get to Logan’s pass. So if you don’t get there early, whatever hike you’re doing, you can imagine adding easily two miles to three miles just by having a park on the road.

4 (46m 26s):
In addition to your normal hike,

1 (46m 27s):
What time would you say we got there? Jamal?

4 (46m 29s):
Well, shit. We said we were going to leave early. Cause when we did Logan’s past the first day and wanted to go to the visitor center, we couldn’t find parking. We circled for quite a while. So we’re like, all right, we got to go. We heard from numerous locals that we talked to. They said, oh, you’re starting this trail from Logan’s past. You need to get there early. And like how early is early? Like 5 30, 6 o’clock

3 (46m 51s):
Why do you think they don’t have any parking there? It seems very odd.

4 (46m 54s):
It’s just so limited. Like I said, the entrance to the park pretty much runs all along lake MacDonald. So there’s just limited parking because there’s the lake. And then all of a sudden, you know, you’re kind of really at the mountain Hills and then you get to the point after you’re out of the valley and the lake where you just start climbing the sun road on a sheer cliff. So there’s minimal spots for turnouts, that little flat area that they have to actually build bogans pass in the visitor center. So very limited parking.

1 (47m 22s):
I also think that because of COVID and the east side being closed, people can’t spread out as much into other sections of the park. And so this is a really big draw. So everyone’s kind of attracted to this area.

4 (47m 35s):
So we ended up leaving our hotel early. I think we got there around 6:00 AM. Did we not? We got there around 6:00 AM, by the way, beyond just the parking to get there early. You want to get there for the breathtaking sunrise that you will experience at Logan’s pass. I just want to mention that before we forget about it, but we got there early. We thought to ourselves, all right. We’re for sure. Going to find parking parking lot was already filled up. Do you know where we had to park? We had a park in the designated bus sections and the only reason why we can park there is because they’re having no buses come in because of COVID. But otherwise, like literally we missed all the spots and there was like only one or two, like bus spots open, left that we took.

4 (48m 18s):
So if we were like a minute or two late, we probably wouldn’t even had parking there. And we got there at 6:00 AM.

2 (48m 23s):
Dang. That’s crazy. That’s so crazy.

1 (48m 26s):
So the hidden lake trail was supposed to be five miles, but because of the bear activity in the area, we could only go to the overlook, which was 2.8 miles round trip. But as we started this trail, we were literally above the cloud layer. And as we started to climb, we could see all of the clouds beneath us and see the sun peaking up over the mountains. And it was just this beautiful golden yellow and orange hue. And it just gave the most spectacular views and sunrise I’ve ever seen that’s so

4 (49m 1s):
It was so beautiful. I mean, like Brittany said, we’re at a high elevation as it is in the valley below, you can just see the clouds that are layered in the valley. The sun is starting to peak it’s way up above the clouds. It’s hiding behind a mountaintop that literally comes to a triangular point and it was so perfect where we were standing, the way the sun came up. It literally came up at the tip of the triangle. So we’re just watching it, just like just the tip peak and peak and beyond the tip. But it was so beautiful. I’ve never experienced a sunrise like that. Whether it have been watching them on the beaches or anything to that effect, it was so beautiful and breathtaking. So even if you don’t want to do a hike, go to Logan’s passage just to watch the sunrise.

3 (49m 44s):
There’s something about a sunrise it’s so calm and serene. It’s like a new day starting and it’s like a

4 (49m 51s):
Birth in a sense.

3 (49m 52s):
Yeah. It’s a little bit magical, especially when it’s pretty, like,

4 (49m 56s):
It was super magical at Logan’s pass, but the hidden lake trail that we were doing, like Brittany said, we couldn’t do all of it because the bear activity, they closed it at the section by the lake. That’s where the bear was frequenting. So from Logan’s pass, you have a little bit of a hike up. It gives you to an overlook. You can choose to stop there. And continue down to the lake. We had no choice because the going down to the lake part was closed because of the grizzly, but the overlook of the lake. It’s just beautiful. And I can only imagine going down, but that’s the hike that we did, but there are so many other hikes that you can do from Logan’s pass. Why don’t you tell them about the one that we want to do when we go back, Brittany, this one’s an epic one.

4 (50m 38s):
If we can do it based on the description.

1 (50m 40s):
So one of the trails that we wanted to do was called the Highline trail and really upset. We didn’t do it. And one of the reasons we didn’t do it was because typically when COVID is not going on, you would hike to the end. And then you would be able to take a shuttle back to the beginning. But because the shuttle buses aren’t going around right now, you would have to do an out and back hike making the hike like 19 miles. Oh,

2 (51m 4s):
That’s nothing.

1 (51m 6s):
And I was like, ah, I don’t know if I want to do that, but really what it is is Hiking a long, the cliff of a mountain to the point where there’s actually like cables embedded into the mountain side that you can hold onto. And like

3 (51m 22s):
I say,

4 (51m 23s):
Have you ever seen videos of those crazy roads in China or India that are like literally carved into the rock? And they’re so narrow when trucks are trying to go through, imagine that not as wide, but just for hikers. So they literally have embedded into some of the rock, those cables for you to hold on to supposedly a lot of mountain goats like to take that trail too. So you’re going to be coming out of Barrow, narrow in paths with the mountain goats. So, you know, there’s that risk to

3 (51m 52s):
The kind of show you want to be on when you see a grizzly?

4 (51m 55s):
No, it’s not. Can you imagine a grizzly coming on that like one way, like, holy fuck. I don’t even know if a Grizzly’s ever been on that, but I thought that same thought to Kim actually like, could you imagine if you’re on that with a grizzly, there’s literally nowhere to go, but

1 (52m 8s):
It was one part where we were driving and I told them all to look up and you could see the hikers above us on the sheer cliff.

4 (52m 14s):
Yeah. From the sun road, you can see it, it looks wild. I’d be very, very interested in doing it. It looks like a really, really awesome trail that is for sure. You just need to invest a lot more time in glacier. And you know, when we’re hitting these national parks now, you know, we’re all still working. We only have so much time want to do a lot of stuff. But when I go back and have more time, this is definitely number one on my list. That is for sure epic hike. And you know, maybe I would do the shuttle bus back or maybe I would do the full 19. I just don’t know.

2 (52m 44s):
You guys are crazy. I mean like it’s like your guys, his requirement’s to do a hike is it has to be on the side of a cliff. It has to have ropes. It has to have cables

4 (52m 54s):
On the edge. You have

2 (52m 55s):
To have bear spray. Oh my goodness.

4 (52m 60s):
I haven’t had to use the bear spray. But anyway, so that’s one of the other ones that you can do from Logan’s passers many more hikes. But getting back to that bear, Kim, you know, I was so disappointed. I’m just like, man, you know, they keep saying bears, like I don’t want to come across one real close. And obviously on the trail have to use my bear spray, but I want to see a fucking bear, especially given the fact that Glacier National park has more Grizzlies than any other state other than Alaska. So in the contiguous 48 of where they’re still Grizzlies left, there’s more in glacier than even like Yellowstone and grand Teton combined. So I was like, all right, well, we’re going to have to see a bear. And as we’re coming down and going to the sun road, along those sheer cliffs, all of a sudden we round a corner and then Brittany and I see a bear running on the road as we’re leaving the park, we see a bear running on the road.

4 (53m 51s):
Like, how the fuck is there a bear on the road? Like this is a sheer cliff. Like where did it come from? It didn’t come from up. But it ran off the road kind of to the edge. And we stopped and parked and watched it eat some berries in the bushes for quite a bit of time before we continued on. And when I go back and look at my photos, it wasn’t a grizzly. It was a black bear because there’s black bears and grizzly bears. So we didn’t get to see a grizzly, unfortunately, but nonetheless, we were able to see a bear, but I was not expecting to see one at so high in elevation on the road itself.

2 (54m 24s):
It’s just so funny. Like when you actually break it down, you see a bear running and then he goes to berries and I was like, what is the last time you ran on the road to get dinner?

4 (54m 33s):
He was running on the road.

3 (54m 34s):
The only time I ever saw a black bear was the same situation. He ran right past me, straight to the log to dig up some berries,

4 (54m 40s):
Hey man, they want to be loved. And that’s what I’m saying. Black bears. And granted, we were in a car. It’s not like we were out when you were in Yosemite, when that happened to you, Kim, but black bears. Not that they can’t hurt you, but they just don’t concern me as much because I don’t want to call them docile, but they’re not by nature wanting to be aggressive to humans because they know that you’re really not their food or anything like that.

2 (55m 1s):
I mean, they’re just like, why you and I can go over here and eat my berries. Yeah,

4 (55m 5s):
Yeah. Don’t have to work too hard for this. So that was our bear scene experience and Glacier experience. And I just want to say closure is not to be missed. I loved it a lot.

1 (55m 16s):
It was so beautiful. It definitely exceeded my expectations. And I feel like because half of the park was closed, I’m definitely going to have to go back and explore the other half. And from here, Jamal and I drove to Spokane Washington so that we could fly home. And just a quick little story about that. We were supposed to fly out first thing the next morning, Jamal and I hopped into bed, turned off the lights. I hear a ding on my phone. What time is it? Probably not too late, like maybe eight 30. But our flight was pretty early.

4 (55m 47s):
Our flight was like at six. So we said to ourselves, well, I mean, if we got to return our car, be up early, like we need to go to bed.

1 (55m 54s):
So we hear a ding, I roll over. Cause I was like, all right, I’ll look at it. And I get an email and it says your flight has been canceled. And I was like, oh shit. And it says, we’ve rescheduled you on the next flight Monday morning. And we were not going to arrive in San Diego until like noon time when Jamal may both had to work Monday. We’re like, oh, so we called the airlines were like, what can we do to get home on Sunday? And basically didn’t have any options for us really out of Spokane because of the fires that were going on during that time they canceled all of the flights out of thin

3 (56m 31s):
Smoke or the fire

4 (56m 32s):
Too much smoke.

2 (56m 33s):
Yeah. And you know, I remember you guys sending me a picture from your hotel room and it was really smoky outside.

4 (56m 39s):
Well, you know what, real quick though, we were so lucky because when we were in the national parks, we really didn’t have any smoke issues.

3 (56m 45s):
I was just going to say probably bad air quality to be out hiking.

4 (56m 48s):
Oh no, no, no, there wasn’t any, but then the fires started as we were getting into Spokane. So as we got into Spokane, they were just so bad. The next day we saw stuff on that travel community that we’re part of on Facebook too. And people are posting photos of Glacier. They had to cancel canoe rides out and kayaking on lake McDonald because they couldn’t even see the edge of the water because there was so much smoke. So we missed everything by a day in that sense. But we chose Spokane to fly out of, because it’s only about five hours from Glacier on Kalispell. So we’re like, all right, well, if we’re journaling to drive five hours, we don’t want to drive further west, go back to Seattle, spend more time, especially after having that eight hour drive.

4 (57m 32s):
So we thought, okay, this is perfect. We’ll fly out of Spokane, no flights available because of the fires, right as we’re going to bed. So we had called them, figure out what’s going on. They eventually tell us, well, you know, if you want, you can fly out of Seattle at this time in the morning. What time was the flight seven or something like that? Nine. So it’s a four hour drive from Spokane to Seattle. And if the flight’s at nine, you need to be there an hour early. I got to go return the rental car. We finally switched our flight to fly out of Seattle. So we only got like two hours of sleep, two and a half. By the time we were done talking to the airline, woke up at 1230, left the hotel, get our flights from Seattle to San Diego.

4 (58m 13s):
So fun trip. But that was not a fun way to end it. I will say,

2 (58m 17s):
It’s a good thing that you guys didn’t do that 19 mile hike earlier that day.

4 (58m 20s):
Yeah. That would’ve been really real shitty.

2 (58m 23s):
Ooh.

4 (58m 24s):
So Brittany slept in the car while I drove and had a red bull.

2 (58m 28s):
Yeah.

4 (58m 28s):
That was my tail end of the trip there for me. But it was good to be home on that day. Just unfortunate ending and realistically could be worse. You know, we weren’t effected by the fire in terms of loss of home or anything like that. Another people. So in the grand scheme of things, can’t complain. Yeah.

2 (58m 43s):
Our hearts go out to everyone who has been affected by the crazy fires this year.

3 (58m 47s):
All right. It’s that time of the week questions of the week. This question is coming from Bobby, from Madison,

4 (59m 3s):
Bobby, from Madison, Wisconsin from the Capitol.

3 (59m 7s):
Yes. Thanks for writing in Bobby. He’s asking about a breakfast buffet that he saw on her Instagram story during this trip and wants to hear all about it.

1 (59m 19s):
Montana was wild. So like we said, before we were in Washington, they had the, to go breakfast. We were so happy with that. We get to Montana, we check into our hotel and she’s like, and by the way, breakfast is from 6:00 AM to 10:00 AM.

3 (59m 34s):
And you’re like, what?

1 (59m 35s):
And I was like, is it a grab and go breakfast? And she goes, oh no, honey, it’s a breakfast Boothbay. And then she goes,

3 (59m 42s):
I never thought I’d hear those words again.

1 (59m 44s):
She’s like, we got waffles, yogurt, toast, muffins, cereals, coffee. And we’re like, what?

3 (59m 53s):
Buffet-style

4 (59m 54s):
Buffet-style

3 (59m 55s):
Wow,

2 (59m 56s):
Damn dude.

4 (59m 57s):
So the first day we woke up and we actually had it and I was kind of concerned at first I was thinking, ah, but we were up so early that we were the first ones down there that it really didn’t matter. But the next day again, we got to Logan’s past so early or needed to get there so early that the breakfast buffet wasn’t open. So we didn’t have that, unfortunately. So we only got to experience it one day, but yes, you know, depending on what state you are and how on the edge, they want to live and take things seriously. And in terms of COVID you may find a breakfast buffet, like didn’t know,

3 (1h 0m 30s):
Yes, baby breakfast, buffets are not dead.

4 (1h 0m 33s):
They’re coming back.

2 (1h 0m 34s):
Breakfast buffets are alive and well in Montana long

3 (1h 0m 37s):
Live the breakfast

4 (1h 0m 38s):
Buffet.

2 (1h 0m 41s):
I wish we could have like romantic music over a video of waffles.

4 (1h 0m 45s):
I love it.

3 (1h 0m 46s):
I’ll be the starring cast member in that one.

2 (1h 0m 49s):
Woo. That was a big trip guys.

3 (1h 0m 52s):
Anything else you want to add before you wrap it up?

4 (1h 0m 54s):
The only thing that I really want to say is I thoroughly, well I enjoyed every national park that we visited on this trip, but Glacier was really something special. It threw me back. Cause even with the research, I really didn’t realize that there’s only one major road. I feel like a lot of other national parks. There’s different ways to kind of go through and do things, but do get to glacier early, no matter what you’re doing, especially if you go during summertime, but it is a special park that is for sure.

3 (1h 1m 21s):
I’m planning to do a trip to see Glacier, but I want to do it at the same time that I can go into Banff in Canada. Since those two are fairly close to,

1 (1h 1m 31s):
Did you know that right above Glacier connecting to Glacier National park is another Canada National Park. Oh, it’s only separated by the border and the name is different, but it’s all of the same area. Oh

3 (1h 1m 43s):
Wow. So yeah,

4 (1h 1m 44s):
They actually have signed saying that you could go through, obviously you can’t now because the Canadian border is closed due to COVID. But if you go to Glacier, you can continue on up through that. And from there work your way to BAMF.

3 (1h 1m 55s):
Oh great. Because pretty soon, sooner or later we’re going to be knocking off all of the U S national parks. We’re going to have to go international

4 (1h 2m 2s):
Canada, Mexico coming up first because it right here.

3 (1h 2m 5s):
All right guys. Well, that sums up this week’s episode. Thank you so much for tuning in, make sure to follow us on Instagram and YouTube at Travel Squad Podcast, send us in your questions of the week and tag us in your, and let us know where you’re going.

2 (1h 2m 21s):
And if you found the information in this episode to be useful, or if you thought we were just playing funny, please make sure to share it with a friend that will enjoy it too.

4 (1h 2m 29s):
As always guys, please subscribe, rate and viewer podcast and tune in every travel Tuesday for new episodes,

1 (1h 2m 35s):
Stay tuned for next week’s episode, we have some more amazing adventures and tips in store for you.