The Times and Travels of Nolan
Documenting trips I've taken and places I've seen.
Before I get much further into this blog series about Glacier, I think it’s important to mention the geography of the national park and how it shaped the week Elizabeth and I spent there. When you’re planning for a trip, all you have to go off of is YouTube videos and maps. Those two things …
Continue reading “Glacier National Park: Understanding the Geography”
Down at the bottom of the two valleys I mentioned in the last post, at the head of the Many Glacier Valley, a large lake sits at the foot of Grinnell Point. This is one of *the* iconic photos from Glacier National Park – the big mountain that somehow looks exactly like a rocky Dorito …
It was 7:00 p.m. mountain time on Tuesday, July 12. We’d been up since 5:00 mountain time flying halfway across the United States, hunting down groceries and a cooler, and then driving halfway across the state of Montana to the doorstep of Glacier National Park. One would be forgiven for thinking Elizabeth and I were …
Continue reading “Glacier National Park: Moose Spotting at Fishercap Lake”
The first days of trips are often magical simply because they’re the first days of trips. Everything is still laid out in front of you. Fatigue isn’t a problem yet. You and your traveling companions aren’t annoyed at each other over minor things that accumulate in a car. It’s easy for the first day of …
Continue reading “Glacier National Park: Arriving in Glacier Country”
Montana! It was a hot and hazy day in Great Falls, but the heat wasn’t going to get me down after the Oklahoma heat wave I’d escaped. Elizabeth and I had a pretty sick car and a cabin waiting for us just a few hours away. In fact, the process of leaving the airport had …
Continue reading “Glacier National Park: Great Falls, Montana”
By 7:00 a.m. on July 12, 2022, Elizabeth and I had already survived a last-minute tortuous debate on how best to get our two suitcases under a combined 100 pounds. We had gone through the checklists to make sure nothing got left behind. And most importantly, I had a plan to get both food and …
For years, Elizabeth has had one goal: see the glaciers of Glacier National Park before they’re all gone. She’s got a point: there’s basically no reality where the small alpine glaciers that remain in the park as of 2022 will still be around by 2100. Heck, they may not be around by 2035. So when …
A month and a half ago, Elizabeth and I traveled to Montana to see Glacier National Park. It’s tucked into one of the last truly wild places in the lower 48 – the Livingston and Lewis Ranges of northern Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front. Of course, the frontcountry of Glacier can’t be characterized as wild anymore, …
