GLACIER NATIONAL PARK - MONTANA

Jaycie’s Bunny Hoppin’ News: My 14th Birthday!

By: Jaycie Lillie, 6/21/23

Abuela and Grandpa Bill flew to visit us here in Montana. We all went into Glacier National Park and stopped at the visitor center, first.

We started working on our Jr Ranger books. We also shopped in the gift shop. We ate some muffins before our horse ride in Apgar Village.

When we arrived to the corral it smelled awful. But eventually our noses got used to the smell.

My horse was named Pilgrim.

Jett's horse name was bacon. Bacon was 12 like Jett!

They said they didn't know the exact age of the horses. They guessed most around 15 years old, but Bacon was smaller, and they said they think he is 12.

Grandpa Bill got the slowest horse. It was named Teton. We had to take breaks for them to catch up.

It sprinkled on us a bit. We didn't get too wet, but the trail was muddy.

Code yellow was if your horse stopped and peed. Abuela yelled it and they were so far behind because of Teton. They all yelled it and echoed it. That was funny!

The horse ride was fun and when we finished, we had to hurry to get to the ranger talk! It was about birds & their migration. A deer popped in to the Ranger program, too!

We were all hungry and went to eat at the cafe. The grilled cheese was very good.

For my birthday we got a cheesecake! I also tried some huckleberry ice cream, it was good, too. We were so full!

We finished our Jr ranger booklets in the nature center and earned our 124th badge.

If I did it the next day, I'd have to do 14 pages! (I didn't turn 13 till 6:00 pm!) We got the badges and then left. I soon realized I left my phone in the nature center! We rushed back and arrived 15 min before they closed. I got it, whew! We then drove the “Going to the sun” road. It was so cloudy, at times it was hard to see.

At Logan pass it started to snow and big horn sheep were all over the parking lot!!!

We left the park and saw a rainbow in one of the waterfalls.

Then we ate at "The Back Room". I had the last baked potato. It was very good. We went home and celebrated my birthday with gifts and cards.

Then we played a game all together. It was a great birthday, especially with my grandparents!

Jett’s Wild Flight: Hey Jammer!

By: Jett Lillie, 6/22/23

On our second day in Glacier National Park we explored the East side of the park. On our drive over to the east side we saw a herd of Mountain goats by Goat Lake.

When we arrived at the East side at St. Mary’s Lodge, we loaded up on a Big Red Jammer bus and set out on a full day tour with my grandparents and the other 3 J’s.

Our driver, Mel, was awesome. She told us it is called a Jammer because they used to jam the stick shift up and down before they were converted to an automatic. The buses were built in the 1930s and our bus was built in 1937.

Today was perfect weather and sunny, so we got to ride in the bus with our top down.

And Mel taught us how to safely “prairie dog.” That’s when you stand up through the top of the bus to get a better view. Here’s me “prairie dogging.”

Mel gave me a Junior Jammer book and once I completed it, I earned a Jr Jammer Badge! It is a super cool magnetic pin!

Our tour started and we drove the famous “Going to the Sun” Road. Right at the first we saw 4 grizzly bears – a mama with her 3 cubs! They were walking through a meadow, and we just barely caught a glimpse of them as we were driving sort of fast. But my mom caught some photos! Here’s the mama bear.

Here’s one of the cubs popping up out of the bush.

Then we stopped to get out and take photos in front of the lake that had an island.

We saw lots of waterfalls and pretty mountains along the drive.

We also saw glaciers (4 out of the total 25) in this park. Today there are only 25 glaciers left, but when this park was created in 1910 there were 150 glaciers. Mel said this is because of global warming.

We also saw a lone Mountain goat on the side of the road and a herd of Bighorn Sheep in a valley.

We stopped at Logan Pass at the Visitor Center where we saw the tallest peak in the park.

And we saw the meadows covered in Glacier Lilies. My mom loved them.

The sign told us that Bears and Prairie Ground Squirrels like to dig up their bulbs and eat them. We saw lots of Prairie Ground Squirrels playing. They acted more like prairie dogs than squirrels!

We also saw a lone Bighorn Sheep on a rock.

We continued to Lake McDonald Lodge and ate pizza for lunch at the Jammer Joe’s Grill & Pizzeria.

After we walked through the lodge to see the lake and skipped rocks.

We then headed back and saw some amazing views.

This is what we looked like!

We stopped to see a waterfall.

We went through tunnels and saw more amazing views.

At the end we saw a red fox, too!

After the Red Jammer bus tour, we drove back into the park to Many Glacier Lodge.

More pretty lake views and another waterfall.

Then we ate dinner ate Two Sisters Café. I ate trout and waffles with a shake, yummy!

After dinner, we had to drive 2 hours back to our RV. It was one minute shorter to go through the park again, so we did it! And I’m so glad we did. We ended up stopping at Logan Pass and saw a huge herd of Bighorn Sheep and one mountain goat in the parking lot.

This guy just set up his grill and started making pancakes! He's crazy!

They just kept licking this one blue car that was parked. We think they were licking the salt off the car. They just wouldn’t stop licking!

At one point, we were surrounded by Bighorn Sheep in our truck and daddy was nervous. So, we slowly made our way out of the parking lot and back home.

We got to watch the sun go down on the “Going to the Sun” road.

We had an awesome, Jammin’ day at Glacier! Thanks for reading.