I woke up early freaked out by a bright light, certain that someone was shining a flashlight into the Sprinter! I was pleasantly surprised to realize it was just the sun telling me to rise and shine and see Glacier National Park. The river was audibly rushing nearby and an obnoxious animal (maybe a bird, but it sounded more like a baboon from the primate house!) ensured that I was not going back to sleep. It was 5 a.m. and I was definitely ready to start my day. If I were a true adventurer, I probably would’ve woken Deven up and headed out to see the sights. Instead, staying true to myself, I began to organize! Living in the Sprinter reminds me of college in that I’m thoroughly enjoying the challenge of finding creative ways to make the most of limited shared space! Once Deven woke up, she temporarily caught my organizing disease and got to work. Because we had such a rushed start, the Sprinter was overflowing with stuff haphazardly shoved into any bin or crevice we could find. Deven organized the “trunk” of the car (camping gear, bikes, scooter, tools, etc.), while I spent the morning organizing the living space. It’s amazing what a few bins from Target can do. Some of the areas and “rooms” [bins] of our living space are: campsite maintenance, kitchen sink, bathroom, office, first aid, games, and my favorite – freshen up J (containing hand wipes, hand sanitizer, mouth wash, gum, tissue, etc.). I reminded Deven that anything could be organized with a few zip loc bags and she taught me that anything can go anywhere as long as you have bungee cords to secure it down. NOW, I am ready to start the trip. Everything has a home that makes sense and we can find what we’re looking for when we need it. This might not seem important, but our little organizing party was very helpful and extremely necessary! Finally, we headed out for the day’s adventure. A few facts about Glacier National Park: the park covers 1.2 million acres (1, 563 square miles), has 37 named glaciers, 200 lakes, and 1000 miles of streams. Our first stop was Lake McDonald (a 10-mile-long lake) and then we headed up Going-to-the-Sun Road, a 50-mile highway (the only American roadway designated both a National Historic Landmark and a National Civil Engineering Landmark) that crosses the crest of the Continental Divide and climbs up to 6,600 feet. The vehicle length limit for this road is 21 ft, but we decided to go anyway (the Sprinter is about 22.5). We quickly realized the purpose of the vehicle dimension restrictions; we had to pull in our mirrors for most of the ride to avoid hitting both the side of the mountain and oncoming traffic. The scenery was amazing and Deven’s extensive knowledge and commentary of the masonry work along the way made me appreciate the drive even more. Climbing the mountain in the Sprinter made for an enjoyable, yet anxious ride – I was definitely sitting higher than the practically non-existent “wall” that overlooked meandering rivers and hillsides thousands of feet below. We stopped at several turnouts to admire the picturesque views, take pictures of the waterfalls, and get up close with wildlife. We saw deer, several mountain goats (particularly one funny old guy who insisted on standing in the middle of both lanes, bringing traffic from both directions to a complete stop for several minutes), and big horn sheep. The big horn sheep were my favorite – they’re crazy to see up close in the wild and it’s bizarre to see how their horns seem to meld into their face. After taking a few hours to drive this beautiful highway, we looked for a campground for the night. Everything in the park was booked so we headed out of the park to a nearby National Forest on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. No luck there (full!), so we drove as far as we could manage and spent the night at the only campground in sight: KOA in Great Falls, Montana. This place was crazy – like Disneyland for the quintessential American family on a camping/road trip! It was a perfect place to sleep and allowed us to get a head start on our next day, but I never imagined this trip would include staying at a campground with volleyball and basketball courts, swings, playgrounds, and a water park with a little water slide! We tried to take advantage of some of the amenities (it hardly felt like camping) and we played on the swings and washed our dishes. After a long day, we called it a night – eagerly anticipating the next day’s drive to Yellowstone – our nation’s first national park!
