New friendship in Glacier National Park
"You must know that horses were not native to North America before they were imported from Europe. Did you ever think about what it must have been like for the Indians when they first saw white skin riding on a handsome, never before seen animal like a horse?" Well, I would have fallen down in shock!
After the recently visited highlights, Yellowstone and Teton, the next national park is already on our wish list. The Glacier NP is our destination. We are looking forward to mountainous landscapes, crystal clear lakes and hope to finally find such a specimen at the place with the highest grizzly density in the whole country, as we have been looking unsuccessfully so far.
Within two days we drive through Montana. Only over Butte, where we are full of "weirdos" (drunken old hippies) in the Walmart parking lot and therefore lose sight of our extended, unanchored sun blinds, which in turn leads to a gust of wind lifting the entire construction, banging against the side wall of the car and turning the store into junk. We continue to Missoula, a university town. Here we fill our supplies in a Good Food-Store (we are absolute fans of it - the animal products are all organic and hormone-free, which was difficult to find so far!) and then set off to the park border with the West Entrance.
Shortly before we stop for a coffee at a gas station (unfortunately, as so often, it turns out to be an ugly plörre) and park our Toyota right next to a fully loaded Nissan with roof tent. Of course, the 4x4 vehicle immediately attracts our attention, all the more so as a young man with a Swiss army shirt gets out of the car. We get into conversation and we meet a very nice young couple from Oregon, who are on a 2-week holiday trip and have Swiss friends in Wädenswil (hence the shirt). Since they also want to go to Glacier National Park, we exchange numbers and hope to see you again.
Only a few kilometers later I get a message from Melissa and John that they will head to Bowman Lake and spend the night on the campground. We immediately decide to take this direction and continue.
Over the unpaved Outside North Fork Road it goes partly steeply by gravel and forest up the mountain up to Mathias suddenly fully the brakes reinhaut. "Did you see that?", put it in reverse and drive back slowly. - "What? Where?" - "Look, there's a young black bear standing between the bushes!" Yeah, now I see him too. Ohhhh, how cute! There's even two of them! Two cute little black bear babies romp in the forest, tease each other and try to clumsily climb up the trees. Every now and then someone stands on his hind legs and seems to be looking out for Mom. "You better crank up the windshield, honey. I've heard that mothers can get pretty aggressive if you get too close to their young" and at that moment she is already running across the street in front of us. Let's get out of here! The bear family immediately returns to the depths of the forest. Unfortunately there wasn't enough time for a good photo, but a nice memory still remains.
Only a short time later we reach the campsite and welcome Melissa and John. We share a place for the next two nights and have a great time with them. We enjoy the time with exquisite food (moose sausages and steaks - hunted by John's family themselves), bathing in the beautiful crystal clear Bowman Lake, hiking in the National Park and interesting conversations about God and the world, for example about Indians and horses.
After spending most of our time alone, we enjoyed the two days in company and made new friends.
Thanks for the great time Melissa and John! We are looking forward to seeing you again!
P.S. Unfortunately we haven't found a Grizzly here either...but we're still looking!