Co-incidentally I blogged today. I had no idea that my last blog was exactly 1year ago until I checked on the post. Gosh, I guess I should at least blog my travels so that I might have something to write about. Hence I am going to try and convert this as at least a semi-travel blog.
What a pathetic attempt in blogging.
Monday, November 09, 2009
Our 10 day trip-2
Day 3, Night 3
So it ended with us spending the second night of trip in East Glacier. As a regular recurrence and a regular theme of this trip everyday morning, it was Sriram who got up first bright and early and thus getting ready. Poorni followed next, then it used to be either Preethi or me, whoever was up by then.
Next day was the scheduled and much awaited hike to Grinell Glacier. One of the few glacier in 48 contiguous states which did not melt completely even in summer, but with the advent of global warming, this along with other glaciers in Glacier NP was supposed to disappear in the next 10-15years time. I for whatever silly reason, was hell bent on going to Grinell Glacier. Only glitch was it was no way an easy hike. Made moderately easier by taking a boat ride along Lake Swiftcurrent and Lake Josephine which reduced the hike by 2miles one way, it was still a 8miles hike with a steep 1800ft elevation gain going towards the glacier. Needless to say it was touch tiring, and even more so for the ladies. But they somehow labored through and we got treated to some beautiful vistas including a nice view of Grinell lake from the top.
The descent was absolutely swift. 4miles in 40mins flat. Unbelievable fast by everyone and we made it to the point where the boat picks people off and well in time, for even the earlier boat to take us back. It was at that time, I made a drastic mistake of relying on time printed in the tickets instead of checking the timing at the lake shore. You see the ticket had a time for another boat leaving the shore in 1hr and 10mins time, while the last one was further two hours after. Considering that the walk to Grinell lake was an easy flat walk not too far, we decided to skip the one that was standing in front of us and go check out the beautiful turquoise blue colored lake that was fed by the melting glaciers.
But that turned out to be a disaster. Either the distance was much more than what was mentioned, or it was because we were too tired from the prev hike to the glacier, we walked for a substantial distance only to never find the lake. After quite a distance, we evaluated the time, and thought it would be best to return back now so as to make the boat back to Many Glacier Lodge. Another quirk of fate and we observed that the time mentioned in the ticket was not mentioned in the lake shore which meant, we sat there till 5:30pm doing nothing just waiting for the boat to arrive. Total disaster wasnt it? We did spot a marmot that lived very close to the shed built near the dock and that guy was eyeing the cookies which totally freaked out the ladies.
After that time, there wasnt much else to do and we started driving around the GNP since the logan pass was closed so as to reach the West Glacier where our stay for the night was. Surprisingly this drive was actually faster than going straight through the GNP itself. We ultimately reached Tamarack Inn on the western side of GNP (town of Hungry Horse) well after it was dark, which means it was quite late. That's because you see in summer, up in Montana, there was light well upto 10pm.
Sri drove brilliantly fast and well controlled and we shacked up in nice looking Tamarack for the night.
So it ended with us spending the second night of trip in East Glacier. As a regular recurrence and a regular theme of this trip everyday morning, it was Sriram who got up first bright and early and thus getting ready. Poorni followed next, then it used to be either Preethi or me, whoever was up by then.
Next day was the scheduled and much awaited hike to Grinell Glacier. One of the few glacier in 48 contiguous states which did not melt completely even in summer, but with the advent of global warming, this along with other glaciers in Glacier NP was supposed to disappear in the next 10-15years time. I for whatever silly reason, was hell bent on going to Grinell Glacier. Only glitch was it was no way an easy hike. Made moderately easier by taking a boat ride along Lake Swiftcurrent and Lake Josephine which reduced the hike by 2miles one way, it was still a 8miles hike with a steep 1800ft elevation gain going towards the glacier. Needless to say it was touch tiring, and even more so for the ladies. But they somehow labored through and we got treated to some beautiful vistas including a nice view of Grinell lake from the top.
The descent was absolutely swift. 4miles in 40mins flat. Unbelievable fast by everyone and we made it to the point where the boat picks people off and well in time, for even the earlier boat to take us back. It was at that time, I made a drastic mistake of relying on time printed in the tickets instead of checking the timing at the lake shore. You see the ticket had a time for another boat leaving the shore in 1hr and 10mins time, while the last one was further two hours after. Considering that the walk to Grinell lake was an easy flat walk not too far, we decided to skip the one that was standing in front of us and go check out the beautiful turquoise blue colored lake that was fed by the melting glaciers.
But that turned out to be a disaster. Either the distance was much more than what was mentioned, or it was because we were too tired from the prev hike to the glacier, we walked for a substantial distance only to never find the lake. After quite a distance, we evaluated the time, and thought it would be best to return back now so as to make the boat back to Many Glacier Lodge. Another quirk of fate and we observed that the time mentioned in the ticket was not mentioned in the lake shore which meant, we sat there till 5:30pm doing nothing just waiting for the boat to arrive. Total disaster wasnt it? We did spot a marmot that lived very close to the shed built near the dock and that guy was eyeing the cookies which totally freaked out the ladies.
After that time, there wasnt much else to do and we started driving around the GNP since the logan pass was closed so as to reach the West Glacier where our stay for the night was. Surprisingly this drive was actually faster than going straight through the GNP itself. We ultimately reached Tamarack Inn on the western side of GNP (town of Hungry Horse) well after it was dark, which means it was quite late. That's because you see in summer, up in Montana, there was light well upto 10pm.
Sri drove brilliantly fast and well controlled and we shacked up in nice looking Tamarack for the night.
Our 10 day trip
My wife started this blog to describe our trip to Yellowstone/Glacier NP and Grand Tetons and kinda create like a semi-travel blog. But given that it does not look to be about to be finished, here is my attempt to start off with what she blogged out and then carry it forward in subsequent posts
As narrated by Poornima-----------------
Yayyy! We (to be more precise, my husband & his friend Sriram) have been planning on this trip to Yellowstone, Glacier and Grand Tetons National Park for more than 4 months. The week from June 15-June 19 was hectic. We have been ironing, packing and shopping the entire week and were finally happy to leave on June 19. We packed a whole lot of frozen food since after googling we found there were absolutely no indian restaurants in the vicinity of these National Parks and were doubtful if we would even get any veggie options. We packed rice, hot plate, rice cooker, all the required seasonings and puliogare powder just in case we don't find anything green, thats edible :-(. That left us with 2 big suitcases, my carry-on and his large 500mm bazooka lens with case, which by the way was his carry-on.
Itinerary:
June 19: Leave San Jose @ 5:30 p.m and reach Bozeman @ 11:30 p.m - Stay @ Holiday Inn
June 20: Reach East Glacier - Stay @ East Glacier Motel
June 21: Grinnell Glacier Hike, roam around Many Glacier - Stay @ Historic
Tamarack Lodge on the Westside Glacier NP.
June 22: Visit West GlacierNP, Drive to Grand Tetons - Stay @ Anglers
Inn, near Teton Village.
June 23: Visit Grand Tetons, Drive to South of Yellow stone - Stay @ Grant Village
June 24: Visit Yellowstone, Stay @ Alpine Motel - West Yellowstone NP
June 25: Visit Yellowstone, Stay @ Days Inn - West Yellowstone NP
June 26: Visit Yellowstone, Stay @ Travelodge
June 27: Visit Yellowstone, Stay @ Travelodge
June 28: Drive back to Bozeman, Leave @ 1:30 p.m and reach SanJose @ 6:30 p.m.
June 19:- Subash, Shiva's cousin dropped us in the airport and we found ourselves standing in the United Airlines counter, excited and ready for adventure. Hmm, but who knew the adventure would start this early. When we tried to print our boarding pass, the climax unfolded. Our flight got cancelled due to some mechanical problems. We were automatically re booked to the next day's flight which leaves at 7:30 a.m and reaches Bozeman at 4:30 p.m. Wonderful, our glacier trip would have totally messed up. Moreover our friends Preethi and Sriram(in short P&S) who were supposed to join us in Bozeman that night would be left stranded since all the hotel reservations were in Shiva's name. P&S had already boarded their flight in chicago and were waiting for takeoff which was delayed due to bad weather. So here we were at the mercy of the UAL guy at the counter. Fortunately, he found us a delta flight which departed at 6:30 a.m next day and reaches Bozeman at 11:30 am and printed the tickets, explaining they were the last 2 tickets available and he had to convince the delta guys to allocate it. In the meantime i was frantically checking out expedia & orbitz to find out if there were any alternate flights. Luckily, we found a delta flight that was flying the same day @ 6:10 p.m and reaches Bozeman @ 10:30 p.m i.e even earlier than our schedule flight with just 2 tickets available. We ran to the delta counter, literally begged to book us in the 6:10 p.m flight and fortunately the good man at the counter, printed our boarding passes and checked in our baggage at no extra cost. So after all the initial mess-up ultimately we got in to our flight and landed in Bozeman @10:30 p.m. But, P&S got stuck due to bad weather in chicago and missed their connecting flight in Denver. Sriram had to stand in the customer care line for more than 4 hours to get re-booked in the next day's flight to Bozeman and were totally exhausted.
June 20: We checked out of Holiday Inn, and left for Bozeman airport in our rented Toyota 4Runner. P&S eventually made it to BZN at 9:45 a.m but the stupid UAL guys missed their luggage. So we had to wait till the next flight @1:30 p.m. We shopped a bit at walmart, stocked up on water bottles, plates etc. and grabbed our lunch in the meantime. We reached Glacier around dusk and checked in to East Glacier Motel. But to our disappointment Going to the Sun Road was open only till Jackson Glacier overlook, this meant we would miss logan pass and we'll have to drive around the Glacier NP to reach to the west side. We visited Many Glacier during dusk and spotted a bear cub and a coyote that day. We reached our motel at around 10:30 p.m, had our frozen parathas and subzi for dinner and slept tight.
The journey continues......
As narrated by Poornima-----------------
Yayyy! We (to be more precise, my husband & his friend Sriram) have been planning on this trip to Yellowstone, Glacier and Grand Tetons National Park for more than 4 months. The week from June 15-June 19 was hectic. We have been ironing, packing and shopping the entire week and were finally happy to leave on June 19. We packed a whole lot of frozen food since after googling we found there were absolutely no indian restaurants in the vicinity of these National Parks and were doubtful if we would even get any veggie options. We packed rice, hot plate, rice cooker, all the required seasonings and puliogare powder just in case we don't find anything green, thats edible :-(. That left us with 2 big suitcases, my carry-on and his large 500mm bazooka lens with case, which by the way was his carry-on.
Itinerary:
June 19: Leave San Jose @ 5:30 p.m and reach Bozeman @ 11:30 p.m - Stay @ Holiday Inn
June 20: Reach East Glacier - Stay @ East Glacier Motel
June 21: Grinnell Glacier Hike, roam around Many Glacier - Stay @ Historic
Tamarack Lodge on the Westside Glacier NP.
June 22: Visit West GlacierNP, Drive to Grand Tetons - Stay @ Anglers
Inn, near Teton Village.
June 23: Visit Grand Tetons, Drive to South of Yellow stone - Stay @ Grant Village
June 24: Visit Yellowstone, Stay @ Alpine Motel - West Yellowstone NP
June 25: Visit Yellowstone, Stay @ Days Inn - West Yellowstone NP
June 26: Visit Yellowstone, Stay @ Travelodge
June 27: Visit Yellowstone, Stay @ Travelodge
June 28: Drive back to Bozeman, Leave @ 1:30 p.m and reach SanJose @ 6:30 p.m.
June 19:- Subash, Shiva's cousin dropped us in the airport and we found ourselves standing in the United Airlines counter, excited and ready for adventure. Hmm, but who knew the adventure would start this early. When we tried to print our boarding pass, the climax unfolded. Our flight got cancelled due to some mechanical problems. We were automatically re booked to the next day's flight which leaves at 7:30 a.m and reaches Bozeman at 4:30 p.m. Wonderful, our glacier trip would have totally messed up. Moreover our friends Preethi and Sriram(in short P&S) who were supposed to join us in Bozeman that night would be left stranded since all the hotel reservations were in Shiva's name. P&S had already boarded their flight in chicago and were waiting for takeoff which was delayed due to bad weather. So here we were at the mercy of the UAL guy at the counter. Fortunately, he found us a delta flight which departed at 6:30 a.m next day and reaches Bozeman at 11:30 am and printed the tickets, explaining they were the last 2 tickets available and he had to convince the delta guys to allocate it. In the meantime i was frantically checking out expedia & orbitz to find out if there were any alternate flights. Luckily, we found a delta flight that was flying the same day @ 6:10 p.m and reaches Bozeman @ 10:30 p.m i.e even earlier than our schedule flight with just 2 tickets available. We ran to the delta counter, literally begged to book us in the 6:10 p.m flight and fortunately the good man at the counter, printed our boarding passes and checked in our baggage at no extra cost. So after all the initial mess-up ultimately we got in to our flight and landed in Bozeman @10:30 p.m. But, P&S got stuck due to bad weather in chicago and missed their connecting flight in Denver. Sriram had to stand in the customer care line for more than 4 hours to get re-booked in the next day's flight to Bozeman and were totally exhausted.
June 20: We checked out of Holiday Inn, and left for Bozeman airport in our rented Toyota 4Runner. P&S eventually made it to BZN at 9:45 a.m but the stupid UAL guys missed their luggage. So we had to wait till the next flight @1:30 p.m. We shopped a bit at walmart, stocked up on water bottles, plates etc. and grabbed our lunch in the meantime. We reached Glacier around dusk and checked in to East Glacier Motel. But to our disappointment Going to the Sun Road was open only till Jackson Glacier overlook, this meant we would miss logan pass and we'll have to drive around the Glacier NP to reach to the west side. We visited Many Glacier during dusk and spotted a bear cub and a coyote that day. We reached our motel at around 10:30 p.m, had our frozen parathas and subzi for dinner and slept tight.
The journey continues......
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