An American Rocky Road Trip - Part 1
- Lucy and the lens
- Sep 7, 2018
- 2 min read
I signed up to my second Trek America tour with high expectations after my last trip to Canada with them - and I wasn't disappointed! Their 'Rocky Mountain High' tour was three glorious weeks road tripping through Washington State, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Nevada...from shivering ourselves to sleep in the mountains to sweating in the desert, this was a trip about contrasts. In this blog post I'll talk about the first leg of the journey, from Seattle to Glacier National Park! (Funnily enough, when checking the link to the tour, I noticed that I'm currently the 'face' of Rocky Mountain High! What a privilege!)
Seattle, WA
Seattle was our group meeting point, and we left town promptly at 8am, so possible the only disappointment of this trip was not getting to explore Seattle properly. I took a train downtown and spent a few hours wandering around, but I hadn't done any research into what to see, so I don't remember much about it! I'll be back!
Mt Rainier, WA
The tour didn't waste any time throwing a big hike at us - it was time to climb Mount Rainier! It's the highest mountain in Washington and the highest of the Cascade range...and we had to climb it. Luckily, the group was too busy bonding to really feel the burn as we ascended...and ascended...and ascended. Suddenly, we were trudging through snow - that's how high we were, and we hadn't even realised. We didn't make it to the absolute summit, but we felt on top of the world anyway!
That night, we bonded over the erecting of our tents, and the cooking of our dinner. We decided to split up into three teams, and alternate cooking between each team. Cooking for each other really helped us to value each other as a group - we weren't just thirteen strangers who happened to be sharing tents for a week - we really were a team by the end of the trip.
Glacier National Park, Montana
We had a bit of a rain issue in Glacier National Park. By which I mean, quite a significant rain issue. Which was ironic considering our activity for the day: a scenic, 6-hour bus ride along the 'Going to the Sun' road. Private tour buses are not permitted to drive through Glacier National Park - our Trek guide had to drive around the outskirts of the park, to pick us up on the other side while we took a park bus through the middle. On a sunny day, I'm sure the route would have been beyond stunning, as we reached incredibly high altitudes along the route...but in the rain, we got a pretty consistent view of fog. Another reason for a return visit!
We attempted a hike in the rain, too - through the forest to Iceberg Lake, which I would totally recommend because even in the rain, it was beautiful.
In the evening, because of the rain, we decided to have a 'van party'. Ten minutes into our van party, we realised that an actual indoor venue might be a little less cramped and headed out to warm ourselves up at a nearby dive bar.
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