Besnard Lake
to Glacier

The next morning, Saturday, we woke up and had breakfast at the rest stop. There was a pretty steep ledge down to the Fraser River, which was moving surprisingly fast. We went down to take a look, although we were careful around the water and mostly just dipped our hands in.

At around 9 or 9:30, we set off again, heading toward Mount Robson, the highest mountain in the Canadian Rockies.

We stopped at Mount Robson Provincial Park, which served several purposes. We got to brush our teeth and use a regular bathroom, but more importantly it was a beautiful place to stop. We had a great view of Mount Robson and walked along a little nature trail before getting back in the car. We probably headed out again around 11 or 11:30 for the long journey toward northern Saskatchewan.

About 45 minutes later, we crossed into Alberta and entered Jasper National Park. We mostly drove straight through Jasper, although we stopped twice for what we thought were mountain goats but turned out to be female big horned sheep. The first group was sitting high up on a ridge. Douglas was also quite interested in all the bugs there.

A little farther down the road, we encountered more female big horned sheep although these ones were not so much crossing the road as simply standing in the middle of it, eating little shrubs growing out of the cracks. We pretty much had to stop unless we wanted to run into a mountain goat, which gave us a wonderful chance to watch them up close.

The entire drive through Jasper was beautiful. As we left the park, I remembered being a kid and looking backward as we left the mountains, watching them disappear in the rearview mirror as the world flattened out ahead us.

We stopped in Hinton after leaving Jasper National Park. We picked up poop bags for the dogs and some cleaning supplies for the car, then continued east. I think we stopped only once more before eventually reaching Lloydminster.

In Lloydminster, we went to Walmart, which fortunately was open past nine, and picked up some dinner supplies and used the restroom. We also stopped at A&W. Stacey set up the car for nighttime while we ate.

At first, I was disappointed because A&W was closing and I thought we would miss our chance to have A&W root beer in a glass mug. But the supervisor was very nice and told us we could stay inside. Maple and I ended up having root beer floats. Douglas decided he did not like the idea of ice cream and soda together, so he skipped it. We all had some french fries, although naturally they remained extremely hot for longer than Douglas thought reasonable, which became a source of frustration.

Passing through Lloydminster meant crossing from Alberta into Saskatchewan. We noted that we had managed to cross an entire province in a single day.

From Lloydminster, we began the long drive across Saskatchewan toward Prince Albert. Initially, the kids were not particularly tired. Douglas spent some time looking through the sunroof at the stars. He was amazed by just how many stars you can see in the dark Saskatchewan night sky. He was also a little confused about constellations. With so many stars visible, he could not readily figure out where the constellations were supposed to be.

With so many stars visible, he could not readily figure out where the constellations were supposed to be.

Eventually, the children settled down and I continued east toward Prince Albert.

We reached the northern end of Prince Albert very late at night. I thought I could get gas at a station about ten minutes north of our turnoff, but when we arrived, it was closed. I drove another twenty minutes down the road to try another gas station, only to discover that it was closed too.

Rather than turn all the way back toward Prince Albert, I decided we could camp at Montreal River Campground and then get gasoline in La Ronge the next morning.

We arrived at Montreal River Campground at about four in the morning and discovered that the campground had burned down. There were no longer any campsites. There was just one car, which I later learned belonged to someone who lived there, and a bathroom that was closed.

At that hour, there did not seem to be much point in doing anything except continuing on to La Ronge. So that is what I did.

After some searching around La Ronge, I eventually found a parking lot where we could stop and sleep. I managed perhaps three hours before getting up at around eight.

We drove to the gas station, finally filled the car with gas, and used the bathrooms to brush our teeth and wash our hands. Then we set off on the final stretch toward Besnard Lake.

We arrived at Besnard Lake at around 11 o’clock, where my father met us at the boat landing. We discovered that although we had many little things to carry, we had not really brought any large container to carry them all in. We eventually got everything loaded into the boat and made the short, roughly five-minute trip across the water to the island.

And finally, we were there.

After unloading, we got into island life pretty quickly. I think swimming was one of the first things we did, although Douglas was also immediately interested in walking all the way around the island.

We set off on our walk, and Douglas found a little structure on what he decided to call Beach One. We dug a large hole there and discovered that water slowly filled the bottom of it, which was quite amazing to him.

Then we continued to Beach Two, where we found a piece of birch bark with a hole in it. We decided it belonged on the structure at Beach One, so we had to walk back and add it before continuing our journey.

Eventually we made it to Beach Three, where we stopped to take in the beautiful view before continuing around the island. Nala came along with us, and Grandpa joined us too on this walk.

Stacey and Birch were also walking around the island behind us. They made it back home just a short while after we did.

By that point, after essentially driving through two nights with only a few hours of sleep each time, I was exhausted. I took a nap and slept until around seven o’clock.

When I got up, we had Sloppy Joes for dinner ( I ate what was saved for me as I slept through dinner). Later, I made a fire and we spent a nice evening sitting around it. The sky was spectacular. We could see an enormous number of stars, several shooting stars, and even the Milky Way stretching across the sky.

Days on the water, swimming and exploring, followed by a fire as the light disappeared.

I went to bed at around 11. I had to turn over a few times during the night, but overall I slept reasonably well and made it until about eight o’clock the next morning.

Monday morning, I walked around the island pretty early because Douglas wanted to go back and look at the structure we had found the day before. When we got there, he decided that the structure needed to be rebuilt, which meant that I ended up rebuilding essentially the whole thing for him.

While we were working on it, Grandpa Peter caught a fish near by. We got to see it before he threw it back into the lake.

We eventually finished our walk around the island and came back for pancakes. After breakfast, we went swimming and spent some time out in the kayak. By then, walking around the island, swimming, and getting out on the water were becoming part of the rhythm of each day. We also took a large canoe out and Stacey, Douglas, the dogs and I canoed around the island.

That night, we had our first island movie night. Sarah had bought a small mobile projector and set it up in the gazebo. We watched Minions, which worked surprisingly well as an outdoor movie setup. With that, natural Besnard met modern technology, again.

Tuesday was our belated celebration of Birch’s birthday. Sarah and Jason gave him a game of Risk, and once we opened it, the game pretty much took over the morning. We spent hours playing. Dylan won.

In the afternoon, we took a trip to Long Beach (me, Stacey and all the kids). We went swimming there, and there was a huge hole already dug in the sand that everyone had fun jumping into. We also picked blueberries.

We came back to the island for dinner and later made another fire. It was becoming a familiar pattern by then. Days on the water, swimming and exploring, followed by a fire as the light disappeared.

Wednesday was Sarah’s birthday, August 12.

In the morning, Peter, Stacey, Douglas, and I took the boat over to the lodge to buy some bread. It rained on the way there and on the way back, and later the rain became much heavier. It continued until around 1 in the afternoon.

While it rained, the kids played Risk.

Once the weather improved, we were able to get outside again. We kayaked and canoed around the island and made Sarah a birthday card.

For Sarah’s birthday dinner, we had spaghetti and for desert peach crumble.

We gave Sarah and Georgia gift cards for bobble heads they could design.

I went swimming one more time that night despite it being cold, as it was the last time I would likely swim at Besnard until we go again in ~2 years.

That evening, I walked around the island again because the yellow shovel had been left behind and needed to be retrieved. While I walked around the island, Jason got the fire started. Later, Back to the Future was played with the outside with the projector, although I mostly stayed and watched the fire

We slept well, and Thursday morning it was time to leave.

I am sure I walked around the island that morning, although as I initially try and remember this, four days later, I cannot remember the specifics of that particular walk. I probably walked around once, perhaps twice.

That is one of the strange things about being at Besnard. I remember the overall feeling extremely well. I remember the temperature, the light, the weather, the feeling of the ground, the trees, the beaches, and the lake. But not really discretely, but as a whole. The individual walks begin to blend together.

Still, that final walk always feels different because I knew I probably would not be back for another two years. That walk is a way of saying goodbye.

Stacey had done most of the packing the night before, so there was not actually too much left to do that morning. Everyone was awake, and we had pancakes for breakfast. Then we finished packing, gathered everything together, and said our goodbyes.

Grandpa Peter drove us across the lake to the mainland.

Once we reached the lodge, Stacey was able to take a shower, which made her feel a little refreshed before the long journey ahead.

We pulled away from Besnard Lake at around 10 o’clock Thursday morning and started the drive home.

The individual walks begin to blend together. Still, that final walk always feels different.

The road out from Besnard Lake was much better than the road coming in, and we made good time. By about 3:30 in the afternoon, we had reached Saskatoon.

There, we met up with Douglas’s friend Joshua near Rosewood, an area of Saskatoon I had never actually been to despite growing up in Saskatchewan. Douglas and Joshua played together for a little over an hour while Stacey went to the grocery store to pick up supplies we would need for the journey home.

After about an hour, we said goodbye and got back on the road.

Our goal was to cross into the United States as soon as possible, so rather than following the Trans-Canada Highway, we headed almost directly south toward the border crossing near Climax, Saskatchewan.

We reached the border at around 10 o’clock that night, only to discover that the crossing had closed at 5pm.

That left us with the question of what to do next. We backtracked about twenty minutes to Climax, a tiny town that seemed to consist essentially of one lonely street. We stopped there long enough in the dark to get ourselves and the car ready for another night of driving.

Then we headed west.

What followed was a long nighttime crisscross across southern Saskatchewan, much of it on dirt roads, as we worked our way toward the border crossing at Sweetgrass, Montana, which was still open.

The roads were dark and there were deer everywhere along the sides of them.

It took a very long time. The roads were dark and there were deer everywhere along the sides of them. Several times I had to slow down or stop for deer as we made our way west.

Eventually, very late at night, we finally reached the border and crossed into Montana. The border agent was nice, and after all the trouble getting there, the crossing itself was easy.

Once we were in Montana, the roads immediately seemed to be in much better shape. From there, we continued south and west toward Glacier National Park.

By somewhere around 5 or 6 in the morning, we finally reached Rising Sun Campground near the St. Mary entrance of Glacier. I parked the car, and after another night spent driving, I finally got to sleep.

We woke up Friday morning sometime between nine and ten. It had rained quite a bit during the night, and the rain was still hanging around that morning. The park was cloudy and damp, with low clouds around the mountains.

We had breakfast at the campground and walked around a little. There were thimbleberries growing throughout the campground, and I enjoyed eating a few as we wandered around.

Even with the rain and clouds, the surroundings were striking. Rocky mountains and steep cliffs seemed to rise up on every side of us.

I had originally been planning to simply drive Going-to-the-Sun Road, but I remembered how beautiful the Many Glacier area was from when I was here in the 2000s. We decided to leave the park and then re-enter through the Many Glacier entrance before eventually making our way back toward the main part of Glacier.

The road up to Many Glacier was memorable for a different reason. For part of the drive, the pavement simply ended and became a dirt road before starting again once we entered the national park. That unpaved stretch was extremely rough, with potholes everywhere.

When we finally reached Many Glacier, it was still raining.

Parking turned out to be one of the more frustrating parts of the visit. There was essentially nowhere to park near the lodge. I made one or two loops around the parking lot and then dropped the kids off near the lodge while I continued looking.

I probably spent close to thirty minutes driving around. I circled the main parking lot several times, explored another road, and kept looking for any available space. Eventually, I found a small turnout quite a distance from the chalet and parked there.

I walked to the Chalet. Luckily, Maple happened to be walking through main area and found me. Stacey and the kids had already gotten themselves seated in the dining room.

Lunch there was excellent. I had a lentil burger that was particularly good.

After lunch, Birch and I walked back to the van to get the dogs and took them down toward the lake. We were planning to meet Stacey but we could not find her. Also there was no internet so I could not text. Finally, Birch refused to zip up his jacket even though it was raining. So I walked Birch and dogs back to van, and returned to lodge alone, and I did finally find Stacey on a balcony. We briefly went inside lodge again and looked around the gift shop, but decided we should get moving if we wanted enough time to enjoy the rest of the day.

We left Many Glacier, returned to the St. Mary entrance, and finally started west on Going-to-the-Sun Road.

At Logan Pass, we decided to hike the Hidden Lake Trail.

It was a wonderful hike. Douglas did remarkably well and made it perhaps three quarters of the way toward the hidden lake overlook. Early in the hike, Birch suddenly needed to use the restroom and ran back toward the visitor center. Stacey waited for him. We would look back at Stacey as we climbed and at one point, we looked back and saw Stacey doing a strange little dance. None of us could quite figure out what she was trying to communicate. A little later, we saw a large male bighorn sheep. Stacey eventually explained that her dance had been her attempt to tell us that the sheep was there.

The bighorn sheep ended up walking up the mountain in roughly the same direction we were going, almost as though it were hiking along with us.

For a brief period, the clouds opened up. Suddenly we could see across the mountains, with these enormous vistas appearing out of what had previously been mostly gray cloud. The whole hike changed when the landscape appeared around us.

Birch and I continued all the way to the Hidden Lake Overlook. The view was spectacular.

Then we headed back down. We had worried a little about whether we would make it back before the visitor center closed because the hike up had taken us about an hour and a half. Somehow, the trip down took only about twenty minutes though.

That left the kids with enough time to spend another twenty minutes or so looking around the visitor center while I walked the dogs and rested briefly in the van.

Then we continued west along Going-to-the-Sun Road toward Avalanche Campground.

By extraordinary luck, the clouds cleared for much of our descent. After seeing so little earlier in the day, we suddenly had huge views of the mountains and valleys around us. It almost seemed magical. We stopped several times along the road simply to take pictures and look.

Eventually, we reached Avalanche Campground. Our campsite was very nice. Birch and I put up the tent, we ate dinner, made our trips to the bathrooms, and settled in.

I went to bed a little after nine. That would normally not seem particularly early, but after everything we had packed into the day, I was ready.

The next morning we woke up, packed everything away, and started with a walk along the Trail of the Cedars.

It was a beautiful, easy trail through the forest. Douglas walked almost the entire way himself. I think there was only one point when he got hurt and needed to be carried for a while. Along the trail, we stopped to read the poems and signs as we went.

After finishing the loop, we got back into the van and drove to Lake McDonald Lodge.

This time we were lucky with parking and found a good spot without much trouble. We first took the dogs down to the beach and gave them a chance to walk around by the lake. Once they had gotten their outing, we returned them to the van and went into the lodge for lunch.

It was another surprisingly good meal. We had Brussels sprouts that were excellent, along with a very good lentil soup and some pasta.

After lunch, we returned to the beach and stayed there much longer than I had expected. The kids built little dams along the water and eventually began wading in Lake McDonald despite the fact that, on the final day of the trip, we had very little clean clothing left to spare.

Eventually, we changed into the remaining clothes, packed ourselves up and continued toward Apgar.

There was, however, still the matter of Birch's shirt.

The previous day at Logan Pass, Birch had found a shirt he really wanted. Stacey had not been able to buy it at the time, so we assumed we could simply find it later. Unfortunately, the Lake McDonald gift shop did not have it, and neither did the shop at Apgar.

Someone at Apgar told us that another general store outside the park might carry it.

So we drove over. The store turned out to be near the train station, and, amazingly, they actually had the exact shirt Birch had been looking for. Birch was very happy. Douglas also found something he liked.

Maple did not.

She became increasingly frustrated that there was nothing there she wanted. We stopped at another store, where she remained pretty unhappy with the situation but eventually picked out a shirt of her own.

With that resolved, we finally began the long drive home.

We took a somewhat indirect route through western Montana, passing Flathead Lake and then driving through the forests and mountains farther west.

At one point, we stopped at a turnout near a river in the Local national forest. I believe it was the Ferry Landing Picnic Area. An RV campground nearby had live music playing, and hearing it drifting through the evening while surrounded by the mountains was unexpectedly beautiful.

We walked down to the river. There was a rope or something similar hanging there that Birch could grab and swing from. He had a great time with it, and Maple took a few turns swinging too.

Then we returned to the van and continued through the beautiful Montana countryside.

Our final real stop of the trip was Coeur d'Alene.

There Stacey found an artisan pizza place for dinner. Coeur d'Alene was bustling on a Saturday night, with plenty of people out along the main strip.

We took our pizza down to the park to eat. Oddly, the lights there were not on in the park, so we ate in the gathering darkness before returning to the van.

It was probably somewhere around eight or nine when we got back on the road for the final stretch.

Birch sat beside me for part of the drive, watching movies and a show. I listened to some Sherlock Holmes and a few podcasts as we crossed Washington.

After all those hours and all those miles, suddenly we were back across the state.

We arrived home sometime between 2:30 and 3 in the morning on Sunday.