Grinnel Glacier Overlook

13.2 miles on the trail today
4550 feet in elevation gain

The hike I did today was probably the hardest I have ever done mentally and physicaly.  ( mostly the final mile up the side up a very steep cliff face. Me and heights now really have an understanding of one another.)

The first four miles lead you to the 100 yr old granite chalet. They offer rooms for hikers to stay in and food for anyone hungry from the trail.( all of their supplies are brought in via pack mules.) The next mile or so brings you to the fork in the trail to start your trek up the side of a very steep mountain know as the "garden wall."  From there you have about 1.1 miles of the most strenuous climbing/ hiking I have ever come into contact with so far. About 3/4 of the way up on that portion of the trail it turns to just rock slab covered in water with the trail itself only being a foot wide, on the left side it has a big rock wall, and on the right is a straight down drop of 1,000 feet or so.

Once you reach the top, it is the most beautiful sight I have Ever had the honor of viewing,  no words can describe the feeling of concurring the mountain and then having the incredible view to take in.

I know this is said quite often,  but pictures will do this gem no justice.

Day 1 in G.N.P.

2754 total miles

44 miles on the day ( on the R.V.) the little car I believe was in the area of 115 miles.

No words that I write down to try to explain what I experienced today will fully capture the beauty that is Glacier National Park. We drove the full "going to the sun road." From west to east then back. Along the road we saw sights that take your breath away, I hiked up a valley to a spot where a glacier's melted water comes over a wall face in a 50 foot waterfall. ( and drink from it)I got to touch a glacier while big horned sheep stood 75 yards away. We saw a grizzly teen bear. And I got to spend a beautifuly perfect day with my grandparents.

Again pictures do this gem no justice what so ever.

Glacier National Park

2710 total miles

725 miles on the day

We have arrived in Glacier, it is absolutely incredible.
The Flora, fauna,& views on the drive through Montana are nothing short of breathtaking.  We drove on back country roads to get here, by doing so we saw things that would have otherwise been completely passed over. Old town's like spearfish in S.D. or Lame Deer and monarch M.T. Lewis and Clark's National Forest.
Along the road side today we saw deer, fawn, bison, antelope,  & tons of cattle and horses. Oh yeah and a triceratops...

We are at the bottom of the mountains now camping out for the next week,  plenty of hiking, backpacking,  and exploring will be done!

Rapid City, S.D.

1985 total miles

746 miles on the day.

We entered south Dakota today, it's absolutely beautiful here.
We got Lucky and saw a few bison today.... at a gas station haha.
And we also got to see a t-rex being walked by a human skeleton. The pictures were taken at a Scenic overlook about 80 miles outside of Rapid city.

Odessa, M.O.

1239 total miles
655 miles on the day

We had a pretty nice day of driving!  The sunset was absolutely stunning along with the rising of the almost full moon.

Papa was lucky enough to see a shooting star.

The photos are of the sunrise this morning while on my morning jog.

Chattanooga T.N.

584 miles on the road today, (mostly back country,which are the best kind.)  We have already had quite the experience just in our first day on the road, while driving somewhere in Georgia we happened to notice we were running on empty. We stopped at the first gas station we saw which come to find out they didn't carry diesel fuel. So we asked them to direct us to the next station that did in fact carry diesel.  We drive maybe 5 or so miles down the back country road to find a gas station that looked to be out of the 50's and in a neighborhood that had a striking  resemblance to that of the movie "wrong turn." We pulled in only to find out they were closed on Sundays... so we were  stranded at the gas station with the only option being to disconnect the little car that was being towed and drive to the next station and purchase a tank and fill it to bring it back to hopefully get us there to fill up completely. As me and my papa started to try and disconnect the car,  my nana starts walking down the dirt roads towards people's houses in hopes to get help.
By some sort of miracle one of the last houses in the area in fact had someone there and as it turned out he worked at the gas station, he actually opened up one pump & pumped the fuel for us. "Duke" proved that there are still good people out there. 

As it turns out me and my papa wouldn't have been able to get into the little car,  we locked the key inside of it and left the spare back in Jacksonville. 

Getting close!

We leave in a little less than a week for now, I honestly can't recall anytime in my life where i have seen this much excitement and anticipation radiating from both of my grandparents.
While counting down the days till we leave i have seen some very beautiful sights. I wanted to share a few, one of them is the sunset from work another is a on a walk into work. 
Also i figured I would share a picture of my hiking gear.