St. Mary, MT (Day 2)

Thursday, September 12

You might be wondering what the shower situation is like while living full-time in a RV.

Well, I’ve got two words for you: Dry Shampoo.

The long answer is that it all depends on where you’re camping and the size of your rig. Our Winnebago View holds 30 gallons of fresh water that’s used for dishes, showering, brushing teeth, and drinking water. It goes quick! So, it’s important for us to conserve water while we travel or we have to dump and refill often. Most campgrounds have private showers available for use (some are free, some charge a small fee) that are almost always clean, but not necessarily appealing. Andi uses these shower houses everyday without issue, but the kids and I are a little more picky. I prefer showering in our RV unless the campground showers are really nice. That means that depending on our camping location or how much water we have left in the tank, I might skip showering for a day or two. When I do shower in our RV, it’s as efficient as possible. (Rinse. Turn off water. Lather up. Rinse. Turn off water. Repeat.) It’s not exactly relaxing like it might be at a regular home.

Fortunately, the KOA East Campground near Glacier National Park had very clean and private restrooms and showers. Deluxe, I’d even say. We planned to get an early start on the day Thursday, so I set my alarm for 6:00am so that I could get up and shower in the private KOA shower room alone (and by alone, I mean without my kids)! It was still dark outside when I walked to the shower house that morning.

My shower was lukewarm at best, but it was a treat to have a private room to wash and dry my hair, get dressed, and put on make-up. At 6:30am, Andi woke up and we began to pack up the RV for travel. By 7:00am, we were on the road back to Glacier National Park. The kids were still asleep in their beds.

Andi and I wanted to get to St. Mary’s Campground on the east side of Glacier National Park first thing in the morning to find a spot, and we did jus that. We secured a beautiful site in Loop C overlooking the mountains. It was important to Andi to be in this loop of the campground because generators are allowed during certain hours and we’d need to run ours periodically to keep our RV batteries charged. There were no electric, sewer or water hook-ups in the campground.

The kids were up by the time we parked, so we put out the slide on the RV to make it bigger, made breakfast, and did some school.

Around 9:30am, we rode our electric bikes for six miles along the Going-To-The-Sun Road. It was cold and windy. The scenery along St. Mary’s Lake was beautiful, but there were a few times that big wind gusts nearly blew us right over! There were also vehicles passing us every few minutes, so it was a little stressful. We planned to stop at the Rising Sun Motor Inn for a mid-morning treat, but unfortunately this location had already closed for the season. Instead, we rode to Sun Point and parked our bikes there to check out the lake. It wasn’t as windy along the shore, so the kids climbed on branches near the water and we all thawed out in the sunshine for a bit.

Eventually, we turned around and headed back the direction we came. I think we were all dreading it, but it wasn’t nearly as windy on the road back as it was on the way there. We rode our bikes to the St. Mary Visitor Center to pick up a free Family Fun Pack I’d read the park has available. The free packs include a compass, binoculars, nature books and an activity guide, and I thought the kids would get a kick out of using some new-to-them gear. Unfortunately, the visitor center didn’t have any of these packets available like the National Park Service website suggested. Tory was especially bummed.

We rode our bikes back to the St. Mary campground for lunch. Andi grilled brats and brussels sprouts while I meal prepped sloppy joes and noodles for future meals. We fit a lot of activity into the day already, so we hung out in the RV for some afternoon down-time. The kids watched their iPads, Andi worked, and I blogged. Tory made Aden a homemade target for his new potato gun and found a way to mount it to a post in our campsite. I thought that was so nice of her and he was thrilled about it. They both spent some time outside playing with the potato gun. I could not get warm after our chilly morning bike ride, so that’s why I was still wearing my coat inside.

Tory and I worked on her Junior Ranger packet, and then she took my phone outside to FaceTime Grandma Janie. It was one of those surreal travel moments watching her sit on the picnic table in front of those gorgeous mountain views. How lucky are we to live in a time when we can travel and see the world while also staying connected to family? The blue sky and mountains in the distance contrasting with the yellow pop of changing tree color was beautiful.

The sun was shining, so we decided to get the kids outside on a trail to burn some energy. We rode our bikes to the Beaver Pond Loop trailhead not far from the St. Mary Visitor Center. A few minutes into our hike, Tory already began to complain about her legs being tired. It’s one of the most frustrating things when we travel in beautiful places because our kids can walk for several miles if they want to, but they’re not always willing. If I had a dollar for every picture we have of Tory unhappily hiking along a trail ….

As we walked along, we spotted lots of scat on the trail and at first we thought it was moose poop. But, later we noticed cows grazing by the lake shore and realized the poop must have been from them. Surprisingly, there are a lot of cows on the east side of Glacier NP. One of the park rangers said the cows wander into the park from nearby ranches and there’s not much they can do to stop them. They obviously aren’t native to the park.

We walked for 1 1/2 miles before we turned around and headed back the way we came. On the way, we stopped by the St. Mary Lakeshore to look for agates and petrified wood on the beach. We didn’t find any, but the sunshine sure felt great on our faces after a cold, windy day.

Back at camp, Andi grilled pre-cooked meatballs for dinner while I microwaved a spaghetti squash. We ate that while the kids had noodles with meatballs and marinara. It was a bit earlier than we usually have dinner, but we planned to attend a ranger talk at the visitor center later on that evening.

Around 7:00pm, we rode our bikes over to St. Mary Visitor Center for the ranger talk. Camping at St. Mary Campground made it so convenient to bop in and out of the visitor center for all the programming they have there. The ranger program at this particular event was called “It’s Tough at the Top” and talked about the plants and animals that live in the Alpine habitat. The ranger did a great job explaining the information in an easy-to-understand way for the kids.

The ranger signed the kids’ Junior Ranger books after the talk, and then we biked back to our campground. It was pitch black when we left so I’m glad we didn’t have far to go! We have head-lights and tail-lights on our bikes, but it was still hard to see.

When we got back to the RV, it was pajamas and bedtime for all. We had a full first day in Glacier National Park, and we can’t wait to experience more tomorrow.