by Mike Graf
“Really?” Dad replied.
“Yes,” James said. “After you took off this morning, we set it all up.”
“Then we had to take it down once we were evacuated,” Morgan added.
The Parkers cleaned up. Afterward, Dad noticed it was still light out. “How about a little walk to the lake?” he suggested.
The family strolled down to the same beach they had visited over a week ago. Morgan and James brought along their journals.
They all sat down in the sand. The skies were clouding up, but to the east a gigantic plume of smoke towered over the park’s high mountains.
“Hey,” James realized, “we never made it to the Two Medicine area.”
“That leaves us something to come back for,” Dad said.
While the family sat in silence, Morgan pulled out her journal.
Dear Diary:
It’s our last night in Glacier. We’re camped again at Fish Creek, which feels kind of like our old home.
We’ve had a crazy day! Dad rode his bike up Going-to-the-Sun Road, but they wouldn’t let him come back down. They shut the road because of a huge fire. So we couldn’t get to Dad, and he couldn’t get back to us!
Mom, James, and I then had to drive all the way around the park to get to Apgar. Dad was shuttled down here. And this is where we had our reunion. I was really worried for a while, but everything turned out fine.
But what a drive through the fire area we had on Highway 2! The smoke and flames were so close to us, at times we could feel the heat radiating through the car. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that experience.
And I’ll never forget Glacier! Here are my top ten sights in the park:
1. Sexton Glacier—Siyeh Pass Trail
2. The mountain goats on Hidden Lake Trail
3. Grinnell Glacier and Lake
4. Going-to-the-Sun Road
5. The moose at Kootenai Lake
6. Sperry Chalet
7. Sperry Glacier
8. Avalanche Lake and its waterfalls
9. Bowman Lake
10. The wolf at Two Dog Flats
Mom says, “Glacier might be the best place in the world.” I know I’m coming back.
Until next time,
Morgan
James stared at the lake a little longer, then pulled out his journal.
This is James Parker reporting from Glacier National Park in northern Montana. What I’m going to remember most about this fantastic place is that the glaciers are disappearing. They say that in about ten years—when Morgan and I are in college—there won’t be any left! Can’t we do something to slow down global warming!? The ranger at Logan Pass said driving less, eating locally grown foods, and using energy-efficient appliances at home can help.
My top ten sights are mostly in honor of Glacier’s glaciers, although I saw many other great things in the park.
1. Grinnell Glacier and the iceberg that broke off
2. Gem and Salamander glaciers
3. Piegan and Sexton glaciers
4. Sperry Glacier and the chalet
5. Blackfoot and Jackson glaciers
6. The boat tour on Waterton Lake
7. The views at Gunsight Pass
8. The marmot in the storm cabin
9. Seeing the bear dogs at the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn parking lot
10. Polebridge townsite and Bowman Lake
Reporting from Glacier National Park,
James Parker
James put down his journal and sighed.
Mom noticed James’s somber mood. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I’m sad that we’re leaving.”
“Me too,” Morgan added.
“Me too!” Dad said.
The Parkers huddled close in the slowly fading evening light. A few drops of water began plunking down. James looked up. “Hey, it’s raining!”
The scattered clouds spit out a few more drops.
“Maybe this will help the fires,” Morgan said.
“Maybe,” Mom replied. “But they’ll need a heck of a lot more than this.”
Dad looked up at the nearly dark sky. “Come on, rain!” he shouted.
The family stood up and slowly trudged back to camp. “Better get some rest,” Mom said while yawning. “We’ve got a long drive home to California tomorrow.”
16
It was a rainy late autumn day in the central California coastal town of San Luis Obispo. Morgan and James were off from school for Thanksgiving break.
As James surfed the Internet, his thoughts drifted back to Glacier.
He left his computer and wandered over to Morgan’s room. Her door was open. “Can I borrow your CD of Glacier pictures?”
Morgan stood up. “Sure. Can I look at them with you?”
Morgan put their CD photo album into her computer. Together, she and James sifted through pictures of their summer vacation. “It makes me a little homesick for the park,” Morgan said.
After looking at a few more pictures, James walked back to his room. He sat at his desk and stared out the window at the rain dripping down. Weather, James thought.
James’s class had recently studied weather, and he knew some websites to check. James pulled one up on the Internet and clicked on the Glacier region. He scrolled down for a local forecast of the area.
One of the radar maps had a blue coloring over Glacier Park. “Yeah!” James called out.
A moment later, Morgan walked into James’s room. “What’s going on? I heard you yell.”
“It’s snowing in Glacier.”
James showed Morgan the precipitation map of Montana. “I wonder if the fires are all out now,” he said.
“Or if the snow is replenishing the glaciers?” Morgan said.
“I wonder what the bears and wolves are doing,” James said. “Are they hibernating?”
“Or if that moose will have another calf,” Morgan added.
Meanwhile, back in Glacier, a husky, brown furry animal scampered through a fresh layer of snow, leaving behind a winding trail of prints.
The animal rushed along, her keen sense of smell alerting her she was near a source of food. The carnivore lowered her nose and sniffed.
The pregnant wolverine voraciously started pawing away at the snow and shoveling it backwards in a spray of powdery ice. The fierce animal dug further until she had reached bare ground and the remnant bones of a moose calf.
The wolverine bit into a bone, easily snapping it with her powerful jaws and sharp teeth. She held the bone in place with a paw and devoured the whole leg, including the nutritious marrow…