Journey to the sun, and to bears and berries. 

Last fall, you may recall that we hop-scotched from NYC to the Finger Lakes.  While there, we discovered a memorable ice cream spot after traipsing through the spectacular, under-the-radar Letchworth State Park.  This year, to farewell summer, we boarded our first plane flight since February 2020 and journeyed to Montana for a glimpse of one of the most remote national parks in the U.S — Glacier National Park.

Our adventure to Montana was a journey with the sun.

We started with a pre-dawn Uber to the airport at the quietest hour of the day in the city that never sleeps.  We breathed a sigh of relief, relishing being far away from the NYC shoebox apartment, when the sun highlighted the vast expanse of flat open fields between Kalispell and Whitefish.  We lingered over that moment of serenity as it disappeared into a violet sky marbled with clouds and stars over Whitefish Lake.  And every day thereafter, mornings in Montana began with the the sun ushering in a shy pink dawn and creating ghostly blue-green silhouettes of the mountains in the early morning mist.  It is no wonder then that Glacier National Park’s key attraction is the aptly-named “Going to the Sun Road” — fifty miles of narrow well-maintained roads carved into the side of the soaring mountain range, enlivened with hair-raising hairpin bends, vertigo-inducing sheer drop precipices, and views that quite literally, take your breath away.

Venturing off the “Going to the Sun Road” is essential to be able to fully appreciate the beauty of Glacier National Park.  One day, we trekked into thick cedar forests to reach Avalanche Lake, a turquoise lake fed by plunging glacial waterfalls, rimmed by mountains, and where the sun prismatically filtered through a curtain of clouds.  Another day, when the sun was at its zenith, we scaled a boardwalk-paved pathway at Logan Pass, the highest point on the road, to the Hidden Lake Overlook, becoming paparazzi to a photogenic duo of mountain goats and then greeting a grizzly bear and her two cubs on the way down.  Another afternoon, we marched through autumnal-hued undergrowth enroute to St Mary’s Falls.  We watched the sun deepen the Two Medicine Lake from aquamarine to sapphire, and contemplated its alchemic power at turning Lake McDonald into shimmering gold.

And on the last afternoon, we ventured to Apgar Village for huckleberry icecream at Eddie’s.  Huckleberry is to Montana what key lime pie is to Florida, and cheesecake is to New York.  The state’s dessert.  There’s no better way to bid farewell to Glacier National Park than savouring a cone of huckleberry icecream and tracing the sun’s descent over the mountains one last time.

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Dessert adventure checklist

1. ☑  Dessert destination: Eddie’s, Apgar Village, Glacier National Park, Montana.
2. ☑ Budget: $.
3. ☑  Sweet irresistibles: Ice cream.
4. ☑  Must-eat: Huckleberry ice cream.
5. ☑  The short and sweet story: Journey to the sun, and to bears and berries.

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