My 11 Day Single Girl Solo Road Trip 2022 - Part 1
Every year for the past 3 years I have gone on a road trip to visit one of my
best friends, one of the most amazing girls you will ever know, and one of the
best park rangers you will ever find wherever she happens to land for her park
ranger job that season. This year the end destination was a national park that has
been on both Kristin and I’s travel bucket lists for a long long time, Glacier National
Park. I was gone on this road trip for 11 days and, as it tends to go with me and
vacation, I did a LOT during that time crossing off more than visiting Glacier from
my bucket list. Hope you enjoy reading!
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DAY 1: Having a Run-In With the Law
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With my car in the shop (exactly where you want your car to be right before
a vacation…why not just spend all my money at once! *eye roll*) I drove my
dad’s old, gray, air condition-less van to Budget Car Rental in Hutchinson
to pick up the pickup truck I rented for my road trip. (I figured you have to
have a truck if you wanna be a cowgirl on her way to Montana! Plus I will
always find any excuse I can to drive a truck. lol) This year instead of a
Ford F250 I was given a Dodge Ram 1500 which at first I was kind of sad
about. I mean…I knew Budget for some dumb reason doesn’t rent
out the best of the best (GMC or Chevy), but I have never been a
Dodge fan. (By the end of the trip, similarly to my last road trip, my tune changed though and
I was a little sad to have to bring her back!)
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I drove the truck back to my house, loaded her down with my bags, and filled
my passenger seat with the most important part of any road trip, snacks, and
then I pointed the truck in the direction of Cheyenne, Wyoming, my stop
for the night. (Not even going to lie, I picked this as my stopping point
for the night because I wanted to sing the George Strait song “I Can Still
Make Cheyenne” while I was on my way. lol)
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All was going well…aside from some expected breakup tears (I broke up
with someone I loved very much just two days before this trip)…until I hit
Ellsworth, KS. I was barely an hour into my drive and I see the one thing that has
plagued me on every single solo road trip I have gone on, the red and blue
lights of a cop car. Ya girl may or may not have had her lead foot down
and was clocked doing 20 over the speed limit. In my defense my
eyes were filled with tears and it made the speed limit sign hard to see...not
that I told the cop that. Might have had a few other ticket-able issues to unpack
there if I had. Lol Luckily though he took pity on the tiny girl in the truck with
a big drive ahead of her and ended up giving me only a warning (also a
pretty common occurrence with these road trip pull-overs as I have yet to
get a speeding ticket from any of them…thank God…literally!)
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After my run in with the law I continued on my journey and made a
spontaneous stop in Wilson, KS to see the WORLD'S largest Czech egg.
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Wilson is the Czech capital of Kansas and standing in commemoration
to the rich Czech culture and heritage in the area is this 20 feet tall 15 feet
wide egg which has been deemed as the World's Largest Czech egg. This
egg was constructed and hand painted by over 50 local volunteers
taking them over 2000 hours to complete. The egg is free to visit and
easy to find as it sits right along old U.S. 40.
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After Wilson I made a stop in Goodland for lunch. I was initially planning on
stopping at a little café in town, but when I pulled up to the place it
was closed for some reason so I ate lunch at Cliff & Kit's All American
Grill instead. You can actually read all about this restaurant and my
review in this Foodie Friday article.
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With my tummy about to burst I hopped back in the truck and
didn't stop again (except for state signs)
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until I reached the Cheyenne Guest Inn in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
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I ate my leftover burger and fries from lunch for dinner and then
finally was able to get into bed and sleep.
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Day 1 outfit deets:
Levi Bootcut Jeans - Walmart
Justin Cowboy Boots - Boot Barn
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DAY 2: Picking Up Two Hitchhikers From Hell
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I left my hotel dressed in my second Amazon "cowgirl" outfit
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Outfit Deets:
Levi Bootcut Jeans - Walmart
Justin Cowboy Boots - Boot Barn
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and headed towards the smallest town in the US, Buford, Wyoming. I was really
going for the novelty of it all and to see the sign that says population
1, but unfortunately that sign was not there any longer. However, they
did have another bigger one holding the Buford town achievements.
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After my slightly disappointing Buford experience I headed to my lunch
spot for the day, Hell's Half Acre.
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After pulling into the “parking area” for Hell’s Half Acre I was a little concerned
that maybe my idea of getting to have a picnic lunch there would have
to be reduced to me eating in my truck while staring at the rock formations
through the gray metal diamonds of the surrounding barbed wire topped fence. However, after
taking a little stroll beneath the barbed wire I found a corner of the fence
where some rebel had pulled the fence back and left a nice Amy sized hole
so I grabbed my Lunchable, some water, my backpack, locked the
truck, and crawled through the hole onto the other side.
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I sat near the edge of the cliff enjoying my unobstructed views and my
solitude joined only by the ghosts of bison past and some very bold yet
annoying little bugs. (Remember these bugs.)
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Once I finished my Lunchable I decided I was over the hot 95 degree sun beating
down on my jean clad body and headed back to the truck to keep moving
down the road which actually worked out perfectly because as soon as I got
back to my truck a big van of like 20 people showed up. I continued on down
the road, but it wasn’t long before I started to freak out. While at Hell’s Half
Acre I had unknowingly picked up TWO hitchhikers one of which had just stung
me on my neck and was proceeding to crawl on my leg. You remember
those annoying bugs I mentioned earlier? Well apparently they got a little
attached to me because while one was stinging me the other was crawling
in my hair. Without anything to smash said unwelcome hitchhikers
with, I pulled the truck over. Unfortunately, by that time both had disappeared
and after scouring the truck to find them I came up empty handed and decided
to start driving onward. They eventually made the mistake of showing themselves
to me again and this time I just cowgirl’d up and smashed them with my bare fingers. Lol
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I drove for about 4.5 more hours before finally making it to my stop for
the night, Billings, Montana. I dropped my stuff off at my hotel and then
headed out to eat at the Montana Rib & Chop House where they are said
to have the best ribs in Montana. I ordered their gumbo
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and their 1lb Fulton Street Ribs (of course!) with garlic mashed potatoes.
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Overall I personally think my gumbo is waaaay better than
theirs (recipe for that can be found here), but the mashed potatoes were bomb
and the ribs were pretty dang good. After dinner it was back to the Super 8 and time for bed!
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DAY 3: REUNITED WITH MY SISTA
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Unfortunately, I got on the road a little later than I was hoping, but drove straight
on through 7 hours to Columbia Falls, Montana which put me in Kristin's
driveway by about 4:30pm. We ran into each other's arms ecstatic to finally be seeing
each other again after so much time apart. We lugged my stuff inside, talked
with Kristin's house host, and then got ready for our event of the night, the Brash Rodeo!
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Outfit deets:
Red Cowboy Boots - Boot Barn
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Before heading to the rodeo though I needed some food so Kristin took
me to a frequent eating haunt of hers, Backslope Brewing, where I had
the pulled pork sandwich with garlic parmesan fries.
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With bellies full of good food we made our way over to the Blue Moon for
the rodeo! The ticket lady hyped us up saying we were looking pretty dang
cute and wished us luck in fighting off the boys and then we grabbed
ourselves a spot right in the path of the hot Montana sun on the silver
metal bleachers. Y'all I was straight up sweating hardcore and pretty sure
through my jeans, but I still had a blast. At the rodeo we got to see a little
bit of everything from bronc riding to barrel racing, and my favorite
rodeo event, bull riding! Unfortunately, no one reached 8 seconds or honestly,
did well in any of the events, but like I said it was still fun and I'm glad I
got to do it with Kristin!
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Day 4: Crossing Off Two Bucket List Items
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It is finally time to head into Glacier National Park! Unfortunately, Kristin had
to work this day so I was left to explore the park on my own for a few hours
while I waited for her to get off. During that time I got to see the lake that
inspired my desire to visit Glacier, Lake McDonald, hiked Trail of the
Cedars trail, and hiked out to Avalanche Lake where I got to see some
deer and, off in the distance, a bear!
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Once Kristin was done working we met back in Apgar Village and
then went off in search of some huckleberry shakes, a must have treat in the area.
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After shakes and food it was time for me to cross another thing off the
ole bucket list, kayaking. Kristin’s house host graciously let us borrow two of her
kayaks and so we loaded them up into the truck and drove over to Whitefish, Montana
for what we were hoping would be a calm, yet pretty, kayak ride down the river to
Whitefish Lake. Luckily for us the current was pretty mild that day and I was able
to make it to the lake without tipping over once (although I will admit there
were a couple of close calls and I rarely ever traveled in a straight line lol).
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We hung out at the lake for a little while enjoying the sunset views and
then, before it got dark, made our way back to the start of our journey.
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On the way back we saw an adorable little family of ducks (with babies!) and
we were going with the current this time instead of against it which
helped us get back in no time flat.
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With the kayaks locked and loaded Kristin and I were both craving ice cream
so we drove over to Sweet Peaks there in Whitefish. It definitely hit the spot.
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Day 5: Swimming in a Freezing Glacier Lake
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It was back to Glacier again this day and thankfully Kristin was off from
work for the whole day this time!
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We decided that we wanted to spend today doing a longer hike to see a
glacier, so we traveled on Going-to-the-Sun road to East Glacier. Once we
got to East Glacier we took a look at the hiking board to see if the trail we
wanted, Grinnell Glacier, was open, but unfortunately, as we expected, it was sadly
still closed due to large amounts of snow. After talking to a ranger and a couple
other hikers there we decided to hike to Grinnell Glacier Lake instead and
set out on the 6 mile round trip hike.
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After getting soaking wet and nearly freezing our butts off at Grinnell
Lake (well I was freezing my butt off, Kristin was loving every minute spent
in that cold glacier water) we made our way out to Red Rock Lake for a late
picnic lunch of gas station sandwiches and chips.
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Once we were finished with our food we hiked back to the car and started
to make our way to the Goatlick Overlook in the hopes of finding some
mountain goats. Along the way though we had to make a few stops for
bears and some absolutely gorgeous sunset views.
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We finally made it to the Goatlick Overlook a little before dark and were
rewarded for our long drive by getting to see multiple mountain goats AND BABIES.
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We stood and watched the goats for a bit, but then decided it was best to
be on our way after a mama goat with her baby unknowingly snuck up right next to me.
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Hoping to avoid a fight with a mountain goat we decided to leave them be and
headed back to the car and back to home base in Columbia Falls. We
fell into bed late that night exhausted from all the day’s hiking, but
happier than could be.
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And that is where this adventure stops for part 1! Be sure to check
out my article and YouTube video for Glacier National Park where you
can read more about the park (including trail lengths, history, and more), read
about everything we did there while we were exploring, and see even more
pictures and videos of this beautiful park. Also be sure to check out my
YouTube video for this part 1 of the road trip which I have linked
below! Hope you enjoyed reading and see y'all for part 2!
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