Driving to Glacier National Park | Flathead Lake, cherries 🍒, rental car, & campfire pizza 🍕

After spending a few weeks in Washington and making a quick stop in Northern Idaho, we have officially made it to Montana. With glacial lakes, beautiful mountains, and cool small towns, Montana is a state that we have been dying to explore for years. And for the next six days we'll be hiking and sightseeing around the beautiful Glacier National Park, one of our top bucket list destinations in the U.S., as well as visiting areas lesser known to us, trying out a few fun activities, and making some furry friends. We cannot wait to share the beauty of the treasure state with you. Welcome to Montana. Today we are finally driving to Glacier National Park, where we'll spend three full days seeing as much as we possibly can. Our goal was to visit Glacier last year, but we took a little too long to finish the van, so we only got to spend one day in Missoula. But while we were there, we went to a cool coffee shop, checked out a ghost town, and ate some really good Brazilian food. So if you haven't seen that vlog, you should definitely go check that one out. Last night we slept at the Walmart right by Flathead Lake, and today we have a one and a half hour drive to our campsite just outside of Glacier. We're going to try to see some beautiful scenery along the way, we have a few very important logistics to handle when we get there, and we're going to try to make a really delicious campfire dinner. And first up we are headed to Flathead Lake. Flathead Lake is actually the largest natural freshwater lake in the western United States by surface area outside of Alaska. We didn't realize it, but it's actually bigger than Lake Tahoe, even though Lake Tahoe has more water because it's deeper, but it's also one of the cleanest and clearest lakes in the world. There are six state parks around Flathead Lake where you can go swimming or camping, as well as an island that you can kayak or boat out to, and it costs eight dollars if you're not a Montana resident to access the state parks. We came to a spot called Wayfair State Park. It's on the northern part of the lake near the town of Big Fork, and we chose it because we hear they had some cool little water access points and there's a quick little trail we can take to get a scenic view. Kona learned the other day that she actually likes to swim. It was 100 degrees where we were, and we were parked by a river, so she just went in and she mostly just like drinks and eats the water while she's doggy paddling around, but it's so cute. Freaking loving this lake. I don't know if it's the perfect weather or what, but it's just so freaking beautiful. It's just such a nice day, I guess. I don't know. The water is so clear. I don't know. Mountain views. Mountain views. I'm just, I'm just happy. I don't know. I'm just having a really good morning. I knew that Flathead Lake would be beautiful. I've seen so many photos of it for years, but you always wonder, is it actually is like that greenish blue color that you see in all the photos, or are they just heavily photoshopped? Well, we can tell you guys with our own eyes, it is as gorgeous as all the photos. I don't know if our camera is going to do it justice, but trust us. Oh, it's so pretty. Yeah, I want to come back here and spend a week here or something. Just stay here at the lake. A lake house, campfire. This park is really nice though. There's lots of picnic tables at the day use area. They're wide open right now because it's early in the morning, but man, it'd be cool to get one of those for the day. Oh, this place is incredible. Not only is the area known for the lake, but it's also known for growing delicious cherries, so we're going to go give them a taste. On the east side of Flathead Lake, there's all kinds of orchards and little stands where you can buy the cherries, and we stopped off at Big Fork Orchard. We'll tell you in a second why the cherries are so special here, but when we went to go and buy the cherries, the owner, I guess, saw us with the camera and he was like, oh, go check out the back, so we're now walking through the orchard. So the Flathead Lake area is known for Flathead cherries, which actually aren't a specific type of cherry, but it's a few different varieties that are grown in this area, and this area is said to produce some of the most delicious, juiciest, brightest cherries because of the soil and the climate and the really pure water. So we got two different varieties. We got the Lambert and then the Van variety, and the owner told us that the Lambert type is kind of more what you think of when you think of Flathead cherries, and they're both like a very, very deep, beautiful red color. But your window to get them is extremely short, so the cherries are harvested from mid-July to mid-August, so if you're here during that time, you're in luck. I love cherries. I'm so excited for this. So I'm going to try, these are the Lamberts. All right, so we'll go for the real deal first. They're sweet and juicy, a little bit tart. These are super good, very fresh tasting. All right, let's go with the Van. We're in a Van. These aren't as tart as the Lamberts one. They have a little bit of tartness. They're not like puckered up, but these are just sweet and juicy and super good. Both of them are just delicious. So I have a confession to make. I do not remember the last time I've had a cherry. So growing up, I think I tried cherries and I did not like them, so I've never had one since. I like cherry-flavored things, but I've never really eaten a cherry. So we'll see how this goes. Why did I not like these growing up? It kind of tastes like a grape to me. It's really good. It has like the juiciness and just the freshness of kind of eating just a red grape. I love it. I just can't believe I didn't- I've been missing out. I'm gonna have a really hard time not eating this whole basket right now. Apparently though, it's the mark of if you spend a good amount of time here, you have red and pink fingers from just eating tons of cherries. I'm already getting it. I'm gonna try this Van one. That's so good too. So delicious. I just- I'm mumbling right now that for my whole life I thought I didn't really like cherries, and I love them. My world is forever changed. So the best part about it though, these- this was super cheap. So it's- the- both of these were two dollars a pound, right? So I guess we got two pounds here because we paid four bucks for this whole basket. Which I feel like at the store it would have cost so much more. Oh yeah, they're way more expensive at the store. We made it to Kalispell, which is one of the bigger towns on the way to Glacier National Park, and we have a couple errands that we need to run. First up, get some new bear spray. Glacier is home to both grizzly bears and black bears. Black bears tend to not be very aggressive, but grizzlies, they can be. And if we see one, we plan to keep our distance. But if we get into a tricky situation, we wanted to make sure we had some bear spray. It's basically just like intense pepper spray. We- we have one, but we- it's been a few years, so we think it's kind of expired. So we wanted to make sure we get a new one and also make sure we get a holster so that we can keep it handy just in case we need it. So if you've watched our vlogs for a while, you know that we always have said that we've never seen a bear. We've been to a lot of the bear hot spots like Banff, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Yosemite, a lot of places where everyone sees a bear, but we never had until a couple weeks ago. But it only really partially counts because I'm the only one that saw it. We weren't able to film the actual bear, but we did film our reaction afterwards. We're driving to where we're gonna sleep for the night. We're almost there, and we just crossed a bridge and I looked over because there's a river and I want to see the mountain view and everything. So I look over and I see something that's black on- walking on all fours, walking towards the river, and I'm 99% sure I just saw my first bear ever. And if y'all been watching the vlog, you know we never- we've never seen a bear, and we've always wanted to, but from the car. So we just turned around and we're trying to find it, but I think it's gone and Adam didn't get to see it. I'm really sad. Yeah, we were going across that bridge and I saw a car going really slow opposite us. I was like, why is this car going so slow? And then we crossed and I figured it was just like pretty, because the sunset's pretty nice tonight, but I didn't see anything, dang it. I really did not want to experience this without Adam, so I'm kind of sad. I want to like erase the bear from my brain, but oh, I just saw a bear. I'm so excited. So while I've now seen a bear, we're really hoping that we can see one together this trip, but from, of course, a very safe distance. Something that's very good to know about Glacier National Park, especially if you're in a van like us or you have an RV, is that for the Going to the Sun Road, which is the main road you drive through the park, has a length limit of 21 feet bumper to bumper for any vehicle, and our van is 22 feet and 10 inches, so we missed the cutoff. And due to COVID this year, they don't have the shuttles running around the park, so we had no option but to rent a car. And it definitely made planning this trip logistically a lot more challenging, figuring out how we were going to get around definitely made it a lot more expensive, but it will definitely be worth it. We were going to be in the area. We didn't want to miss Glacier yet again, so we splurged a little bit, and I think in the end we'll be happy we did. A little bonus though, we just rented, uh, we just reserved a, you know, a little cheap compact car, and I guess they ran out. I guess it's hopping for compact cars at Glacier area, so they gave us a free upgrade. We have a giant SUV with a third row. I don't know what we're going to do with all this room, but we have it. Yeah, party time! So we just completed important task number three, which was say goodbye to our sweet little Kona bear for a few days. As many of you probably know, the national parks are not dog friendly, minus parking lots and very few select areas. And our original plan was just to get an Airbnb for the next few days and leave her there, but we were kind of worried that we'd be really stressed and worried about her the whole time, and have to rush through everything just to get back to her. So instead, she's going to be staying at Columbia Mountain Kennels, which is pretty close to the park, and they're going to watch her, and she'll have a nice safe place to be. And we're going to miss her, but to be honest, it will be very nice to actually get to enjoy like full days of hiking without having to make sure that she's okay. So I think all of our big chores are done now, and we're going to head to our home for the next few days. We planned on staying at free spots like we normally do, but after seeing how crowded and busy the free camp spots were on the Olympic Peninsula, and also knowing that most of the campgrounds in Glacier National Park are closed for the season, we figured it'd be the best thing to do. The less stressful thing is just book an RV park so that we don't have to chase all around trying to find a free spot every night. We booked a spot at Mountain Meadow RV Park so that we have a safe space to leave the van at while we're exploring the park. They also have showers, laundry, and they say Wi-Fi, but we have yet to be able to connect to it. We are all settled into our campsite, and for dinner, we're going to try to make campfire pizza. All right, we've done a little bit of research, so we think we know how to make this happen and hopefully happen successfully. So we've oiled the pan with a little bit of olive oil. We've cut our dough in two pieces, so we're going to mush the dough into the pan, cook it on one side, flip it over, then put our toppings on, and then cover it, and then cook it a little bit more. The cheese should get all melty. The pepperoni should just get all warm, and it should just be a delicious pizza. I hope so. But if we mess up, we have a second one we can make instead. This is already not going very well. We don't have any flour, so we're just trying to quickly mush the dough down a little bit. It's gluten-free dough, so it's a little different too. I don't know about this. All right, let's see what happens. This is not turning out so well so far. It's sticking real bad right there. This turned into a disaster. We didn't promise that the pizza would look pretty. It just, it'll still probably taste like pizza. It might just be the ugliest pizza that's ever existed. Oh my god. Disaster. Absolute disaster. So it, it has a big hole in the middle, so it's kind of like a giant bagel bite. It'll still be good. It'll still be good. We're definitely going to try to do a better job on the second one, but we don't want to give up on this one because we need to eat. So let's make it. You can do it. Oh my gosh. I can't. Can you help me? She loosened it for me. So we're going pretty classic with this pizza. We're going to do some red sauce. Then we got our cheese. Do some pepperonis and more cheese on top because the more cheese the better. We'll see how it goes. I think it's ready. All right, for the moment of truth. We know it looks ugly, but does it taste okay? Has a little bit of a crisp on the bottom. A little bit. I feel like it might be a little soft, but that's not bad. Soft pizza is okay. It tastes like pizza. It's a win. It's a win. It's good. It's good. It's not like the best pizza I've ever had, but considering we just made this over a campfire and we had that whole dough fail, I'd say it's not too shabby. I'm very excited for this. I'm actually pretty impressed. It tastes just like, you know, regular pizza. I mean, it obviously does because it has all the normal toppings, but the crust isn't bad. I mean, it's kind of, it's kind of chewy, but it has some crispy parts and considering what it looked like before and the kind of trouble we had doing it, it's actually really good. Like I said, I'm pretty impressed. All right, round two, pizza number two. This time to prevent the sticking, we're going to put way more oil down there. It's looking so much more promising all around the edges and maybe like halfway into the middle looks and like feels super great. Nice crisp on the bottom, but the dang middle is sticking so bad and I think because, yeah, that's what it is. It's so thin. I made it too thin because I was pushing from the middle out. So it's just like sticking too bad and it's just, there's the spatula right there, but the rest of it, man, if you can make it more even, I'll have to do that next time. I think it would, it would work out perfect because it's not sticking at all on these edges here. Another bagel bite. Yeah, so we'll just put all of our toppings and sauce and everything on the, on the bagel again. But last time we actually like scraped off the stuck on parts and they were nice and crispy. It was actually pretty good. So our campfire pizza was a little bit of a fail, but hopefully you learned what not to do and yours can be perfect. Or if you like giant bagel bites, you'll actually really love this. Oh boy, it's been a long day. It's been a fun day, but it's time for us to hit the A because we have a big day tomorrow. Get pumped because tomorrow we are going to Glacier.