When I Roll into the Wild Wild West: VE(ry)NICE Beach and beyond

So there I was, just lazing on the beach watching two little boys spit on each other to pass the time (I wish I was kidding, but I have to say I found it entertaining) when their father yelled something in German and pointed to the water. There, perhaps 35 feet in front of me, were 8 dolphins swimming and jumping in and out of a lifeguard boat's wake. Needless to say THAT was more entertaining to watch...sorry boys.

These next few days I spent in Venice, CA where I was staying at my friend Rya's apartment that was literally a 7 minute walk from Venice Beach. I had some chill beach time, went for a few runs, had some drinks on The Standard's rooftop bar with Rya and her boyfriend Marc, had some quality Sophie time (an adorable Bichon poodle) and had an awesome Bison burger, sushi and fro-yo....twice. One of the days Rya and I went on an 11 mile hike just north of Malibu that overlooked the Pacific Ocean, winded around the desert-y hillside of La Jolla Valley and up Mugu Peak for awesome views of the west coast.

Pictures pictures:

Santa Monica Pier

Running Rya

La Jolla Valley Trail

Is it Pineapple or Chris' hair from Nsync? Anyone remember that? Anyone...

Pacific Ocean

New-growth cactus among it's burned elders

After a few chill days in Venice I took the early morning flight to Kalispell, Montana, where I met up with my friend Erica and her two friends Chrissy and Michelle in Glacier National Park.

Can I just take a moment here? Okay...Glacier is OUTSTANDING. The views were so crazy incredible and trust me when I say that no matter how beautiful you think it may be in the pictures, just know that the actual views are a zillion times better. Perhaps even a quadrillion times...unless zillion is more. Zillion.

The first day I arrived I took a van from the airport directly to Lake McDonald to meet up with the girls and then we headed straight for Hidden Lake where I was told we'd find some goats. And find goats we did! We also saw this (below)

Yeah, I know. (and check out that panorama...nice riiighhtt?)

Michelle and Billy...

goats gruff.

Someone had Pringles

Hidden Lake

Michelle, Chrissy and Erica

After our little jaunt we headed to our lodge (YES, this time I was staying in a lodge! Fancy right?) It's called Many Glacier which is the eastern section of the park and known for it's, well, many glaciers. The view from our hotel can be seen on the right, and we took that boat (also pictured below) the following day to check out all those glaciers in this picture. But when we arrived on Monday we simply ate dinner in the lodge and hung out with some of the seasonal workers there.

Swiftcurrent Lake

The following day we decided to hike to Grinnell Glacier which was about a 7-mile hike after the boat ride took off a few miles of the trek. We traded those miles in for some cool history on the boat about the Many Glacier Hotel and the park in general. Once we landed to the other side we then took one more boat across Josephine Lake and headed on foot to see us some glaciers and glacial lakes. The one on the right is called Grinnell Lake after George Bird Grinnell, the conservationist who convinced Teddy Roosevelt to make Glacier a National Park. Well done sir.

That aqua blue color is from the glacial till, or rock sediments like mica schist etc, that run off the glaciers. Crazy right?

Here are some pics from that hike:

Jewel Glacier is on the top left and the big long one on the right is called Salamander. We were told that by 2030 there will be no glaciers left...get 'em while you can people because they're beautiful!!

Grinnell Glacier and Upper Grinnell Lake

I FINALLY saw my bighorn sheep, Jen knows I've been talking about seeing these guys since I started this trip.

"Can I help you?"

This guy hung out there for a long time so I'm assuming butterflies can't smell.

View of Many Glacier Hotel

The next day Erica and I decided to do a 16-mile hike on one of the most iconic Glacier NP trails called the Highline. That hike is 7.6 miles so we added mileage by taking Swiftcurrent Pass back to our hotel, and we also added mileage by getting lost around Swiftcurrent Lake. Winners.

View from the Highline

That tiny house in the distance was our snack stop, a place called Granite Park Chalet.

People often hike in and stay here, can you imagine waking up to those views?

Leaving the Chalet for Swiftcurrent Pass

Bullhead lake is the front, and we saw a moose at that lake when we hiked down. We were also told that right around the time we took this picture there was a grizzly chilling in a switchback eating huckleberries. The group hiking above us saw the bear and saw us walk right by him twice. I'm just mad he got all the huckleberries.

Kind of hard to see here, but there's the female moose we saw on the other side

Glacier had a TON of purple and torqouise rock

The hike was so wonderful and I hadn't seen or hung out with Erica in a crazy long time so needless to say it was a great afternoon. We then met up with Chrissy and Michelle and two guys from the hotel and all went to dinner at a local spot called Two Sisters, which was awesome and they have huge huckleberry margaritas for $6. Oh Montana.

The next day were supposed to hike a favorite trail among all the hikers called Iceberg Lake. The other girls ended up doing it and had a great time, but here my timeline diverges from their's because I ended up catching a ride to Sioux Falls with a guy who worked at Many Glacier and was heading home to Minnesota. This saved me a BUNCH of doll-hairs so in the end I didn't get to hike Iceberg, but it just gives me another reason to come back to this wonderful place. So I just had breakfast with the girls and said our goodbyes, I took a few last pictures of our glacier home, and headed east for an unexpected adventure.

Grinnell Point in front of Many Glacier

Erik's car looking out on the water

One of the places he wanted to stop was the Devils Tower, which is the first National Monument ever!

It is a pretty awesome piece of igneous rock and I was told scientists argue about whether it was an intrusion from the earth, or the inner remains of a large volcano. It's also a sacred Native American monument where folklore states that two little girls were running from a bear and the great spirits made the piece of land rise around them in order to shield them said bear. The large columns on the side are bears' scratches. Also, those scratches are very popular for great crack-climbing and many-a-folk head to Devil's Tower just to take a crack at it....HA...crack.

Two peeps climbing..."look harder"-Rafiki

And two more

We also made our way through some cool towns in the Black Hills, learned about the human beaver (read below...seriously do it it's hysterical), swam in a lake in Custer State Park, saw Mount Rushmore and camped in the Badlands all before arriving safely at the farm.

Human Beaver

Mount Rushmore

Double Bison picture

Badlands

Can you see me?

Now I'm at The Good Earth Farm where I will be WWOOFing for a week. The couple who owns this farm is Jeff and Nancy Kirstein and they have...a cow, a horse, 14 turkeys, 35 chickens, 2 geese (named Jack and Jill), 3 ducks, 3 cats, 2 dogs and 3 bee boxes. Oh, and 26 acres for their vegetable CSA. They're awesome people and I'm excited to work, live, eat and breathe a farm for a week.