The Parks We All Own

by Diana McCollum

Now that my husband and I are retired and on a fixed income, we have to  plan our vacations closer to home.

I would like to visit every National Park in America. This probably won't happen because I would need a lot of money and time to do it.

Right now my favorite place is the last park we visited, Glacier National Park. We had never been to Montana where the park is located. What a beautiful state!

I took this picture in Glacier Park 2014

The Blackfeet Tribal name for Glacier National Park is "Backbone of the world". One can see where they got that idea as the Mountains rise up so high and steep. There are alpine meadows, pristine forests, and streams and rivers.

In August when we were there, hundreds of wild flowers bloomed in every meadow we stopped at. The white patches in this photo are some of the remaining Glaciers. They are disappearing a little more each year.

We saw two bears and Mountain goats, deer, all kinds of birds. It was beautiful! And it belongs to all of America. If you go to the official Glacier Park website there are all kinds of videos so you can see the spectacular park for yourself. There's even a video of the "Going-to-the-sun-road"!
http://1.usa.gov/1f3Se3T

I took this picture on "Going-to-the-sun-road"

"Going-to-the-sun-road" is 50 miles of steep, windy and very narrow road. The views are some of the most spectacular I've ever seen.

If you are retired, you can buy a life time pass for our National parks. When we bought ours, it was ten dollars. Ten dollars gets you in to some of the most beautiful and pristine places in America, for the rest of your life! That is a great bargain!

It's always a good idea to check the parks website for weather reports before you visit Glacier, as there can still be snow in July.

Have you visited any of America's National Parks? If yes, what was your favorite?