Our big summer adventure this year was a trip that had been years in the making. For as long as we can remember, we've talked about meeting up with our friend Mike from Minnesota for a camper van adventure. This June, all of the planning, dreaming, and coordinating finally came together.
Mike and El made the 17-hour drive from Minnesota, and we headed out on our own 11-hour journey. We met in the middle at Glacier National Park, where our long-awaited camper van reunion turned into an unforgettable Glacier camping adventure filled with incredible scenery, great conversations, and memories we'll be talking about for years.
Ryan and Summit and I started our drive knowing we would have to go through the barren landscape of Eastern Oregon and Washington.
This is always a tricky route in the summers. The heat, wind and overall desert conditions usually make camping there less than pleasant. That was the case this time too. We got to our first planned campsite at Plymouth Park Campground in Plymouth, WA and the temperature was 104 at 8pm. Not pleasant. So we decided to pivot and find a hotel with air conditioning. This is where we learned or solidified the fact that “Danni cannot be in charge of pivoting on the road…” I found a hotel near by and booked it before reading the reviews and fully understanding just how sketchy it was going to be. Needless to say, Summit and I did not sleep much that night. But at least we had air conditioning.
The next morning we got up and got back on the road. The plan was to head to Spokane, WA, however, another pivot…Spokane was on fire! Wildfire season makes summer travel tricky too. So, we kept on keeping on and drove all the way to Flathead Lake, MT and this time Ryan was in charge of finding our sleeping arrangements. He booked us a yurt at the Lonesome Dove Guest Ranch where Summit got to see horses and turkeys and then he met a Buffalo. I can only imagine what he must have through about that!
We spent the night listening to the wind rustle through our yurt and then spent the next day hiking near Flathead Lake and enjoyed lunch on the rooftop deck at the Sitting Duck restaurant, overlooking Flathead Lake. We took Summit swimming in the lake at sunset which was at 9:40 pm on the day of the Summer Solstice that far north. Afterwards we stayed at the Timbers Motel in Bigfork, MT and enjoyed a hot shower before five nights of camping.
So we set out Monday morning to meet up with Mike and El at our campsites in Glacier National Park!
-However-
The travel gods had other plans.
About 20 minutes before we got to the park, the van died…every light on the dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree, and then things stopped responding.
Luckily Ryan was able to get us pulled off to the side in a flat safe place while we waited for the tow truck. We called several shops and ended up being able to get helped quickly at the Ram Dealership in Columbia Falls. They knew they were going to need to keep it for at least a day so thankfully they were able to give us a loaner car so we didn’t have to miss too much of our trip. We made it to Fish Creek Campground and had an excellent dinner with our friends!
Since the van is not only our vehicle but also our house on the road, we did some more pivoting and ended up sleeping at The Grouse Mountain Lodge in Whitefish that evening. It was much more than we needed but last minute and dog friendly is kinda tricky this time of year. So, we enjoyed the town of Whitefish and the nice shower and comfy bed. Summit rode in his first elevator and was not a fan.
The next morning we made the most of our situation and used the loaner car to drive the famous Going-to-the-Sun Road which we would not have been comfortable doing in the van. A 50-mile road cutting through the mountains and winding through the park, it climbs to a high point of 6,646 feet at Logan Pass and cuts across the Continental Divide. It is an amazing site that I am glad we were able to take advantage of with our loaner car. The road is closed due to snow and ice most of the year but typically opens in the summer. For us, it opened on June 22nd and we were there ready to drive it on June 23rd. (Sidenote: due to flash floods and mud slides they road closed again on June 28th, the day after we left!) #wewereveryfortunate
After the amazing journey to the sun, we got the call that the van was fixed! Hooray!
We went to the dealership to pick it up, got settled back in the van and then…BUST, the battery light came back on while were still in the lot and so we gave it back to them. Obviously there was something more going on there and we were not going to be out and about on the mountain roads with engine lights on.
They kept the van, we kept the loaner and headed out for our next adventure…Pontoon boating on Flathead Lake!
Flathead Lake is the largest natural freshwater lake by surface in the western US (it is nearly nine times the size of Manhattan!). We rented a boat from Paddle Board Outfitters for 4 hours and really only saw a 10th of the lake. We enjoyed looking at rich people’s houses while being surrounded by water and mountains. It was a very beautiful afternoon.
Afterwards, we enjoyed dinner on the lake and then headed back out to camp for a little campfire before heading back to the Timbers Motel since we still didn’t have the van. However, by the next afternoon we got the call that it was really fixed this time and we happily headed back to the dealership to get our girl!
Mike and El spent the morning hiking the Trail of the Cedars in the park and then we all finally got to spend the evening fully at camp! We played games, hung out, took naps and visited the Ranger Talk where we learned about fire lookout stations throughout Glacier. Summit started earning his Bark Ranger badge!
The next day was hiking day! We had to leave the national park to find a trail that allowed Summit to come but Mike found us a great hike to Stanton Lake in the Flathead National Forest. We all loaded up our bear spray and headed up the trail to the awe-inspiring mountain lake. We ran into very few people on our hike and very much enjoyed having the whole spot to ourselves.
Our final day in Glacier was a tribute to our great timing! This was the day the rains began (and apparently did not end for the whole next week!) When I booked our campsites (way back in January), I only booked us through Friday but we wanted to stay until Saturday. So I was lucky enough to get us two sites next to each other in Apgar Campground for our final night. This put us closer to Apgar Village with its shops and even more access to Lake MacDonald. After saying goodbye to our fantastic sites in Fish Creek, we packed up camp and moved over to Apgar.
We went out to lunch for pizza at the Crown of the Continent Discovery Center and then played card games and had a blast hunkered down inside Mike and El’s van. We were grateful they were such great hosts! When the rains seemed to stop, we decided to make the half mile trek to the village, however, the rains fooled us and we got absolutely drenched! Luckily, it let up enough later in the evening for us to get a fire going and try to dry out a bit and enjoy our last night together in this beautiful place.
The next morning we begrudgingly loaded up and headed in our separate ways. Ryan was a champ and powered us out of Montana, across the Idaho Panhandle, and all the way through Washington in one shot. We battled fierce winds through the eastern desert and ended up camping along the Columbia River at Memaloose State Park before making the final push home the next day.
As we pulled into our driveway, we were tired, a little dusty, and definitely ready for our own bed. Looking back, though, the things we'll remember most aren't the unexpected breakdowns, wildfire detours, or rainy final day. We'll remember boat rides on Flathead Lake, campfires with great friends, Summit earning his Bark Ranger badge, incredible mountain views, and finally making a camper van meet-up trip happen that we'd been talking about for years. We spent months planning this trip, but Glacier reminded us that the best adventures aren't about sticking to the plan—they're about learning to pivot. Every unexpected turn led us somewhere memorable, and in the end, the detours became some of our favorite parts of the journey.
Sometimes the best adventures aren't the ones that go exactly as planned—they're the ones where you roll with whatever comes your way and end up with even better stories because of it. Glacier was every bit as spectacular as we'd hoped, and sharing it with Mike and El made it even better. We can't wait to see where life take us next...hopefully with a few less visits to the repair shop.