I’m back! We got home around noon today from a 22 day trip, and it was amazing. I’ll tell you all about it over the next few weeks.

Highlights:

1) A small herd of elk going right by our campground one night in Banff, bugling and grazing as they went along.

2) Two mountain goats running right by us as we were resting on a rock on the Highline Trail in Glacier National Park.

3) Drinking tea and eating scones at Lake Agnes Teahouse and at the Six Glaciers Teahouses in the Lake Louise area. You had to hike into these teahouses.

4) Walking on the Athabasca Glacier along the Icefields Parkway.

5) Seeing a male bighorn sheep in the Badlands. And loads of prairie dogs.

6) Seeing a bunch of black bears along the side of the road in Glacier, on the way to Banff, and on the Icefields Parkway.

7) Watching the full moon move across the sky in Theodore Roosevelt Park.

8) Bison. So many bison. I love them.

9) Relaxing at night in front of a campfire.

10) Waking up and going to sleep in amazing, beautiful locations…and having nothing to do all day except explore those locations!

Things I’m happy to leave behind:

1) Showering in flip flops and trying to avoid getting your fresh clothes wet as the curtain sticks to you.

2) Mosquitoes…so many mosquitoes.

3) Washing dishes in cold water. Why? Canada managed to have hot water, why can’t Yellowstone?

4) Being cold at night…though it might beat being too hot!

5) Traffic and crowds vying for various viewpoints, parking spots, hiking trails.

6) People playing loud music in campgrounds rather than being quiet enough so that a herd of elk might just wander by.

7) People littering along the trails, dropping trash in the public bathrooms, and feeding small wildlife to get a good picture.

8) Living out of the car and feeling Iike I’m never quite clean ever after a shower.

9) Having to grab a head lamp and put on shoes to use the bathroom in the middle of the night.

10) Worrying whether the rain will ruin dinner plans or whether you’ll have to set up or pack up the tent in the rain.

Overall, it was an amazing trip. Everything went well enough according to plan, and there were thankfully no major incidents or mishaps. It was wonderful! I am so glad that we had the opportunity to go on this wonderful trip, and I’m glad we are back and I feel refreshed, tired, and ready to get back to my “real life”. I feel like my hard work getting reservations, my planning, and my organization mostly paid off, and there wasn’t much I would have changed about our itinerary. It was awesome, and like I said, exhausting. I have so many pictures to go through, and I’m working my way through loads of laundry (and emails!). I’m back to work tomorrow, but I’m excited about the fall semester, and I’m so grateful we made it home safe and sound.