It's the People You Go With

The Staley family spends as much time as possible in the outdoors, but for Kris Staley the experience is more about the people you spend the time with than where you spend the time. Kris did not always love the great outdoors as much as she now does. The outdoor adventures themselves sold Kris on the outdoor experience. The Staleys hike, cross country ski and kayak.  Kris relates some of her family's outdoors experiences below:

Favorite hike:

Our favorite hike is also a lot of other people's favorite hike, because it is always so busy! But that would have to be the highline trail in Glacier park....it is fairly flat so not too hard, but a total of 12 miles, 8 flat until you reach the Granite Park Chalet, then 4 downhill, which is a little hard on the knees. The views are just the best, and there is always plenty of wildlife to view as well as beautiful wildflowers.

Memories and funny stories:

 I think we make funny memories every time we are together....doing pinatas in the dark while camping, slung over a pine tree, accidentally leaving someone at the bathroom and locking them out of the cabin....tipping the kayak over with gear everywhere....being entertained by other hikers who have such different habits than we do....watching Paige and Tanner walk out to an iceberg and climb on top in freezing cold water...watching Brian and Tanner ski down snow banks in their tennis shoes and roll out of control...(thankfully these things end up being funny later instead of tragic!)

Wildlife:
 I think we have seen just about every kind of wildlife, thanks to Brian's keen vision much of the time. We have seen many moose, big horn sheep, mountain goats, mountain lions, of course many elk and deer, but the favorite spot is always bears. We keep a running total every time we go to Glacier and this past year we saw over 20 bears, mostly black bears thankfully. We saw a black bear very close on the trail, on our trip to Crypt Lake, and several on our Ptarmigan Tunnel/Iceberg Lake hike last summer. At one point we heard rustling in some bushes and stopped and right at our feet popped out the most darling little baby black bear, which you initially think how cute, followed immediately by, "oh no!", so we slowly backed up, and we heard the momma bear coming, and Brian and Tanner got out their bear spray, but yelled at her and she circled around out of our way. We also got a great look at a momma grizzly with 3 cubs on this same hike, but up the hill a ways off, thank goodness!

Close calls:
 Last year we sat down in some rocks to eat lunch on the Hidden Lake Trail in Glacier and a female mountain goat brought her baby to within a few feet of my face/head while I was eating my peanut butter and jelly sandwich....obviously, I think someone had fed her before, but looking those horns in the eyes was a little frightening as I kept imagining getting a head butt for my food....she eventually moved on.

Thanks to the Staleys for sharing some of their outdoor adventures.  I am considering the Crypt Lake hike!