Day 16

While enjoying a better-than-normal continental breakfast, a jovial Canadian tells us that Glacier National Park has experienced some serious rain in the past year. As a result, the Park’s most scenic drive – the "Going-to-the-Sun Road" – hasn’t opened for the season. The Canadian tosses us a newspaper, and we look down to see the day’s cover story: a write-up on the road and its ongoing maintenance. According to the article, the Going-to-the-Sun Road will be open for business on the second day of our stay. We finish our waffles and draw up our daily agenda as we get into the car. We’ll check into a youth hostel, do some exploring in the park, and save the scenic drive for tomorrow.

We head north and drive through a series of small, depressed towns, every one of them dwarfed by giant mountains in the distance. I adopt the theory that these towns are depressed and uninspired as a result of their colossal surroundings. I test the theory on Emily.

“Look at these mountains. They’re all you can see at times. Imagine how hard it must be to have ambitions with these things looming over you. It really makes you realize how small you are. Christ, no wonder the citizenships are waning.”

Then I remember that Emily grew up beneath Superstition Mountain in the small town of Apache Junction, AZ. I abandon the theory and shut up.

Our youth hostel is in East Glacier, which is a longer drive than we’ve expected. Emily falls asleep while I continue to drive, eating wasabi-covered edamame and blasting Pearl Jam to stay awake. We reach the hostel in the late afternoon and take our bags to the small, private room that Emily booked for $26. The walls are thin, which means the flatulence of our next-door neighbor can be heard inside our room in high-fidelity sound. We drop off our things and leave.

After making friends with the sheriff’s dog and taking a quick drive into the park, we eat dinner at a café directly beside the hostel. Our dinner: a salad with huckleberry dressing, a portabella burger with zucchini and red peppers, a baked potato, and a slice of coconut pie. We waddle back to our room and fall asleep in our clothes, the sound of our snoring neighbor ringing throughout the room.

- Andrew