I’ve been doing a travel writing course part-time this year (really I hear you ask? That would explain why you’re so good surely?) and one of the first things they teach you is to avoid using clichés such as incredible, awesome etc. That’s all well and good but it’s pretty much unavoidable in the Glacier National Park Montana.

Everything is so big, from the mountains to the lakes to the rapids to the forests…seriously big and dare I say bloody awesome! We started today with breaky upstairs in this all timber lodge/B&B we are staying at. There was only us and one other couple in the dining area and a young woman who looked like she had just stepped out of French film. She had bobbed hair, looked very European and was very nervous. We started talking to her and it turns out she is film student from Poland and out here for the summer working at the lodge. Once we started talking movies you could see her whole body language change. She had an academic’s knowledge of all things film from around the world but not Australia so we wrote down a list of a dozen Oz/NZ must-see films. She was rapt so it gave us an opportunity to steal a few muffins and fruit for the day. Just kidding. No, technically we stole them. She just turned the other way!

We then went and picked up the car. I know some of you reading this have driven left-hand drive before but I was definitely nervous. I wasn’t going to take out insurance then the lovely manager at the train station Frank looked at me and said, “With insurance, you can bang this thing up all you want and just hand the keys over Sunday morning with no guilt.” “Where do I sign?” Thank goodness it’s just Montana and not LA or New York. It’s extremely difficult to disengage a habit like right-hand driving after near 40 years.

The first hike we took on today was the Avalanche Lake approx. 8km return. I’m going to avoid clichés at this point and paste some photos.

As you can see it wasn’t a bad way to start the day. It took a couple of hours to complete including the “sitting in awe” time and taking it all in. It’s moments like these when you feel relatively insignificant in the scheme of things. The first time I felt that way was in 1985 driving to Perth from Toowoomba in Qld on my own and completely underestimating the scale of the Nullabor. Landscapes of this might, whether they be the Rockies or the Kimberleys put things in perspective. (Too much f…..g perspective! – David St Hubbins, Spinal Tap).

The second track was a lot easier and ran adjacent to the McDonald River. The McDonald River captures all the melted ice from the mountains and pushes it via rapids into the huge Lake McDonald which is about 10km long and 2km wide. The rapids are impressive and you could only imagine how powerful they must have been a month ago when the ice started melting. We took off our shoes at one point and walked in the water. You could only last a few seconds before they went numb. It was such a shame you couldn’t swim in this pristine water without getting hypothermia. It’s apparently in the mid-30s tomorrow so I might brave it and duck my head in somewhere. I’ve never seen such inviting water before! These are some snaps from the McDonald Track. We saw a deer and there are plenty of miniature squirrels running around. One bit me on the finger a couple of times trying to scab food off me. He came to the wrong place clearly. As one of 9 kids, I don’t share!

We bought a map that included rankings from most impressive trails to the most average. In total there are 88 ranked. To put in in context, Avalanche is ranked 11th and McDonald’s ranked 21st. Tomorrow we’re going all out and heading for number 1 called The High Line Trail over 18 km. It means driving for about an hour through a treacherous area called Logans Pass. Apparently, it’s so narrow the side mirrors touch similar to Anderson St Yarraville. The only difference is there is 1000ft drop on one side. Should be interesting. Farewell for now.