I was in a pretty rough frame of mind when I took my 6th solo vacation last week.

I’d left two days after an appointment with a new psychologist–incidentally, I saw him again yesterday and he was shocked that I hadn’t contacted Scorpio and I told him that I never would and the only way I’d consider anything in the future with her was if she’d meet with me in mediation–and headed by plane to Missoula. I felt a little bit this way when I went to Maine in 2022, but I was much more heartbroken this time heading to MT and ID.

I was in a Toyota Highlander. I was supposed to have a RAV-4, and this felt like a boat and guzzled gas; however, I had no choice.

I headed to my suite, which I learned later was on Grant’s Creek. That was fortuitous. I talked with the clerk and said that I wanted to go hike to the big M. She’d never done that before as she was from a small town in MT and tends toward loving forest hikes. Her colleague had run it in 10-minutes, so I figured that I’d be able to walk up it in half an hour.

I also went to Clark Fork which had a pedestrian and bike trail and ate a burrito looking at the water while beginning to relax into my vacation. I walked the trail a little bit too. Missoula is gorgeous.

I went back to my room and got cleaned up. Then I took my nature journal down to the creek, sketched, drank water and truly settled into the week.

Then I drove to dinner. I had made one reservation this trip. Boxcar Bistro didn’t disappoint. My whole meal was phenomenal.

I got quite a bit of sleep and woke up later than I’d have liked to drive to the West Rim of Glacier National Park. I learned that you’d need 7-10 days there in reality, but had a wonderful day of 10-miles of hiking on various trails and ate lunch on Lake McDonald.

I wrote out four postcards, got them stamped and sent from the West Rim Post Office and began my drive back to Missoula. I stopped at the liquor store and picked up nachos. I drank two beers in my room and ate the nachos. I was reeling from the beauty. Glacier reminded me of the Grand Canyon. You can’t process the beauty that you’re seeing. I have been to 40 states now and think that MT is one that I’d revisit if I had more days than I do because of the profundity of nature there.

The next day I had to drive to Idaho. The whole drive was a tease because it was beautiful to drive the Salmon River, but I couldn’t stop and had to get to my inn. It took me about five hours to get to the Sawtooth Range. Originally, I was to visit some ghost towns, and didn’t wind up doing that. I was weary from being in the car that long.

Idaho is beyond gorgeous. Rough, rural, rugged and like it was in the Smokies, I could be on trails entirely by myself. Because my inn had a shuttle, I didn’t use my car for three days. I just parked it at the inn and it remained there. I hated that Grand Highlander anyway. It deserved a time out.

I took all the time in. I also learned to river raft. That was a first time experience. We did an 11-mile guided paddle.

In addition to rafting, I hiked and stargazed. The sun doesn’t completely set until after 10 pm in Idaho. And the stars don’t come out until well after 11 pm. It was worth it, and my phone was unable to capture the blanketed dome of stars all around me. The experience was most definitely a bucket list one that I didn’t know that I had.

I begrudgingly got back in my car on Tuesday morning to drive the Salmon River again. I got to Missoula around 2 pm and ate in a cafe. It’s a bit difficult to park in Missoula, so I googled a park near me and walked it a few times and then walked a neighborhood before I returned the car and flew back home. The wind was super scary yet I still enjoyed my walk after eating.

I am so lucky that I am able to take these solo vacations when the academic year winds down annually. I’ll keep doing them until I can’t walk well. In all, I walked 30-miles during the 6-days that I was there. Because I did drive over 750-miles too, I’m glad that I spent as much time as I was able to on foot. I learned to raft too. This trip was one of the best that I have had for my mental health.