Glacier

From Wikipedia – The U.S. half of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, this park includes 26 glaciers and 130 named lakes surrounded by Rocky Mountain peaks. There are historic hotels and a landmark road called the Going-to-the-Sun Road in this region of rapidly receding glaciers. The local mountains, formed by an overthrust, expose Paleozoic fossils including trilobites, mollusks, giant ferns and dinosaurs.

• Established: 5/11/1910
• Annual Visitors: 2,965,309
• Size: 1,013,126 acres

May 29, 2022 -, Glacier NP Day 1!

National Park #58 of the 63, just 5 in Alaska left…until they designate a new one!

Elizabeth –

I guess I’ve been doing all the writing lately : ) I love it! This might be a long journal as we are very intrigued and excited to be in the Rockies again. See our first post on http://www.GandEAdventures.com which started this whole national park journey in the first place! See our Rocky Mountain National Park post, Fall of 2019. Hopefully you enjoy my photos and journals. I know I appreciate all the collaboration, computer work to post and directions and logistics work Gary does to take us (and you, virtually) all over the country!!

• The main crop in Montana is wheat so we see lots of silos and fields!

• Montana and surrounding states are experiencing a drought. Complete opposite of the flooding in Voyageurs National Park!

• We have been enjoying the old trucks being used as billboards in the rural areas, instead of typical wooden or metal billboards. They advertise on the side of the truck or place a large sign in the back of the truck. Very country chic and economic too.

• There are loads of historic plaques and locations along Route 2. We didn’t stop because after reading the first few as we slowed down to see the signs in pull off areas they are identifying battles and massacres which we chose not to read about to stay positive and focus on “today”. It’s nice to know they are not forgotten. All these historical skirmishes shaped our entire nation.

• Best conversation with a store clerk to date: I overheard the 30 something checkout guy in Shelby, MT, population 2,800, say to the customer in front of me, that his mother used to give him homemade brandy as a child, strained through a sock! I jokingly asked if the still was in the backyard. He turned to me and said with a big smile, ” Yes, ma’am, 100 yards from the back porch. My grandma learned the hard way!” Laughing I said, ” explosion?”, he smiled and said, ” yup.” Then he paused stating, ” I think my mom and grandma knew it would put us kids to sleep faster.”

• Shelby, on the way to Glacier, used to be a cattle town, now oil and agriculture. Half the town, as you drive in from the east, is railroad grain elevators, silos and train tracks. The trains travel through here on the main connection line between Seattle and Chicago. We saw train cars with very familiar logos like Amazon and UPS, as well as oil/tanker cars, telephone poles on flat beds and semi-truck trailers, stacked two high, by the hundreds! We saw at least 10 trains, before 10AM, today, Sunday on Memorial Day Weekend. Thank you railroad employees for bringing us our stuff to and from all over the US!

• We drove through Cut Bank, MT. Lewis and Clark camped on the white clay banks of this Blackfeet Indian county.  Lewis and Clack Expedition Trail goes through 450 miles of waterways in Montana.

Finally! After three days of traveling from Voyageurs NP, we can see the snowcapped Rocky Mountains in the distance! At the southeastern base of Glacier National Park, we went through Browning, MT, 95% Native American. It was so sad to see a totally depressed, literally trash filled town at the base of one the most beautiful mountain ranges in the country.

Today was 45 degrees at the top, where we ascended the east side of the park. It is overcast with intermittent rain so a lot of the photos have an eerie grey hue to them. The weather is what it is! 😉

We still had a great day.

Glacier National Park borders Canada and shares with Waterton Lakes National Park making the only US national park that has a Canadian partner. Combined, it is formally referred to as the Waterton – Glacier International Peace Park

We have an annual pass for the national parks so we usually make it through any entrance point quickly. We saw wild horses and a moose driving Route 89 up to Saint Mary Visitor Center, on the east side of Glacier. They just opened for the season yesterday. We bought our traditional pin and postcard and I got a Glacier NP tee shirt. We drove out the Going to the Sun Road for 6 miles until it was closed, after Rising Sun Campground which is not open for the season yet.  The Going to the Sun Road is still icy and there are landslides preventing it from opening which would enable you to drive through the park east to west and back again. You have to go online 24 hours ahead and get a three-day permit to drive the road. Gary tried for a couple of days on our travels and finally, last night, he was able to get one of the 500+ permits they give out for $2. Phew!

After entering, we found the picnic area on Saint Mary Lake completely empty. Rangeley hit the gold mine! He chased sticks that Gary tossed out into the frigid waters with no hesitation. I think Rangeley is part polar bear!

We stopped at many turn outs and overlooks and Rangeley played in snow on our trip back south, still on the east side.  Two Medicine Lake was our next stop. We took pictures by the lake and I so enjoyed some of my favorite little animals, the Prairie Dog!

Glacier, like lots of other national parks is tough to see in a couple of days but we tried to get a lot in, as usual : ) We headed south around the bottom of the park. It’s 28 miles from Two Medicine on the lower east side to Apgar on the west …but we needed to drive 68 miles around since the Going to the Sun Road is closed in the middle of the park. We drove Route 2 again, which hugs the park’s borders through Lewis and Clack National Forest to it’s southwest, over the Continental Divide and into Flathead National Forest on the southwest side of Glacier.  It’s a beautiful ride. We reached Apgar Visitor Center at about 4pm to learn and research more of the park. We planned our tomorrow.

The drive south on Route 2 to our hotel in Kalispell, MT was full of industry and sprawling stores, residences and businesses. We were looking for a more remote route, not having ever been here before, we were mistaken. The hotel was booked for three nights and it was fine so we decided to stay.

Glacier Day 2 May 30, 2022

Elizabeth:

Glacier is Rangeley’s 45th national park and has been in 45 states.

Today’s journey up Montana Route 206 from Kalispell to Glacier’s western Apgar entrance was quite the contrary to yesterday’s ride from the park to Kalispell. We rode through rural, country farmlands. Much better, nicer, than going through Browning, MT.

It is not the right season now, but this area advertises roadside stands selling fresh ” Hucks”/ huckleberries and cherries. Jams and pies made with both fruits are sold, in season, here as well.

I am always looking for animals just off the road, by the lakes and rivers and in the marshes. Sadly, there are times you see an animal “laying” on the side of the road – sweet Gary buffers my heart by confirming, “The deer is sleeping”. 

The West Village at the Apgar entrance has a few places to eat, a couple stores, an espresso place and ice cream shops. We are planning on going to Whitefish Lake for lunch, about 30 mikes SW from Apgar, outside the park so we did not eat on the west side.

We got up and got going this morning reaching the entrance about 7:30AM. It’s the best time to have portions of the park to yourself. Going to the Sun Road follows beside Lake McDonald for roughly 10 miles heading north from Apgar entrance and visitor center. The road is very close to the water and quite scenic with several places to pull over and enjoy the views. We stopped at McDonald Falls on the way to Avalanche Creek and Campground. Avalanche is also where the Going to the Sun Road is closed on this west side. Gary took a hike on Trail of The Cedars while Rangeley and I walked through the vacant campground in the woods for an hour. Dogs area not allowed on any trails but Gary took lots of great pictures on his solo adventure.

On the way back down toward Apgar we enjoyed Sacred Dancing Cascade. An amazing rush of high- water levels barreling down toward Lake McDonald. Rangeley was very frustrated as he witnessed the impressively fast-moving river pass him by.

As we usually do, we turned down a random dirt road and this time came across a Historical site, Burton and Lulu Wheeler’s Cabin on the northern most part of Lake McDonald. Burton Wheeler served as a MT Senator 1923-1947. He was known for looking for remote places and enjoying the land to visit and work in. Originally the Wheeler Cabin was built in 1916 but burned in 1941. It was rebuilt in 1942 but was damaged yet again in a forest fire in 2018.  It’s now owned by the park.

Rangeley got to swim in Lake McDonald and enjoyed the 40 degree lake… not “legally” lose on the shore because Glacier is really strict, not dog friendly, but no one was around. We always run him on grass by throwing a stick for him to dry off, and warm him up. He has never refused any body of water…including a thin iced pond he fell through at our son Cooper’s farm in Prescott, AZ. Cooper stripped down and voluntarily jumped in to get Rangeley! Cooper was fine and I was freaking out a bit over both boys in the icy pond! Cooper got dressed in his dry clothes proudly stating his watching Bear Grills had paid off! Rangeley wanted to go back in!! We ran Rangeley around the farm to warm up – he was fine. The rest of us went back to the house! : )

We then drove to the historic Lake McDonald Lodge. The rustic, hunting themed interior and cabins overlooking Lake McDonald made for a lovely, in the woods, lake front property.

The hotel’s Red Bus Tours began in 1914. In 2002 the Ford Motor Company restored 33 of the 1936-37 White Motor Company (founded in 1900) model 706 cars. One restored bus, last used at Yellowstone, sold at auction for 1.3 million dollars in January of this year (2022)!

We drove through Apgar Village, a lovely hotel and cabins location right on Lake McDonald.

Our last adventure for today was in Whitefish, MT.  Less than an hour’s drive from the park. We had lunch in town at Montana Tap House then took a hike with Rangeley on the Swift Creek Trail in the Whitefish Trail System, a city park. I took pictures of the spring trying to come alive while thoroughly enjoying the large heavily wooded paths through the pines.

We swung into Les Mason Montana State Park and Rangeley was able to swim in Whitefish Lake. So today he swam in a national, state and city park! We really liked Whitefish, MT. A bit of a Moab or Jackson feel. Definitely catering to the outdoorsy type. This town is a higher income area due to the ski area and lake in town. It was clean, had renovated/updated buildings and was well landscaped throughout, both private and business properties. If we returned, we would choose to stay in Whitefish, not Kalispell.

We will probably find another location to hike and play tomorrow, before I fly back to Phoenix on Wednesday. Gary and Rangeley will drive back to Arizona over a few days. 

We only have 5 more national parks (all in Alaska) to visit of the current 63 “National Parks”. We’ll let you know when we plan our next Adventure!! Thanks for traveling with us!