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| Ooohhh those views! |
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| Many Glacier Area of the Park |
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| Logan Pass covered in snow - the road opened July 3rd |
For two weeks, we explored the area in and around Glacier National Park. Northern Montana is gorgeous in the early summer...with lush green growth everywhere (the variety of trees in the forest and the dense understory of ferns and wildflowers below). We were surprised at a number of things:
- Glacier National Park is extremely popular park and it accommodates large numbers of visitors from all over the world. We were a little surprised how many people were actually there. But the park handled them reasonably well and they are attempting to introduce a shuttle system which will work in the future with more buses and a reliable schedule for those buses.
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| One popular option for travel in park |
- Parking at the favorite hiking trail heads was quite limited, which required us to plan ahead or simply to change our plans. We tended to hike and kayak where others did not, and this helped our sanity. We discovered some wonderful, less popular hikes and we found these trails relatively empty. We were very very careful, though, since Grizzly sitings were frequent in the valley, and we sang (horribly, but successfully) to warn the bears of our presence. (I'd run away too if I heard that racket!) We simply did not want to surprise a mother bear and her cub(s) while on the trail. Not a good idea with Grizzlies!
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| Snyder Lake - 9 mile RT |
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| Heavily wooded trail to Snyder Lake from Sperry trail head |
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| An endangered species on the trail - a park ranger - we saw very few out and about |
- The camping facilities are generous and we were able to obtain a lovely campsite, simply by arriving early on Monday morning after the July 4th weekend. We had plenty of privacy and did not feel crowded at all. We love the "First Come First Serve" campgrounds which allow you to select the campsite and then stay as long or as short a time as you want. It's perfect for our needs.
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| Our quiet little site amidst the trees and ferns - lovely. |
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| Bear Grass - the deer love it |
- The "Going to the Sun" road is spectacular and was definitely entertaining especially when observing all of the crazy things that people will do to simply get a picture of "whatever." And what incredible views there are (up, down, and around the valley).
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| Water, water...everywhere! |
| Many Glacier Hotel on the other side of the park -charming! |
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- Lake McDonald is gorgeous and it's a perfect place to kayak, since it's so quiet and serene. Since our campsite was just "across the road" from the lake, we were able to kayak whenever we wanted - when the water and weather were perfect.L
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| View up lake McDonald |
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| The original Lake McDonald Lodge - full of old-world charm! |
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| Tough day relaxing |
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| Walk in the Many Glacier Area |
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| McDonald Lodge window box |
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| We kayaked one beautiful sunny day - the lake was like glass - spectacular! |
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| Just waiting to begin another journey |
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| Listen to the quiet... |
- We were able to see quite a few animals including: big horned sheep and a black bear (thankfully, not a Grizzly), which made it extra fun.
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| Small black bear - just cruising by... |
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| Yep; look closely - a bull moose eating lunch! |
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| Logan Pass - Big horned sheep waited to cross the road until the traffic cleared. Smart sheep! |
- It was quite hot - in the 80's while we were there. The MacDonald river was absolutely wild and full and the rapids and waterfalls were exciting to watch. The amount of water tumbling off those mountains and the speed at which it was traveling was incredible...perhaps not a good thing for the future of the glaciers, however.
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| One of the numerous creeks feeding McDonald river - near the "old growth cedars" |
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| McDonald river |
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| "Indiana Bullard" on our hike up McDonald Creek to the many falls. |
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| The power of the water rushing down the hill was immense! |
- Flathead Lake, nearby and outside of the park, is also a lovely lake with tons of beautiful camping spots. We were there kayaking on Thursday, July 3rd and we basically had a lovely picnic site right on the water all to ourselves for hours during the mid-day. This is definitely something you would not experience in California!
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| Just relaxing on Flathead lake at the Wayfarer's state park - it's 80 degrees, July 3rd - and where is everyone? |
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| Big Fork bouquet |
We had such a wonderful time there, we were sorry to leave...but time is "a wasting!" - and our next stops are Kootenay and Jasper National parks in Canada.
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| One last sunset - skipping rocks at the lake. It's hard to say goodbye to this gorgeous place.... |
Posting like a Pro! You sure learned fast and the pictures, you captured some of Glaciers most iconic images.
ReplyDeleteYou get 5 Stars from us. Now about the camp fire meals?
From Wine Country
D .A. R
You are really very kind! We continue to have such fun on these little adventures and each place we visit provides so many unexpected surprises.Glacier was way more crowded than we expected, but we found that it was really easy to get away from the crowds by simply doing something not on the "list" of recommended things to do and places to go. When we did that, we only encountered a few people - whether at the lake or on the trails. It's such a beautiful park that it's hard to make a bad choice when selecting the "road less traveled." As far as our food...well I guess we'll have to do another blog on that one. We eat really simple food and our menus are really not all that glamorous, just easy to prepare and relatively healthy with lots of salads, pasta, fish (when we can get it) and hummus (for lunch). Thanks as always for your wonderful ideas!
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