Glacier National Park Part 2

Two Medicine Lake Boat Ride

On Monday we made our way back over to Two Medicine for our first of four boat rides, first stopping at Goat’s Lick again because there were goats close enough to the road for a good picture:

They were just hanging out enjoying the views of this waterfall:

Since we had 30 minutes to kill before getting on the boat, I did the mile or so Paradise Point trail since the trailhead was right by where we needed to catch the boat. I was almost late getting back because there were deer on the trail that were way to comfortable with humans, and they ended up leading us down the last couple tenths of a mile of the trail:

The view at Paradise Point was pretty nice though:

The boat we rode on Monday was the Sinopah, and all the boat rides were on similar, very old boats:

This boat ride took us to the opposite end of Two Medicine Lake and dropped us off for the two mile guided hike to Twin Falls:

The boats were basically a shuttle, so once you got dropped off you could do the hike at your own pace and catch one of the scheduled return trips, or stick with the guide who could also answer questions you had about the area.

This was similar to most of the other boat rides too, there was a guide who told us about how glaciers formed the park, carving out the valleys and lakes, formation of the argillite rocks, and how the rocks are ground together forming “glacial flour”, causing the waters to have a pretty blue-green color.

Saint Mary Lake Boat Ride

Tuesday was a big day, we had two boat rides scheduled! First up was Saint Mary Lake, from the Rising Sun dock. It took us to another dock that was right near Baring Falls, probably less than 100 yards from the dock, so the boat just dropped us off and gave us twenty minutes or so to go look at the falls and get back.

Saint Mary Lake gets so much fierce wind, that many of the trees around the lake only are able to grow leaves/needles on one side. We were lucky in that it was a perfectly calm day, because apparently the wind can cause up to five foot swells. The park stopped allowing personal watercraft on the lake because people were having to be rescued so often.

Many Glacier Boat Ride

Next up was Many Glacier. In the early days of Glacier National Park, it was advertised as America’s Swiss Alps, and the Many Glacier Hotel certainly gives you the idea you could be in Switzerland: Many Glacier was actually two boat rides in one. First up was a ride across Swiftcurrent Lake, which had some awesome views like this: The wall to the right of the center peak is the dividing line between East and West Glacier, and is supposedly thin enough that you can straddle the top and have your legs touch both sides. After crossing Swiftcurrent Lake, it was a short but steep walk over a hill, then catch another boat that takes you across Lake Josephine. There was another two mile guided hike that we did to Grinnell Lake, also stopping by Hidden Falls:

I was surprised to see that there was still a decent amount of snow on a small part of the trail, because it had been pretty warm that week and we weren’t at that high of an altitude:

Grinnell Lake was beautiful, with lots of glacial flour giving it that color:

Instead of taking the two boat rides back to the Many Glacier Hotel with Mom and Dad, I ended up doing a two mile hike back. The first half was really nice, right along Lake Josephine, and is supposed to be a great place to see bear and moose, but I saw neither. The second half was less ideal, starting with this sign that took me a while to decipher:

Unfortunately the horse trail was very muddy and full of horse manure, so it took a while to get through. Plus, I could no longer see the lakes. I did still beat my parents back, and got to relax a bit:

While also enjoying this view:

After several days of hearing stories from what seemed like everybody about seeing wildlife (i.e. moose or bear), we were complaining in the car about not seeing anything, but we finally saw a moose near the road on our way back to our campground near West Glacier:

It was less than 20 minutes down the road that we saw a bear near the road, and it ended up crossing the road behind us. By the time we got turned around to get pictures, the bear was swimming through a creek and then disappeared on the other side:

This was a thrilling 20 minutes, and exactly what we had been hoping to see from a wildlife perspective. I was just surprised it didn’t happen inside Glacier National Park.

Polebridge

Wednesday was mostly a relaxing day around the campsite, partially because Tuesday had been a long day, but also because Wednesday was the first time I could get in touch with my trailer manufacturer about the issue with my slide. I was pretty happy when they said to call a mobile RV tech, I thought that would be much easier than having to tow the trailer to a dealer to have them look at it. Little did I know, mobile RV techs are apparently similar to house contractors, it is a pain to just get somebody on the phone let alone get somebody to come out. This was made worse by the lack of cell service basically anywhere in Glacier, and the cell service outside the park around West Glacier only barely works.

I wasn’t able to get ahold of anybody or get a call back on Wednesday. Thursday morning I was able to get ahold of the tech that the campground owners recommended, but he didn’t want to work on a slide and even went so far as to recommend that I take it to a dealership to deal with it. I wasn’t thrilled with this prospect, mostly because from what I’ve seen online it seems like most dealership’s service departments are booked weeks to months out. I called the “local” dealer (they were only 100 miles away), and sure enough, they are booked way out. So I tried calling a couple other local mobile RV techs, and of course, no answer.

I was frustrated, so I gave up for the morning and we got in the truck and went to Polebridge to check out the Polebridge Mercantile:

It had a Rabbit Hash feel to it, but they allege it is where bear claws were first made. I don’t know about that, but we did try their huckleberry bear claws and they were delicious.

The road to Polebridge was mostly dirt, and we got stuck behind a tanker truck that was watering the dirt to keep the dust down. I guess the good news was there wasn’t much dust, but it did leave a lot of my truck with a nice coat of mud:

Lake McDonald Boat Ride

After going to Polebridge, we went back and revisited some of the stops we had made on Going-to-the-Sun Road again. That evening we did our fourth and final boat ride on Lake McDonald. We did get to see a bald eagle:

The mountain views were great all the way around, but I really liked this picture where the water was smooth enough to be a mirror:

We also finally stopped to get our picture in front of one of the entrance signs:

Many Glacier

Friday we went back over to Many Glacier to hike to Redrock Falls. On the way in to the park we got to see a mama bear and her two cubs, first at a nice reasonable distance, with the two cubs playing in the tree to the left of mama: They disappeared into the trees for a bit and then popped up on a trail right below us: Fortunately they just kept walking and ignored all the people that had gathered by this point:

The trail to Redrock Falls was a nice, just under four mile round-trip hike with pretty views the whole way: The falls ended up being beautiful too:

Mom and I decided to do one last trail on the way out of Many Glacier to see Apikuni Falls. This was a more challenging hike, it was only two miles round-trip, but the whole mile to the falls was up a moderately steep hill, and then down hill the whole way back. It was a pretty falls though:

Going-to-the-Sun Road

While we were on the East Glacier side again, we wanted to do as much of Going-to-the-Sun Road as we could from that side too, since unfortunately it is still not open through Logan Pass (this year is the latest it will ever open, lucky us). We didn’t get very far in past Saint Mary before we saw another bear snacking along the side of the road:

The area around Saint Mary Lake is beautiful, so the whole drive up and down Going-to-the-Sun Road is beautiful: It definitely makes me want to come back some time when the road is open through Logan Pass to see the whole thing.

Avalanche Lake

On Saturday, Mom and Dad left, so I’m back on my own for a bit. Since I only had water and electric hookups at this campsite, I had to pack my trailer up and take it to the dump station to empty my tanks. I was pretty happy with making it eight days before filling a tank, still without any major compromises (like skipping showers, or using the campground’s bathhouse). The other semi-good news was that after moving my trailer and getting it re-setup, my slide worked. That doesn’t leave me confident about its operation in the future, but I’ve given up on finding somebody near Glacier to look at it, and am trying to find somebody at my next stop instead. I didn’t do much else on Saturday other than finish another book and (start) this blog post.

Sunday morning I woke up to rain. It wasn’t supposed to last long, so I decided to wait it out. I headed out to the Avalanche Lake trailhead almost as soon as it stopped, but apparently that was not soon enough. There were a ton of people out this morning at the Avalanche campground that they are currently using basically as a parking lot. It’s a popular area, with The Trail of the Cedars, Avalanche Lake trailhead, and it is currently the furthest you can go by car on Going-to-the-Sun Road on the west side, so lots of people parking their cars to ride their bikes up further too.

The trail to Avalanche Lake was about four miles round trip, and it was busy the whole way out and back. The lake was worth it though, I just had to walk around it a bit to find a semi-quiet spot: