Glacier National Park

Another vacation down =)

Sam, his mother: Cindy, and I spent the last week visiting Sam's sister, Addie, in Glacier National Park located in Montana. We had a fantastic time and did quite a bit while we were out there. Here is a brief overview of our adventure.

We left Syracuse bright and early Sunday morning. After a day of traveling we spent the night in Great Falls, Montana.

Monday morning we set out on the 2 hour drive to St. Mary which is a little town located outside of the park. We arrived at the park around 11am and drove up Going to the Sun Road to Logan Pass where Addie was working. While we were there we were able to watch Addie in action: answering questions, swearing in Junior Rangers, and passing out maps. We also watched Ranger Doug give a talk: "Goodbye to Glaciers." Glacier National Park has been loosing it's glaciers for years. In the 100 years the park has been around the climate changes have dramatically changed the way the snow falls and how the glaciers are formed. Scientists believe the glaciers in GNP will be gone by 2020. For dinner we stopped by Addie's trailer and made spaghetti =)

Wildlife included: horse, cow, foxes, osprey, big horn sheep, ground squirrels.

This is Wild Goose Island. One of the most photographed areas in the park.

This picture was taken while driving up Going to the Sun Road.

Tuesday was an action packed day. We started the day early with breakfast at Johnson's which was delicious. After breakfast we headed out for an approximate 3 mile hike (round trip) to Virginia Falls. Along the way we also saw two other waterfalls: St. Mary Falls and Baring Falls. Both of which were breath taking. Addie also took us on a side hike to view some of the wild flowers before she needed to return to the visitors center for work. While Addie went to work Sam, Cindy, and I went to lunch. We had a fantastic lunch at St. Mary Lodge and Resort which was just outside of the park.

After lunch we headed to Addie's boat tour. Both boats were sold out and we opted to take a ride on Little Chief to see Addie in action. As we were leaving the dock someone on the boat noticed a black bear walking across the boat launch area that we had just left. It was very exciting to see a black bear moseying along looking for some grub. The boat tour was fantastic. We cruised around St. Mary Lake learning about the history that created the mountains, the people, and the lake itself.

Addie lead the same hike we had done that morning so we decided to head over to East Glacier and Two Medicine Lake to see what was over there. There was another boat tour on Two Medicine Lake, that we did not take, but looked quite interesting. We wondered around a bit taking in the sites. On our way out of town a huge storm was threatening the area. We stopped at a shop called The Spiral Spoon which claimed to have the world's largest purple spoon... One of Addie's co-rangers works there in the winter making wooden spoons while he waits for summer to return to the seasonal park. Dinner was a mexican restaurant Serranos their food was excellent. On our way back to St. Mary we spotted a rainbow and stopped for some pictures.

One of Glacier's local residents out for a stroll.

Wednesday was more of a relaxed day. We did a short hike on Beaver Pond Trail to see the forest fire burn from 2006. There is an entire manual about fighting wild fires in the park. Lodgepole pine trees are a species of tree that lives in the park and only the heat of a fire can open it's seeds and create new trees. Wild fires are very important to keeping the park's ecosystem alive. After this short hike we picked up Addie and headed to lunch at Park Cafe. Lunch was fantastic and we even had room left over for their famous pie. =)

After lunch we headed back to Addie's to watch a PBS documentary about Aug 13, 1967. Two girls were mauled and killed by two different grizzly bears miles apart. We watched the hour and a half movie, Night of the Grizzlies, then headed out to Many Glacier. Here we did a tour of the historic hotel, hiked to one of the lakes, and I received my junior ranger badge (which Addie caught on tape). It was another fantastic day.

We headed back to Addie's and went to one of her friend's houses had some drinks then headed out to dinner at Charlie's Place, the local pizza/bar. The place was empty when we got there so we had plenty of space to hang out and talk with some of Addie's friends.

Swiftcurrent Lake off the back deck of Many Glacier Hotel

Thursday was Addie's first day off and we decided to go to the Canadian part of the park. We did not realized that it was July 1, also known as Canada Day until we got to the park and they were handing out Canadian flags. We were able to park and get into the center of town just in time for the parade. The parade started with the Mounties; next were several decorated bikes that included a tank, the batmobile, a hawaiian themed bike and several others; followed by the Waterton fire department and ambulance. It was a short but awesome parade. We cruised the town a bit looking at shops and taking in the mountains from a different angle.

After lunch at Zum's we hopped back into the car and headed down to Prince of Wales Hotel to look around. It started to rain so it was difficult to do a whole lot outdoors. We headed back into America and went to the Cattle Baron for Dinner. It was a fantastic steak and the decor was awesome. It was a little strange that on half of the restaurant it was raining and the other half was clear sky.

We headed back to Addie's to pick up her friend Dave, who is a ranger in the Law Enforcement side of things and headed over to Two Medicine Lake camp ground for Pat's famous ranger program: "Interview with an Old Goat." Pat starts his program as a human and then puts on some risky music and "transforms" into a goat. He then talks about his life as a goat starting as a young kid and growing up to having kids of his own. His program was funny and informative. The best quote of the night was when people walked in late to his program and saw him dressed as a goat his response was: "It's not that weird." This coming from the man who makes spoons in the winter...

Bill the Old Goat

Friday we headed over to West Glacier. We had plans on hiking to Avalanche Lake but it was raining and we were losing steam. While driving up Going to the Sun Road it started to snow. That was fun. We did do a short hike on the Trail of the Cedars which we met up with a ranger and listened to some of his stories about the forest. After finishing the less than 1 mile hike we headed over to Lake McDonald and checked things out there. It was a cute rustic hotel that had some fantastic heads of animals and art work. After getting out of the rain for a little while we headed to Polebridge , Polebridge is a very SMALL town with some of the best cookies I have ever had. We ate lunch outside on the picnic tables (while the rain held out) and enjoyed yet another view of the grand glacier carved mountains. After lunch we headed up to Bowman Lake for a different view of the same mountains. The lake was like glass and the colors of the rocks were stunning. It is not unusual to see red, green, blue, and yellow colored rocks on the beaches or in the mountains.

Another hour or so drive and we were in Whitefish. Here was the 30th annual craft fair. The weather had calmed down and there was a ton of beautiful art work. Jewelry, wood work, paintings, photography, quilts, pottery, and tons of other things that I can't even think of. It reminded me of the craft fairs back in Massachusetts. For a second I thought Nancy was there selling her pots.

On our way home we drove through West Glacier and traveled Going to the Sun Road from west to east. The entire trip I kept saying that I wanted to see a Moose. I did not see a moose last year on our trip to Alaska and I was not going home until a moose was spotted. On the side of Going to the Sun Road a few vehicles driving east had slowed down, it was then that from the back seat Addie spotted the moose, standing on the river bank, posing. We stopped, adding to the "moose jam" for a couple shots then continued on. I was a very happy camper. We stopped for additional pictures along Going to the Sun Road. The pictures we took do not to the scenery any justice.

A Moose waiting for his close up.

This was a fantastic trip I encourage everyone to go to GNP and see the glaciers before they disappear. This is only the tip of the stories to tell and there are over 400 more pictures to be viewed. We are safely home with memories that will last us a life time. =)