Sunday, August 5, 2012
Day 75, Aug
3rd, Extended break at Glacier National Park. We all slept in today although we met at 9am
in the hotel lobby to hike. We headed
for the Pigan Pass trail about 2/3 up the Logan Pass (Going to the Sun Road)
Road. On our way it was spitting rain
and there were a lot of clouds. We
decided to continue on to the Logan Pass Visitor Center to check the
weather. Upon arrival, the weather at
the top looked okay, so we decided to hike to Hidden Lake. The trail took us up to about 6800 feet. Although part of the trail was a boardwalk (a
lot of use), along the way we had to traverse several snow patches and cross
several streams. We were rewarded at the
top with abundant wildlife. We saw
marmets, mountain goats, ground squirrels, and the ever present chipmunk. The mountain goats were grazing and sitting
with several feet of the trail. The view
at the top was stunning. We looked down
on a glacial Hidden Lake and today we were looking down at clouds over the
McDonald Lake Valley. After the hike, we
decided to try for another hike around Swiftcurrent Lake in the Many Glacier
Valley. We were out of energy yesterday
and the rain was imminent. As we drove
to Many Glacier Lodge, we encountered a “bear jam” of cars. We joined the crowd and were treated to a
mother black bear and 3 cubs eating and playing the valley below the road. After arriving at Many Glacier Lodge, we
decided to eat a late lunch/early dinner.
After eating we didn’t have the will to hike anymore so we did a drive
up the Many Glacier valley. There was
another bear on the hill above the road, although too far away for any good
pictures. We drove back to East Glacier
and had some dessert to end the day.
Day 74, Aug 2nd,
Extended break at Glacier National Park.
It was another early day. We were
scheduled to visit the Many Glacier area of the park which was an hour plus
drive from East Glacier. Sherm and Mary
joined us at 7am at the hotel and we headed for Many Glacier Lodge. There we took a tour of the valley starting
with a boat ride across Swiftcurrent Lake, a short hike to the next lake,
another boat ride across Lake Josephine, and a longer guided hike to Grinnell
Lake and Hidden Falls. The hike was
pretty flat but did include another swinging bridge. Sherm and Mary, as always, produced a gourmet
lunch meal out of their backpacks. Back
at the lodge we decided to add one more hike around Swiftcurrent Lake but some
rain showers moved into the area. We
headed back to East Glacier and spent the rest of the afternoon in the hotel
catching up and relaxing. We ate a
Serrano’s again, and Mary and Sherm shared the “monster” burrito. We finished the evening with some Huckleberry
Pie at Luna’s. Sherm and Mary depart in
the morning but I will see them in Seattle in a few weeks.
Day 73, Aug
1st, Extended break at Glacier National Park. We headed out really early at 5:30am to drive
into Canada and hike at Waterton National Park.
We were the first to cross the border at 7am (sadly Wilma also missed
the trip). We found a great breakfast
place and then explored the town of Waterton Lakes, which has a variety of
restaurants and shops. We visited the
Prince of Wales Hotel, also built by the Great Northern Railroad to draw
tourists that would ride the train. The
hotel sits atop a hill overlooking the Waterton Lake and valley and has quite a
view. At 10, we met 2 Park Rangers, one
from Canada Parks and one from the U.S. National Park Service. We headed out on a 9 mile hike along Waterton
Lake, called the Peace Park Hike.
Glacier National Park and Waterton National Park joined together as the
first International Peace Park in 1932.
There were about 30 in the party and we stopped frequently to discuss
“peace” in general and what joining the parks meant to eco-system management. There are now over 170 “international peace
parks” around the globe. Unfortunately,
Diane Stoakley had physical problem at lunch.
We think a piece of carrot stuck in her throat and she was having
trouble swallowing even water. The
rangers called for assistance and took Diane back. She was fine as soon as whatever was stuck
dislodged. During the afternoon portion
of the hike, the rangers pointed out many plants and interesting aspects of the
forest, using all the hikers as props. Cindy
(what a woman) made in all the way even across a swinging bridge. We caught a boat ride the length of Waterton
Lake to get back to town and linked up with Dave and Diane. We didn’t arrive back to East Glacier until
nearly 10pm. I think everyone slept
soundly.
Day 72, July
31st, Extended break at Glacier Park. It was a leisurely start to the morning. We ate at the lodge and boarded one of the
old tour buses (built in the 1930s) at 9 for an all day tour of Glacier Park. The tour route was partially familiar to us
since we drove in from West Glacier but riding the bus let all of us catch the
views. The “Jammers” have a cloth roof
and inside the park the bus is opened to get a great view of the mountains and
other scenery. We didn’t see any
wildlife, but we visited all the lodges, Lake McDonald, Going to the Sun Road
(Logan Pass), and stopped many times for pictures. The tour guide did a good job at providing
points of interest and stories about the park.
It is very hard to describe all the vistas and beautiful views that we
saw today. I took a lot of pictures that
I hope will capture some of the scenes.
We arrived back at East Glacier about 5pm and made contact with Sherm
and Mary Williamson. We met them about 9pm
to make plans for our visit to Waterton National Park in Canada. Unfortunately, Sherm had forgotten their
passports and so they couldn’t accompany us to Canada. It was absolutely great to see Sherm and Mary
after many years.
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Day 71, July
30th, Extended break at Glacier National Park. We headed out about 7:30 this morning. We had breakfast at the Whistle Stop, a small
restaurant in East Glacier to try their “stuffed” French toast. Dave deemed it good, but not really French
toast, so it was not rated against the Chuck Wagon in West Newton, PA. The
itinerary for today was to do several short hikes near St. Mary’s Lake and Two
Medicine Lake. We drove up to the St
Mary area and hiked up to St Mary and Virginia Falls. As we got out of the car, Dave said hello to
a family wearing some Virginia hats and shirts.
It was Dave Alexander, the longtime umpire for the Liberty Baptist
Softball League, and his family. What a
coincidence! Next we decided to drive to
Logan Pass on the “Going to the Sun Road” to hike the Hidden Lake Trail or the
Highline Trail. Logan Pass parking area
was full so we headed back to St Mary’s.
All was not wasted, because we saw some stupendous sights and beautiful
views both up and back down the road. Next
we headed up Two Medicine valley and hiked the Running Eagle Falls Trail. The Running Eagle or Trick Falls comes out of
a large hole in the cliff during the summer and is a must see. Next we hiked the Appistoki Falls trail,
which was the hardest of the day with an easy but steady climb up to the
overlook. We did more driving than
hiking, but we were all tired at the end of the day. This was a great start to the vacation.
Day 70, July
29th, Extended break at Glacier National Park. I did sleep in a little until about 7am this
morning. I spent the day sitting around
the motel waiting for Cindy and the Stoakleys to arrive. The gang arrived on schedule about 3pm and
we headed toward East Glacier. On the
way, we made frequent stops for Diane Stoakley to take pictures and we also
stopped at West Glacier to get more info about our week visit to Glacier
Park. We arrived at the East Glacier
Park Lodge, built in 1912, by the Great Northern Railroad. It followed the style of the era, with huge
tree trunks used for the structure and a 3 story open area with restaurants,
shops, sitting areas for guests and a large fire place. Cindy, Dave, and Diane were very tired after
the trip from Virginia and we all turned in early.
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