Glacier National Park, Day 2

Friday, August 12th-  We left Kalispell and headed back to the park on Friday morning, not anywhere near as early as we had hoped.  However, we made it there early enough to find parking spots in all the areas we wanted to stop and visit (other than Logan Pass. and the Visitor Centers...)  We stopped at Lake McDonald and walked along the beach area.  There was very little wind, and as you can see by the photos, the water was glassy.  Very beautiful!

By the way, one brief housekeeping detail- should you want to view the photos larger, just double click on one, and then you can scroll through the photos at full screen.

We made several stops along the river.  The sun was bright enough to bring out some of the blue in the water.  As we may have explained previously, when glaciers move, they ground up the rock underneath into a fine powder known as glacial flour.  This flour is suspended in the water of the glacial melt and absorbs all the colors in the spectrum except blue- that is why we see the water as blue in color.  Whatever the reason, beautiful!  We made our way up the winding Going to the Sun road, hoping we may find a parking spot in the lot at Logan Pass.  Not to be... this park is certainly much busier than the last time we were here.  We opted to continue down the East side of the road to go to St. Mary's, the East entrance.

We stopped at one of the scenic viewpoints- we could have stopped at them all, but would never have made it out of the park- just below the pass.  After taking some photos and taking in the view, I was getting back in the car when something caught my eye on the other side of the road.  There, standing on a ledge about 10 feet back from the road was a bighorn sheep- staring right at me, daring me to notice him instead of the view!  He continued to stand there, watching the cars and the other people.  One funny little scene- a man was stretching and getting ready to get back in his car when I pointed out the sheep.  He started saying "Oh my God, oh my God", reached into his car (I thought for his camera) and brought out his toddler-size child, holding him up and running around the car to show him the sheep!  It was pretty funny- everyone was so intent on the view, they didn't see him standing there.  Strangely enough, when we returned through the area hours later, he was on a higher ledge, lying down watching the view.

The trip down the East side was quite different from the West- for one thing, it was less steep, no areas with steep drop-off's, and the trees were more dense next to the road.  The exception to this was an area lower down the mountain that had had a wildfire last year.  The trees were all dead, and grass had barely begun to regrow around the blackened sticks.  There were many areas where St. Mary's lake would not have been visible through the trees prior to the fire.  One of the picnic areas was closed as a result- I'm sure there was concern about these very damaged trees falling and injuring someone.

Once we reached the East entrance, we decided to go into the visitor center to ask a few questions- one being when the fire occurred, the second being the cause of the dead trees we could see across Lake McDonald.  We thought it could be insect damage, but weren't sure.  However, as at Logan Pass, there was not a parking spot to be had!  After riding around the lot, we left the park to head for Many Glacier Highway, an entrance to the park located north of the East entrance.  There were several restaurants at the entrance, and we decided to take advantage and have lunch.  Great sandwiches at this little deli-type cafe.  Meanwhile, we began to get a little rain- just mostly scattered, but enough to change the views.

Many Glacier Highway was a very rough road into an area of the park that was pretty flat, driving in next to Lake Sherburne.  There were nice views of multiple glaciers on the mountains in the distance.  Near the end of the road was the Many Glaciers Hotel, an older hotel that has been undergoing some renovations.  It reminded me of Lake Louise with the hotel right there on the lake- though I think the one there was somewhat nicer.  There was also a motor inn just beyond the hotel, whose parking lot was also packed!  I really thought we would find this area, being less well known, fairly empty, but was wrong.

For the 3rd time, we made our way to Going to the Sun Highway for our return trip.  We didn't make any stops this trip, and left the park about 4:30 pm.  We stopped in Hungry Horse to make a few huckleberry purchases, then headed to Kalispell.

We had noted on our drive through town that there was a local brewery.  Dale always likes to sample the local brews, so we decided to stop there for dinner.  After ordering beer (nothing else served...), we asked for a menu.  In an unusual arrangement, they had no kitchen, but had a food truck parked out back.  You could go out and order what you wanted, then the guy from the truck would deliver it to you.  Hmmm...  The food was good, though.

We were so happy we decided to return to this spectacular park.  Our only regret was not having time for a hike.  You definitely need two full days here to see all there is to see, as well has have an opportunity to get off the beaten path.  I do think they are going to need to do something about the congestion at some point.  Perhaps do as Zion does, and not allow private vehicles, only park- provided transportation.  Not sure if that would work 100%, since the road goes straight through and does not dead-end as it does at Zion.  Put this park at the top of your list!