RV Travels with Dakota Duo: Glacier Park 2014

Wednesday - Happy Anniversary, Ben & Kelsey! We packed a lunch and our hiking gear and went to Many Glacier for our boat tour. The day before was overcast when we reached the park, but this day was bright and a very blue sky. As we drove closer to the lodge, we came upon many cars parked along the road and people were looking way up on the slope, pointing and taking pictures. We stopped and asked and found they were watching a black bear and her two cubs. We each saw them for about three seconds before they went into the trees and brush. An official bear sighting, but no pictures. We boarded the Chief Two Guns taking us across Swiftcurrent Lake, then we had a short 400 yard walk to Lake Josephine and the Morning Eagle boat. On each boat, the captains told us about the area and the history of the Many Glacier area. They pointed out the glaciers around us and told us the names of the many mountain peaks surrounding the area. After disembarking, we were at the trailhead for the Grinnell Lake trail and headed off. It happened that this was prime berry season, so the captains had cautioned us to be on the look out for bears. We followed another couple and felt safer that way, he was clapping often, we were visiting out loud and I had on our two bear bells, making noise. The roundtrip distance for this trail was 1.5 miles, all through berry bushes and forest. We arrived at Grinnell Lake and the scenery was gorgeous. We stopped and ate our power bars and headed back. Now we were by ourselves and not quite as willing to see a bear as we thought we would. We could have rode back on one or both of the boats, but it was a nice day and we needed to exercise, so we hiked the trails all the way back to the lodge, another 2.2 miles. We did not see a bear. Back at the lodge, we went in and bought a cold beverage and then drove the car over to the boat launch area at Swiftcurrent Lake. We had a tailgate picnic and then assembled the kayak and went out on the water. More incredible views and very refreshing to be on the water on the warm day. We paddled around the entire lake, taking many pictures and watching others in the tour boat and rented canoes. As the afternoon ended, we docked the boat, dried it off and put it away. What a treat for us to be able to be out on the water in this beautiful, grand setting! As the sun moved across the sky from when we arrived in the morning until we left late that day, the sunlight lit up the different peaks and allowed us to see clearly the areas that were hid by shadows during the day. As we left the lodge area, again there were people looking and pointing up on the mountain and we saw mountain sheep walking on a trail up above the road. Leaving the park and driving back to Browning was a totally different terrain, more like high desert, bare and dry - much different from the towering mountains and valleys we had seen all day. Home again, the activity at the casino was quieter than the night before.

Summary - after finally seeing it, our advice would be that everyone should see Glacier National Park! And, when there, spend at least 4-5 days, more would be better, to see the different parts of the park. The $25 entrance fee is good for seven days, we wish we could have stayed longer. We will go back someday and want to explore the Waterton area of the park, which reaches north in to Canada. I would also like to spend one night at the Many Glacier Lodge or one of the other east side lodges, we did not stay long enough either day to see the sunsets and the sunrises would be beautiful too. The hiking opportunities are incredible, there are many campgrounds within the park and you can fish without a license once in the park. This year, the Going to the Sun Road opened late June, was closed for a couple days the second week of July with a ten inch snowfall and was closed again the first week of September with snow. We felt lucky we chose to be there early August.