RV Travels with Dakota Duo

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.

View when entering Many Glacier in the morning with Lake Sherburne

View from inside Many Glacier Lodge

Chief Two Guns captain

Morning Eagle boat on Lake Josephine

View from boat window

Grinnell Lake trail

Grinnell Lake

Happy Hikers

Hidden Falls above Grinnell Lake Trail rope bridge

View from trail heading back to the Lodge

View from kayak on Swiftcurrent Lake

Chief Two Guns tour boat

Grinnell Glacier view from water

Swiftcurrent Lake view

Our watercraft and Many Glacier Lodge

Mountain sheep late day parade

Many Glacier Lodge

Saturday - off to explore the west side of Glacier Park. We drove northeast to the park entrance and purchased our seven day pass. We stopped at the Apgar Transit Center to find the check-in area for our tour the next day. Then on to Lake McDonald and it's historic lodge. We walked around the grounds and through the lodge - a lot of history. The lake was beautiful and calm, we decided we would bring the kayak the next day to try it out. We drove a little further on the "Going to the Sun Road", stopping here and there to see the river and rapids. We saw the Sacred Cascades and found some young men diving in to one of the turquoise pools. We drove to the Sprague Creek campground and day use area to find a launch spot for our kayak. We drove back in to town, had lunch and went to 5:00 Mass in Kalispell. Afterward we went to supper at the Mackenzie River Pizza.

Glacier silt colors the water

Stromatolite fossils found in Glacier Park

Lake McDonald Lodge

View from Lake McDonald Lodge dock

Glacier stream

Colorful glacier stream rocks


Water and rocks together

Sunset in Kalispell

Sunday - headed to West Glacier Park for our 9:30 Red Car Tour. We drove north from the west entrance, the area that was destroyed by the forest fires in 2003. Sad to see all the trees as sticks, but the underbrush is growing back and there is color. At one of our stops, we found a huckleberry bush. The Red Cars have been in Glacier Park since the early 1930s, the same type of cars are in Yellowstone - they are yellow. Our car and driver, Jamie, (called "Jammers") arrived, we loaded up and headed up the "Going to the Sun Road". We stopped at the Lake McDonald Lodge to pick up more tourists, at that point 'Jammer Jamie' rolled the roof cover back so we could see out the top of the car and stand up at the "Kodak" stops. It was worth the money to hear the history of the park and road from her and to see the grandeur of the mountains as we proceeded up the road. Gary thoroughly enjoyed being able to see everything and not driving the tight, winding road. Our turnaround point was at the top of the Continental Divide, the Logan Pass Visitor Center. We had a half hour there to look around and walk up on the trails. We saw mountain goats in the meadow up above the center and while we were there they munched their way down close to us. Before we boarded the Red Car again, we also saw mountain sheep up on the slope above us. With my camera, I was able to zoom in enough to get pictures. Back in the car, we drove back down the road we had come up on. It was amazing how we saw different things on the same route and even the position of the sun changes the look of the massive peaks. After the tour was done, we drove up to the Sprague Creek Campground for our picnic lunch and boating. On the lake, we enjoyed the views from the water, the expansive scenery and the clear, clear water. It was a warm day too, so we beached the kayak and spent time in the water cooling off. We enjoyed picking up and looking at the different colorful rocks from the water. Gary wanted me to keep one or two, but one leads to another and I kept thinking about the Lucy/Desi movie about pulling a camper and her rock collection. The afternoon passed and we landed and put away the boat. While I was changing clothes at the bath house, Gary visited with the camp host there. This was their 6th year hosting in the park, they work July and August each year, looks like a good job for us someday. They had a full hookup, but the rest of the sites were primitive - no hookups. We saw many tent campers at the parks, I could not do that, considering bears have been seen in those areas.

Fire damage in Glacier

Huckleberries

Blanket emblem on our tour

Red Car at Glacier Park

Roadside waterfall on Going to the Sun Road

Where we came from on the road

Tight corner

Going to the Sun Road

Historical road

Mountain goat family

Upper meadow at Logan Pass

Curly horn mountain sheep above Logan Pass

Glacier creek

Swimmers in West Glacier

Picnic in the park

Lake McDonald view from our kayak

Cooling off in the glacial waters

The blues were incredible

Glacier Park peaks

Late afternoon shadows from Apgar Village

Monday - Another hot day. We ran errands and did laundry in the morning and then took the boat out on Flathead Lake, south of Kalispell. The lake had many homes and parks around most of it. We found a launching place at one of the day use parks and set sail. We paddled around the area, seeing swimmers diving/jumping from the rocks and some of the marina resorts. We kept hearing birds and saw that they were young eagles. They were really loud, almost obnoxious. As we watched, an adult bald eagle landed at the same tree, but would not turn to let me get a good picture. We stopped for lunch, paddled some more and then dried the kayak off and went home. We cleaned up for our supper date and headed to Whitefish. We enjoyed our evening of good food and visiting with Giuseppe and Jamie at the Tupelo restaurant.

Young bald eagle

Rock divers at Flathead Lake

Oldest dude ranch resort along Flathead Lake

Tuesday - we packed up early and drove around the south side of Glacier Park and up the east side. We arrived in Browning, MT about noon, to boondock camp there the next two nights at the Glacier Peak Casino. After setting up, we drove to the park, first to the Saint Mary entrance, in to the Rising Sun Lodge and then further up to the Many Glacier entrance. This entrance is the east end of the "Going to the Sun" road and this year was under construction. The road was pretty rough and gravel sections at times, but the view of Lake Sherburne and the mountains and finally the Many Glacier Lodge and Swift Current Lake were worth it. It was an overcast day, so we did not get great pictures. We drove up to Logan Pass, a shorter route than the west side. We had seen people on the High Line Trail when we were on our Red Car tour and decided we wanted to try it. We finally found a parking spot in the lot at the Visitors Center (it is a popular place for tourists and a lot of trail heads begin there). We went out on the trail and hiked along the cliffs above the road and then on the meadows portion of the trail. From the trail along the cliffs you can see the road and cars down below. After hiking back, we went up by the visitor's center and again were very close to the mountain goat family. We drove back down to the Many Glacier Lodge and then bought tickets for the next day for the Grinnell Lake boat and hike tour. Back to Browning and the motorhome, we spent the evening watching people come and go from the casino and watched the amazing sunset colors all around us.