Once again we stayed outside of the park at a private campground. It is just 5 minutes from the West Glacier, the park and convenient. This time driving to the campsite however, we saw the results of a horrible, 2 fatality crash right in front of us. We were the third vehicle after the crash that involved an overturned semi, a RV and at least 2 cars. It was ugly and life-flight was brought in. That was quite sobering – Cherie and Eric were right behind us. She went up to the site to see if they could use her help but it was quite comforting to see how well the local people stepped up. People just driving down the road had emergency equipment, vests and took over – it is probably just a part of living so remotely. Eventually we did go down old Highway 2 around the accident and get to the campground.
Once there however, they charged $35/day for the extra car (that was sitting in our parking area!) and they wanted to do so for 4 nights, even though Eric and Cherie were only staying 2 nights. That frustrated me quite a bit. The campground is already a bit pricey because it lists itself as a “resort” (we do use the showers but not much else) and we had already tried to cancel and go to Fishing Creek (inside the park) but there is no refund after 48 hours of reservation! I don’t think we will end up there again. We like to support family run business but this was a bit much. Turns out they did refund the 2 nights but it left a sour taste in my mouth that it was so expensive for the kids to basically take showers!
OK…enough complaining. On to Glacier National Park. It, naturally, was quite glorious! We found out we were too early in the year however – Logan Pass and the Going to the Sun Road were not yet open. We did see quite a few deer, and one moose and calf but not much else. The weather was nice (rained a few times) so we did get some nice hikes in. We did not see the beaver in their den this time, but on our hike on the Oxbow trail, we saw a nice, bigger new den in the river, so they may have moved. We went looking for them and bear each night but no go. Most of the roads were very torn up and it got a bit old getting “butt massages” as we bumped along muddy, gravely roads. Eric said we should try going out to Polebridge (which is down a long gravely, dirt road) and that was a new discovery for us. It is out in “hippy” land, where backpackers and groovy people hang out. There is a general store there and the woman who made the baked goods was a great baker. I have to try her huckleberry “pie” that looked almost like lemon bars but with a huckleberry “gel” thing. So good! We also decided we need to go back on a weekend evening because there was a food truck that listed some amazing things on the menu!
We hiked quite a bit with Cherie and Eric, even though Cherie has a broken toe. UGH. She plugged along and we didn’t really do many hills. We saw lots of beautiful landscapes and Eric fed some of the local mosquitoes. They are surely troopers for hanging out here in King Tut and it is a bit cramped with 4 big bodies in here. We even figured out a way to play birds using both tables.
After they left (to go back to work – DO NOT miss that!), Dave and I decided to go the long way to the far side of the park – the St. Mary Visitor Center. It is a long ride. Going there we went through the Blackfeet reservation on an interesting, curvy road with some amazing vistas. Definitely happy we had Lil’ TG for that. We went up as far as we could on the Going to the Sun Road and saw Goose island and other very pretty places. On the way back to Moose Creek we decided to go the longer, but probably faster route through Browning and we saw some interesting metal work by Ed Big Beaver along the road. They were pretty cool. We also saw a moose cow and calf along the road there. That is the first time we got to see a moose this trip.
So this trip to Glacier NP was mostly about the beauty of the region, rather than the animals. And hanging out with Cherie and Eric. And eating all things huckleberry. The rig is so quiet and big (OK maybe not BIG, but bigger) without them here. Our trip is almost half over and now we will head out to new places for us to explore.
I will add a link to Dave’s pictures when he gets them downloaded!
