After the wedding in Bozeman, Dave and I headed off to Glacier NP at the top of Montana. We had hoped to cross into Canada (and finally remembered to carry our passports!) to see Watertown National Park also. Alas, that was not to be. The border crossing between the two parks is still closed due to Covid. You can drive about 2 hours to a different border crossing but that seemed excessive. Plus, we had not done the required pre approval for Canada so that will wait for our next visit!
We actually stayed outside of the park in West Glacier at Moose Creek RV park which is a family owned facility. It was good, not great, but had electricity and showers. Yep, we are getting soft. Electricity means a heater! It was only 5-6 minutes from the park entrance so that was great. It was pretty warm when we got there but raining by the time we left. The park was not as crowded as it can be but crowded enough. You have to get admission tickets to the Going to the Sun road AND you have to be early or late to get into the Logan Pass parking area. Plus, we had construction between us and the pass so it was kind of a pain to get through the park.
Having said that, I love Glacier. It is high on my favorites list for sure. The first day we couldn’t stop at Logan Pass because it was too full and construction ran an hour past time, we decided to drive to Saint Mary (it’s the east entrance), then into Babb, and we drove down this crazy dirt road and found a great hike along the river. I even had a butterfly befriend me. I was very impressed with the visitor center there – they had 3 flags- American, Canadian and Blackfeet – all flying at equal heights since this park includes lands from all 3 nations. It is another sad story about the US government taking lands from the Native tribes. They thought they were giving up mining rights to the mountains, but we took all of the land. Of course. Only in 1980’s did we work through the new agreement that they have the right to their traditional hunting, fishing and ceremonies on the land. It truly is a spiritual place!
We found many easy to moderate hikes throughout Glacier. I am not a fan of steep trails in general, especially when they contain a lot of loose gravel. We also realized after the frustration of trying to get to Logan Pass, that there are quite a few nice places as you drive along the roads. Many of these are fairly bereft of people too. We found all those other people looking to find some quiet time on the trails! We found Black bear 3 different times. The first was on our first evening when we had just gotten to West Glacier. That Bear was so close to my side of the car that he didn’t fit in my camera screen! Another time it was pretty close and completely ignoring us until it decided we had sat there long enough in the car and grunted at us. We got the message!
The third morning we were out of Tut by 5:30 am and the construction ended on time (6am) so we made it in the Logan Pass parking lot. At 37F and super foggy. So we slept for 45 minutes in the car, and finally when it got to 53F we decided to start the hike to Hidden Lake. It was definitely a moderate hike with some elevation changes. It amazes me that in that weather, and really at any time, you can see people hiking in flip flops. I guess it keeps ERs and PTs in business. The hike was very pretty and, since we didn’t start with the other crazies who got into the parking lot at 6:30, relatively quiet along the trail. As we got to the overlook, we turned to the west and here came some ugly looking thunderclouds, very dark gray. The hike down to the lake was steep and rocky, so we elected to just head back to the car and try along the route to St. Mary again. It was a good plan as it started raining soon after we got into the car. While we were at the visitor’s center, I saw a ranger taking the flags of Canada and then the US to half staff. She didn’t know why but people said they were at half staff at the other stations. We found out later that Queen Elizabeth II had passed away.
We found the road leading from the Apgar Visitor’s Center north was a great place for animal watching, especially in the evening! When we get better bandwidth, I will attach a link with Dave’s much better pictures. Until then- bye!