Glacier NP East, August 11-15, 2011

Glacier Park from the St Mary's Visitor Centor

The part of our travels with an historical focus is now behind us (although the discussions are not!) We now find ourselves back in the folds of Mother Nature and are delighted to be so. We have often been accused of being ambivalent when asked about our favorite places – frequently we will just claim it’s our latest new place. That may still be the case but Glacier NP is as good as it gets. The ‘Road to the Sun’, in name alone, congers up a pretty heady image and it doesn’t disappoint. Our time here begins with 4 days on the east side of the park. The hardest part has been trying to choose, among the hundreds of options, which deserve a piece of our day. The park is the most bio-diverse place in North America. Certainly on first gander the rugged mountains resulting from the Lewis Overthrust that exposed 1.5 billion year old limestone, drops your jaw. But as you venture into the park, you discover the bountiful wild flowers, fish species, animals, even insects that this beautiful place supports. 

Fawn Lily

Bear Grass - a lily

There are bogs, temperate rain forests, alpine meadows, snow fields, and soaring views that can evoke vertigo . Almost two million people visit this wilderness every year, and many come annually to refresh themselves.

 Our first excursion was a boat trip on Lake Mary along with a ranger-led walk from the terminus up to two waterfalls The views along the route as we climbed were as glorious as Mary’s Waterfall. Park rangers are our heroes and they make any walk that much better. It was an excellent orientation to the park. We went everywhere with sausages, cheese, a hunk of bread and some fruit and we enjoyed picnics with views to write home about.

Reynolds Mountain from Highline Trail

Our second day took us up the Road to the Sun to its summit at Logan Pass, which coincides with the Continental Divide. 

The park encourages you to use the free shuttle service to reduce congestion on the road. The trip to the top took us one hour. Our hike on Highline Trail was along the Divide, just down from the top on the western slope. Winter was late leaving Glacier, which in this case, was pure gold for us. As we walked along Garden Wall where, weeping rock creates a rainforest environment , the wild flowers were blooming in profusion – yellow fawn lilies blooming side by side with spirea, daisies, asters, columbine, bear grass, Indian paint brush – the list goes on. 


Peter at Garden Wall on Highline Trail





Mountain Goat on Highline Trail



After 4 days we have not been on a trail as inspiring as this one. As we move along the trail, the configuration of mountains changed, giving the impression that we were moving much faster than we actually were. The air was crisp, the scent of it herbaceous, and the temperature perfect. Did I mention the views? Our American Alps are noteworthy.

Day three turned out to be a long, exhausting but exhilarating one. We started out by heading up to Many Glaciers where we rented a canoe on Swiftcurrent Lake. With fishing poles in hand and the lures recommended by Andy back in Three Forks, we headed across the lake to the fishing grounds. Given the views from this lake, one could care less if the fish are really biting. But, in fact, a nice brook trout was our reward. 

View across Swiftcurrent Lake from Many Glacier Lodge

We headed into the dock and had lunch at the Many Glacier Lodge that originally opened for business in 1912. It is in the midst of serious renovations (the winter wreaks havoc with the old Bavarian wooded structure) but someone is still cooking in the kitchen. We had green chili chicken soup, brochetta with a twist, and Bison and Elk sausages, served with huckleberry- grain mustard sauce. All excellent! After our late lunch we headed out on another boat trip across Swiftcurrent Lake. With a short hike to Lake Josephine, we then boated across that second lake, and then hiked up to Grinnell Lake. The hiking to the Grinnell Glacier was closed because of bear activity – the huckleberries are ripe! We then decided to hike back and skip the boat trips. The lush understory of the virgin spruce forest through which we walked made the trip. We got back to the lodge in time to collect our fishing poles and head out to a place recommended for evening fishing.

It was only a mile each way but the mile return trip was just past exhaustion for Pat. It hadn’t helped that she slipped off her fishing rock and submerged one hiking boot. We both caught a few brookies – keeps you interested!

Along Nature Trail at Two Medicine

 The decisions about the last day’s activities changed each time we talked about it. Finally we decided to check out the third major area of the park on the East side. We drove down to Two Medicine Lake intending to canoe and fish. We arrived to gales of wind, making our decision a poor one. Given our growing love for this area, we settled for knowing our scouting gave a thumbs-up for our next visit.

We are not completely ready to move on tomorrow to West Glacier but are grateful that we still have another 6 days in the park. It will only be enough to whet our whistles!