We have wanted to visit “The Crown of the Continent” for years. It seems that the more we travel, the list of places we want to experience keeps growing. It’s hard sometimes choosing where to go next! We decided back in the winter that we would finally make it to Glacier this summer and booked everything in early January for travel late August/early September. We chose the dates for the end of the season primarily because most schools would be in session and crowds would be beginning to taper off. Even booking in January, there were some lodges that were already booked and options were limited at others. My advice is that if you want to visit Glacier, and want to stay in the park, plan ahead and book early. This will be a lengthy post which I will divide into sections as I did for Olympic.
We stayed in a motel in Kalispell the first night. We arrived around 9pm, so it made sense to rest and head into the park the next morning. We stopped in West Glacier to rent bear mace before heading to East Glacier. We stayed 2 nights in the Glacier Park Lodge. The lodge is close to the Two Medicine area of the park which is beautiful and less crowded than other areas we visited. We hiked to Astor Park that afternoon and hiked to Scenic Point the following day. While Scenic Point was not the longest hike we would do on this trip, it proved to be perhaps the most challenging, with 2300′ of elevation gain (and loss on the return), with most of the trail fully exposed to sun and wind. That said, it was an amazingly beautiful hike.
From East Glacier, we headed north to Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada. Waterton Lakes borders Glacier to the north and in 1932, the United States and Canada created Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, the world’s first park of this kind. Both countries work peacefully towards shared management of this magnificent land. The United States and Canada share the longest undefended international border in the world. We stayed at the historic Prince of Wales hotel, built in 1926 by the American Great Northern Railway. The hotel was built during the prohibition era, giving American tourist a place to rest after imbibing north of the border. We had a lakeside room on the 3rd floor, complete with a balcony, if you are brave enough to use it, we were. The views of Upper Waterton Lake and the surrounding mountains is stunning. The Akamina Parkway was closed during our visit, limiting access to some areas of the park. We visited Red Rock Canyon and hiked to Bertha Lake, the first of several high alpine lakes we enjoyed during our visit.
As we left Waterton Lakes, we enjoyed dramatic skies as we headed south to the Many Glacier area. We spent 3 nights in a cabin at the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn. We hiked the Swiftcurrent trail from the Inn to the Swiftcurrent headwall and back. We heard reports of bear sightings from other hikers along the way, and saw a bear that was high on the mountainside. We heard the following day that a park employee had survived an encounter with a grizzly on the same section of trail, the day we hiked it. She was picking berries about 1/4 mile off trail, according to reports, and had startled the bear. She sustained injuries to her hands and legs and was being monitored for infection at the hospital. It was a reminder to be vigilant on the trails, making our presence known. We also hiked to Grinnel Glacier and Cracker Lake while in this area. We saw many mountain goats from here, but unfortunately, they were all too far away to get any good photos. A ranger was set up with a scope outside the inn one evening, and I enjoyed watching them through the scope. We saw a big horned sheep along the trail to Grinnel Glacier, and a big bull moose along the trail to Cracker Lake. Cracker Lake was one of my favorite places in Glacier. I’d love to camp there someday.
Leaving the Many Glacier area, we stayed 2 nights at St Mary’s Lodge on the eastern end of the Going to the Sun Road and 2 nights at Lake McDonald Lodge at the western end. By the time we made it to St Mary’s, we had already hiked over 43 miles. We both had our share of blisters and Rob’s ankle was not only hurting, but you could actually feel and hear the achilles tendon creaking as he moved his ankle. We took a day off from hiking and soaked, massaged, stretched, and iced his ankle. We had one more “must -do” hike, the Highline. At just under 12 miles and under a 1,000 feet elevation gain, my biggest concern was the over 3,000 feet of elevation loss at the end of the hike. I was prepared to abandon the idea of hiking the full length and just hike a stretch, then turn back. Rob however, was determined to complete the full hike. The area was hazy with smoke from a nearby wildfire our first two days there. Our final days in the park it rained, with hail, sleet, and snow at higher elevations. The western region of the park, near Lake McDonald, reminded us the Pacific Northwest; especially with the overcast, rainy weather. We enjoyed watching a black bear eating berries and drinking from McDonald Creek, on our last full day in the park. We are fairly certain we saw this same bear crossing the road in the same area the day before. While it is fun to watch wildlife at this distance, the bear did not seem concerned with traffic or the presence of humans, which could ultimately cost him his life. We ended our time here with a scenic raft on the Flathead River. We feel fortunate to have spent this time in this amazing park, and hope we have the opportunity to visit again in the future.
