Nature Is Full: Glacier National Park

“Wander here a whole summer, if you can. 

Thousands of God's wild blessings will search you 

and soak you as if your were a sponge,

 and the big days will go uncounted."

-- Naturalist John Muir

It appears the world has concluded that Muir knew what he was talking about. These days, visitors to Glacier need reservations for most of the park's most popular places.

During Covid, visitors flocked to national parks. It still gave people a place to travel, but they were able to accomplish social distancing. Evidently, the word got out that our nation's National Parks truly are national treasures. 

Glacier was the main attraction in our latest road trip, and neither of us had ever visited there. Randy is the family trip planner because he's the one with the travel bug. He thought he began the planning process fairly early, but by the time we made reservations, the reservation times available were limited. At Glacier, you must have a vehicle pass to enter the park from the west side between the hours of 6 AM and 3 PM. (You can enter the park before or after that time frame without a vehicle registration, but then parking is an issue in many of the more popular areas.) Things like boat rides and tours on the iconic Red Bus line also require reservations. Some vehicle passes are released the evening before, but they, too, are hard to get, especially when cell phone coverage is undependable. 

The first day, we entered the park on the Going to the Sun Road after 3 PM, so we didn't need a pass. We made a few stops along the way. 

 

True confessions: I am sure you see much more of Glacier and even more spectacular views if you are a hiker. We are not. And let's get real: I'm not sure I would have been a hiker even if we had been able to travel back in our full-time farming days when we were much younger and much more spry. I was the kid who sat inside and read my book, while one of my sisters was building her worm collection.

But, as advertised, Glacier is full of "multi-hued summits whittled by ancient glaciers into walls and horns - rising abruptly from gently rolling plains. Some 762 lakes, dozens of glaciers and innumerable waterfalls glisten in forested valleys."

The next day, we had tickets for a boat ride on Lake McDonald. It's Glacier's largest lake - 10 miles long and 472 feet deep. Kootenai Indians called the waters Sacred Dancing Lake. Because we'd driven through the parking lot the previous afternoon and had seen the lack of parking, we arrived early and enjoyed walking along the shore of the lake and sitting on a shaded bench nearby, enjoying the early morning cool and people watching. 

 

Montana's lakes and streams are so clear! The photo below was taken at Flathead Lake State Park before we arrived at Glacier. But it better illustrates how clear the water is and the multitude of colors along shorelines.

 

Randy says it's because of the rocks that line the bottom, rather than the mud found in Kansas waterways. The argillite in the park throughout its formation contained significant amounts of iron. The red and maroon rocks have more iron in them, while the blue and green rocks have less iron in them as they were formed in deeper waters. Iron is a reactive metal, so like metal on an old car, it will oxidize, or rust and turn reddish/orange when exposed to oxygen. That means lots of color variation!

 

We didn't attempt the paddle boards that were available to rent. 

 

 

We could also have rented boats. But we waited for our scheduled tour boat ride on the DeSmet tour boat.

 

 

Captain J.W. Swanson built the tour boat DeSmet in 1930 for the Glacier Park Transport Company. In 1938, Arthur J. Burch purchased the contract to provide boat services in Glacier National Park. The DeSmet was named after Father Pierre DeSmet, a prominent Jesuit missionary in the area. 

 

 

The DeSmet is a 57-foot boat built of cedar on an oak frame. The view definitely changed, depending on the direction you were looking.

The DeSmet was used to transport firefighters across the waters during a wildfire that was ignited by lightning in August 2018. The Lake McDonald complex had to be evacuated during that time. 

These days, the National Park Service handles the aftermath of forest fires differently. The dead trees are left in place and allowed to decompose into organic matter right where they fall. In the photo above, you can see where the fire went through. However, new plant growth is beginning to grow again - a natural evolution - just like here in Kansas where farmers and ranchers burn off pastures to encourage new, green growth.

After our cruise, we stopped at Apgar Village and tried our first huckleberry ice cream. Huckleberries seem to be the unofficial fruit of Montana. We were in Glacier during the peak season - which is from mid-July to mid-September.

Later that evening, we had another seasonal fruit on a pizza. There were cherries featured on a seasonal offering from MacKenzie River Pizza in Whitefish. Other ingredients were were goat cheese, mozzarella and prosciutto, then topped with arugula tossed in citrus-honey vinaigrette.

 

 

For lunch one day, I had a huckleberry salad.

I had a huckleberry sauce on salmon in Missoula as we were driving toward Glacier.

Yes, I was one of "those" people taking photos of my food.

Next time: Our Red Bus tour at Glacier.