A BEARY Good Day: Glacier National Park

 

Probably my favorite photo from the Two Medicine area and one of my favorites from the trip.

It was a BEARY good day.  

We were on the way to Glacier's Two Medicine Valley when we fulfilled one of Randy's bucket list items: We saw a BEAR! Unfortunately, I don't have photographic evidence. You'll just have to take our word for it. 

While we Kansans are used to seeing deer in ditches along our roadways, seeing a BEAR was just a bit surreal. We were just driving along at 65 MPH, and there was a black bear in the ditch. We looked at each other in disbelief. We considered turning around and seeing if it was still visible. But, we drove on ... and texted the kids that Dad had fulfilled one of his bucket list items for the trip - seeing a bear! 

I did get a photo of some "free range" animals that day. They did a better job of posing for the camera.

No other cars were around. We had to laugh because some of them had yellow ear tags, just like ours at home. I joked that if someone came by, they'd think we'd never seen a cow and calves before. We did send Tye a photo and wondered if he'd like to gather cows and calves in the wide open spaces of Glacier - ha!

Two Medicine Valley sits in the southeast corner of Glacier. Two Medicine is less visited than other parts of Glacier. It doesn't require a vehicle registration for the day, which was another plus. 

Maybe it doesn't get the "press" that other areas of Glacier receives, but it was peaceful and beautiful in a whole other way. The day we visited was overcast and rain threatened periodically.

Before we reached Two Medicine Lake, we stopped at Running Eagle Falls. The falls are named after a female Blackfeet warrior known for her bravery. It's also known as Trickery Falls because it's famous for "tricking" visitors with a seeming change in water flow (according to the park signs anyway). 

Sometimes when trails at Glacier were marked "easy," we thought it was false advertising. 

As noted before, we are not hikers. However, in this case, it was an easy hike to see the beautiful falls area. It was sprinkling, so we donned our K-State ponchos. K-State gear is always good as a conversation starter, but we didn't see many people at this particular location.

 It was beautiful.

 The area again demonstrated the clear Montana waters and how colorful the rocks are.

In the short time we were there, the wispy fog of clouds was playing hide and seek with the mountains and changed the scene innumerable times.

After returning to the car, we drove on to Two Medicine Lake. I'm sure the scene would have been different on a clear day, but the overcast sky gave it a different kind of beauty.

A panoramic view

We didn't have a reservation to ride the boat there, but Randy added our names to a waiting list. Our patience was rewarded. After those with reservations boarded the boat, we were among those who also got a ride on the boat, Sinopah. It was built in 1926 and is the oldest wooden boat in the Glacier Park Boat Company's fleet. Like other tour guides, our boat captain shared lots of history about the Sinopah and Rising Wolf Mountains and the Blackfeet tribal history in the Two Medicine area. 

For many of the boat riders, it was a way to get to a trailhead. 

Randy and I stayed on for the round-trip return to the dock, along with one other couple, but most of the boat riders disembarked and were going to begin hikes there. 

By the time we returned to the dock, the wispy clouds changed the scene there, too. And, again, note how clear the water was!

Because we didn't have a vehicle pass to the Going to the Sun Road that day, we drove to the St. Mary entrance of the park, which doesn't require one. We could tell that the day wasn't going to get any clearer.

On the way to Glacier's St. Mary's entrance

The photos of the wildflowers just don't do them justice. I suppose the people who live in the mountains become immune to the beauty around them - kind of like I sometimes don't really "see" the beauty as the wind rustles ripened wheat or when a winter day opens with a silent symphony of pastel blues and pinks on the eastern horizon just down the road from my house.

 

After entering Glacier National Park from the east, we stopped along the Saint Mary Lake. 

That's where we saw and heard a loon. Unfortunately, I also don't have photographic evidence of this sighting or audio either. But Randy did venture down to the shore to get a better look.

We should have stopped at a pullout for Wild Goose Island, but we had to settle for another spot down the road. (While this particular shot will not be considered for any of Glacier's marketing, it does show Wild Goose Island as an itty-bitty spot in the lefthand portion of the photo. Oh well!)

 

We also saw the Jackson Glacier (below). Since we didn't hike any of the trails, this was our only glacier sighting. Thankfully, we were still able to see it through the clouds and rain. 

Jackson Glacier Overlook is home to the best view of a glacier along Going-to-the-Sun Road. In 1966, Jackson Glacier measured 316 acres. By 2015, it measured 187 acres. It is approximately the seventh largest of the remaining 25 glaciers in Glacier National Park. 

Those innocuous-looking wispy clouds turned out to be a driving challenge as we neared the top of the mountain. We were literally driving through the clouds. I said an audible thank you to the National Park Service for marking the roads so clearly with yellow lines. I wasn't driving, but I was watching just as intently so we didn't run into anyone or plunge over the side of the mountain on the narrow roads!

It got even worse than this ... or so it seemed.

When we got to Logan Pass - my favorite stop on the Red Bus Tour the day before - we couldn't see a thing. I was glad that we were able to view the beautiful wildflowers the day before - even though it wasn't a sunny day either. And besides, I'm sure we wouldn't have been able to find a parking spot either.

Thankfully, it did get better as we headed off the mountaintop. 

Red Bus Tour: Glacier National Park

 

It was a little like a ride into the past. Since 1933, Red Buses have been part of the transportation system at Glacier National Park. The Red Bus Tour was Randy's favorite things in Glacier - probably because he didn't have to do the driving and was free to gawk around as much as he wanted.

The buses have an oak frame which support their bodies. Don was our driver, and we were assigned the No. 106 bus. The Red Bus tours provide an iconic and historic way to explore the park.

Roe Emery (1875-1953) was one of two principals behind the creation of Glacier’s iconic Red Buses. Emery and Walter White, a vice president of the Cleveland-based White Motor Company, which built the Red Buses, introduced transportation to the park in 1914. Many in the current fleet of Red Buses have been in service since the mid-1930s. The Red Buses were the first authorized motor transportation utility in any National Park. The Going-to-the-Sun road was first opened 1933 and Red Buses have been part of the transportation system during the road's entire history.

The Red Bus stopped at various locations. The first one was McDonald Falls.

In 1936, with park reservations up more than 70 percent above 1935 levels, 18 new buses joined the fleet. The purchase was made from the White Motor Company for a price of $90,000. The buses have a roll-back top for sightseeing. The Red Buses received their first automatic transmissions in 1989. Of the 33 buses on the road today, 17 are from 1936, 11 are from 1937, 4 are from 1938 and 1 is from 1939. The Red Buses, on average, transport 60,000 tourists each summer through Glacier. The fleet of 33 buses in Glacier are considered to be the oldest touring fleet of vehicles anywhere in the world. Today, each red bus is estimated to be worth $250,000.

I was not the only one taking photos out of the top and sides of the bus.

  

 

I probably should have taken notes about the mountains and other attractions the driver pointed out. But I didn't.

 

I just admired the variety of greenery that framed all the mountain and valley scenes.

It's amazing to me the lushness and the colors of the wildflowers growing in what seems to be rocks.

It was overcast and rained on us - just a little bit. It was enough for Don to get out the wool blankets, which he said would provide a rain cover. A few people covered up with them, but we didn't.

My favorite stop on the Red Bus Tour was Logan Pass. Thankfully, the Red Buses have assigned parking areas. Otherwise, the parking lot was packed, and I'm not sure we would have gotten a space on our own. I wish we would have had more time there, but I'm glad we were able to walk around for a short time.

 

 Again, the wildflowers were beautiful - so many colors and the photos don't do the scene justice.

Our bus tour was 4 hours, round trip. Since it wasn't yet 3 PM and we couldn't drive into the park itself, a park ranger suggested a side trip along the Outside North Fork Road. We took a short hike at Huckleberry Lookout, where we were able to walk among the tall lodgepole pines and other towering trees. At Glacier, the pine trees haven't been ravaged by pine beetles. There is such a variety - trees that look like pipe cleaners atop brown sticks, the white-barked aspen, and evergreens that look like a forest of Christmas trees. There were even cottonwoods, which made Kansans feel right at home.

 Nothing like towering trees to make you feel small and insignificant.

Driving along further on the road, we came to a river. Not long after, we saw a dad and two boys rafting down the river. The boys waved at us, and the dad wanted a weather report after hearing thunder. Also, notice again how clear the water is in the photo below, taken from a bridge.

The running water on the other side took them away quickly after they passed under the bridge.

 

We continued our huckleberry exploration with a stop at the Huckleberry Patch in Hungry Horse. Yes, that's the name of the town.

 

We had huckleberry pie with huckleberry ice cream. (I am kind of a pie snob, so I liked the ice cream better than the pie.) But when in Montana, go with the huckleberries. At least, that's how it seemed to us!

That evidently gave Randy the energy he needed to play a round of golf. As we traveled through Columbia Falls, he saw a billboard for a golf course. We turned around and checked the availability. Since rain sprinkles were threatening, we didn't have trouble getting onto the course, and it turned out to be beautiful.

***

We had another golf experience while at Glacier. Because we didn't have a vehicle pass the first day, we went to Glacier View Golf Club to fill some time before 3 PM.

It was just a few miles from the entrance to Glacier, so it put us in the area after Randy was done.

The mountain scenery and abundant water were a different look than we're used to.