Family Fun

For those that think you have to hike to enjoy Glacier, this post may be reassuring. There are things to do that don't involve backpacks. While the family was out, we did some of these activities and will share them with you.

The first day we slept in after arriving late from the airport, and then went for a drive to the "Two Medicine" area of the park. We took a short walk~~related to a hike but no backpacks~~to a waterfall. Running Eagle falls are named for a woman warrior from the Blackfeet tribe who came here on her vision quests. The falls seem to come out of the side of the cliff. We drove on to Two Medicine Lake where we were thinking about a boat ride. It was pretty windy, and we also missed the boat by about 5 minutes. So, we settled for a trip around the gift store where Grammy found the perfect puzzle for our next Sugarloaf vacation. (No, Carl, we promise it really isn't ALL blue)

We finished off day one with a ride into the Many Glacier area of the park to see if we could spot some wildlife and maybe catch a boat ride from the hotel there. But, once again we were a bit late. We did pick up a schedule to use later in the week and booked a trip on the red jammer bus tours for the following day. Grampy decided he wasn't really excited about mountain roads, so he bought a book of bear stories and planned to stay in the cabin while the rest of us took the tour. We told him he couldn't share any of those stories, so we don't know how the book was!

When Wednesday dawned, it came in with a roar. There were thunderstorms in the early morning. As things cleared up a bit we were treated to a beautiful rainbow in front of the mountains. It stayed really windy so for part of our tour the red bus kept the canvas cover on.
As the weather cleared, we did remove the top for the classic jammer tour. We stopped at Logan Pass, and we had fun seeing how much snow had melted since the beginning of the summer. If you compare the photo below to the one we took on our first trip across the Going to the Sun Road, you can see there is a big difference.
We ate a nice lunch at Lake McDonald Lodge on the west side, and came back over the mountains. The views never get old. We stopped and our guide told us a bit about the glaciers where we could see Jackson Glacier. Like the others, it is shrinking. Right now, it is covered in snow so it is hard to see the bluish color and all the cracks.
Kyle and Paul enjoyed the back seat of the red bus, and near the end of the tour discovered the chest of wool blankets in front of them. I am sure they (and a few others) had wished to know about them earlier, as it was pretty chilly in that convertible!
Thursday, we went back into the Many Glacier area of the park for a hike. Yes, backpacks were involved, but only the small ones. We hiked up part of the Iceberg Lake trail to take Marge, Vaughn, and Paul to Ptarmigan Falls. While hiking we heard there was a grizzly that had crossed the trail just a bit ahead of where we were. We were told to make noise. Grammy did, but Kyle got awfully quiet! We never did see a bear on the trail.
Friday we returned to Many Glacier to try a boat tour (schedule in hand). On the way in we were searching the area for the famed wildlife. You can imagine Kyle's disappointment when we rounded a corner and Mom yells out, "Bears--two of them!" Pause...."Oops! Sorry, cows." It got even better as we saw more and then had to wait out a "Montana traffic jam" while they decided which side of the road they wanted to be on.
During our boat tour, we got a great view of this glacier. Does anyone want to guess the name? (Hint: look at the shape of it) We'll tell you the name in the next posting.The tour itself begins at the Many Glacier Hotel. For Stephen King fans, this hotel is the one he based his novel "The Shining" on. A caretaker still lives here all winter. He gets snowed in and sees nobody all winter. Snow covers the lower stories of the motel.

The boat crosses Swiftcurrent lake and lets the passengers off at the boatdock on the other end. You walk two tenths of a mile to Lake Josephine and board another boat. After crossing this lake you have an opportunity to take a ranger-led walk to Grinnell Lake and view Grinell Glacier. You can also do some other trails or hike on your own. You get a ticket to get back on a later boat. Since we had done a hike the day before and some of us were wearing sandals we opted to just stay on the boat and ride it back. We saw several deer on our boat ride as well as some ducks.
It was after the boat ride, on the way out of the park to find lunch that we spotted that grizzly I posted yesterday. We were really glad to see one and it was a great ending to the park portion of our trip with all the family.

The last day we couldn't think of anything to do that didn't involve mountainous roads or hiking, so we went to the town of Browning and toured the Museum of the Plains Indian. There were some interesting displays, but overall it was a disappointing museum. Pretty small, no interactive displays with audio or videos like some we have seen. (Guess we're spoiled) We would have like some kind of a guided tour or something!

We had to work the 3-11 shift that afternoon, and then get a little sleep. The airport is about 2 and 1/2 hours away so we had to get up at 3am to get people ready for the flight. Good thing we found some coffee on the way! We were glad to get updates from home on the progress of the flights and to know that everyone made it safely.

Can't quite believe our work week is almost over again and we have Wednesday and Thursday off. We are not sure yet if we will go visit the Canadian part of the park or go on an overnight backpack. It is hard to know what we REALLY want to do before we go home. Still lots of choices that all look good. We'll let you know what we decided when we get back.

Glen, Terry, and Kyle