May/June 2024: There's Nothing Like Opening Several Glacier National Park Lodges
One of many money shots: Cameron Lake, Waterton Park, Alberta, Canada
The genesis of this trip sprung from an ambitious idea for another mondo 3,000 mile road trip, swinging north through Seattle and North Cascades National Park, then sweeping east to Glacier National Park, Banff/Lake Louise, then swing south and west to Crater Lake and Bend--too long mileage and time wise. Then maybe we could take a scenic railroad trip from Calgary to Vancouver--ooofah, too expensive with Cairo/Nile Cruise yet to pay for. How about flying to Kalispell, MT and renting a car for a more focused road trip--ahhh, much more do-able!
We have a rather new Bucket List Goal to visit all the magnificent National Park Lodges, like the Ahwahnee in Yosemite (stayed there in December 2021), so Janet's magic laptop secured reservations at Lake McDonald (the west-most section of Glacier NP), Saint Mary Lake, Many Glacier Lodge, the Post Hotel in Lake Louise, then the unbelievably beautiful Prince of Wales Lodge in Waterton, Canada, snagging another National Park (in two countries no less) was the icing on the cake.
The trip routed from Kalispell airport with a rental car north and east to Lake McDonald, then swinging east and farther north to Two Medicine Lake, Saint Mary Lake, Many Glacier, then continuing north in to Canada to Banff and Lake Louise, then head back west and south through the Rockies to Waterton (the Canadian section of the larger Glacier National Peace Park that takes in the Canadian and US Glacier National Parks), then back to Kalispell in a little over two weeks.
Again, for this trip, these photos were simple snaps taken with a second generation iPhone SE, with no Photoshopping or other enhancement.
May 25: Flight to Kalispell and a cabin at Lake McDonald, MT
After breakfast with Karen we took a flight from SFO to Kalispell, MT and took the easy drive along the east shore of Lake McDonald to their Lodge, where Janet had scored us a cabin for three nights. We had dinner at the lodge then strolled the grounds; it was still chilly with lows in the low 40s.
Though we usually resist, the Red Bus Guide gave us all an opportunity to take the obligatory
National Park Boundary Sign picture!
Day 2: After a good night's sleep, and a decent buffet breakfast at the lodge, we hiked above and parallel to the road on what we affectionately called "Horse Schitt's" trail, as you head in to the forest for a bit and turn left at a large corral, then follow the horse-used trail out to John's Lake, dodging a lot of mud and horseshit. We then came back to the lodge on the Going to the Sun (GTTS) Road, which was yet to be open up to the pass. McDonald Creek is rather a misnomer, as it flows a hell of a lot faster and bigger than any creeks I know, and there were spectacular features alongside the road as we headed back, like the Sacred Dancing Cascade and McDonald Falls.
After the hike, we drove in to West Glacier Village with its restaurants and shops just after you turn off the main road (US Hwy 2) and start heading to Apgar Village and Lake McDonald. After scoping out some huckleberry souvenirs, we headed back to our lodge and had dinner in the bar: a lamb burger for me and pork belly for Janet, and our first taste of huckleberry pie and ice cream. We kept being amused with a funny family dynamic at the table next to us, as a son-in-law was regaling his mother-in-law with all flavors of manly hunting stories, while his father-in-law had the look of "this guy is so full of shit" while SIL monopolized the entirety of the dinner's conversation.
Day 3: Janet had arranged for a West Glacier Tour on one of the iconic Glacier Red Busses, built in 1933 and continually restored. They maintain a fleet of 33 busses, and their website warns of "seats are not designed as today's busses" and only seat 16 people on bench seats, 4 across. And the roof is a roll-back canvas top, so expect a chilly drive at this point in spring. The tour headed west out Camas Road until the T with the gravel N. Fork Road, hitting several overlooks while a live person (!) told tales of the park. The mountains west of the lake had burned recently, but the views were still fantastic.
After the Tour, we went up to the Avalanche Campground which GTTS Road was gated as it hadn't been fully plowed yet. We took a nice little "nature loop" on the Trail of the Cedars and then revisited the turnouts that ran along McDonald Creek. We then drove down to Apgar Village before dining back in the bar at the Lodge.
Day 4: after another lovely breakfast buffet, we checked out and dropped by East Glacier Lodge, another one of the "classic" National Park Lodges, but, alas it was still closed for the winter (today was May 28th). As these lodges are bucket list items, we vowed to return, which is easily said because it's on the way back to Kalispell. We then headed out to Browning, MT and ate lunch at a Blackfeet Nation Casino, consuming fry bread tacos while watching old-school Loony Tunes.
Our first view of St. Mary Lake
On the way out to St. Mary we stopped at an overlook at the top of a climb, complete with what would be the norm in the Blackfoot Nation, large metal sculptures of mounted warriors, a teepee, and a great view of St. Mary Lake. We missed ID'ing the hotel right in St. Mary, so we drove out to the west end gate of the east end (get it?) of GTTS Road. Heading back, we found out hotel, the 3-star St. Mary Village, to be "a decently modern" hotel in lieu of the East Glacier Lodge. We had a light dinner in their restaurant: bison chili and (of course) huckleberry pie.
At check-in, the hotel clerk urged us to add the Two Medicine Sector of the park, so we made plans to head there the next day.
Day 5, May 29: after another lovely buffet breakfast, we backtracked a bit to Two Medicine Lake, and we're glad we did! There were stunning vistas on the road into this sector, then we took the short hike to Running Eagle Falls, then drove out to the store at the end of the road. We hiked out to Paradise Point then on to Aster Falls for a decent 4 mile out and back. We snacked back at the store, which had incredible views of the lake and mountains, and was decently provisioned for being as remote as it was.
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Two views of Two Medicine Lake
Great clouds and awesome landscape
Backtracking out of Two Medicine, the huckleberry bear claw pastry place we'd heard so much about (new location in Kiowa, MT instead of on a dirt road in western Lake McDonald) was still in final stages of "gearing up to be ready to open" so we bopped back to our hotel for dinner...I had shrimp 'n grits which was surprisingly good for "middle of nowhere Montana."
Day 6, Thursday: Breakfast at the usual hotel buffet ($22/person) and a promise from Camille, the restaurant manager, to bring in a spare bear spray as Janet was "worried" about any possible bear encounters, and once bought, one cannot take bear spray past TSA, in either carry-on or checked luggage. But Janet being Janet, the store in the little village sold her a $50 bear spray and a bear bell to wear on your jacket (bears don't like to be surprised so the saying goes, if they hear noise they'll move away)...anyway and we set out for St. Mary Falls (2.5 miles out) and Virginia Falls (another mile-plus beyond), which Camille highly recommended. Equipped with her spray and bell, we set off for Virginia Falls. Janet stopped at a lower cataract, which I didn't think were the actual falls, so I set out further up the trail. I ran in to a ranger and after a bit of a conversation, I asked him "if you see a short Asian woman lower on the trail, tell her to keep going." The falls were much more spectacular than the lower cataract; I'm glad I kept going up.
It was another cold and windy day: temps in the low 40 with winds at 10 - 20 mph, but we were very prepared with the appropriate layers. Other hikers on the trail looked downright frozen with only a t-shirt, sweatshirt, and shorts. After our hike to both falls, Janet wasn't too keen on taking the short nature loop (less than 1 mile) to Sun Point since it was exposed and windy as a rocky peninsula sticking out in to St. Mary Lake, but it led to one of the highlights of the trip.
After some quick, cold snaps of the lake and mountains from Sun Point, we were slowly making our way out of the parking lot when a momma bear and two cubs, oh, wait for it, there comes the third cub, crossed the road in front of us at about 30 meters distant.
Aerosmith's "Walk this Way" just happened to be playing on the radio
and Janet's gasp is from the third cub popping out on the left
Janet was much quicker with her phone and caught this video. Not being Vidiots of the National Parks, we stayed safe and warm in the car while momma waited for the tardy cub to cross the road. We then showed the video to the rangers at the Visitors' Center, and it was "yup, that's a female grizzly with three yearlings, not new births.
Day 7, Friday, May 31: we headed back in to St. Mary Lake sector, hiking out to Baring Falls, and as we headed back to St. Mary village, we came upon this rather relaxed bighorn sheep lolling along the side of the road.
Obviously blowing his winter coat, he munched his way to within 5 feet of our car, and, not being vidiots, we stayed in the car and did not attempt to capture a selfie with this wild guy. Back in St. Mary Village, we took the short hike to the "1913 Ranger Station" and hiked up to a lovely alpine meadow for some "100 foot hiking" as we used to do in the Boy Scouts. Then it was snacks after we hiked out the Beaver Pond Trail, after which we checked out of our hotel and headed to Many Glacier.
The short drive to Babb, MT featured a moose crossing the road in front of us, me being at highway speed. It wasn't a close call, but Janet missed it completely as he went right to left. We almost missed the turn at Babb, as there ain't much in Babb but a closed restaurant and the turnoff to Many Glacier Lodge.
We had about 5 miles of gravel road to get to the National Park entrance (boy, do I love the lifetime pass I got the day I turned 62!) and pavement alongside Lake Sherburne on WY Rt 3 until we got to the Many Glacier Hotel, a beautiful old-school Swiss chalet style hotel, on the shores of Swiftcurrent Lake. After we checked in to the "regular hotel" at St. Mary, Janet reduced that stay by one night and was able to increase our stay at Many Glacier to three nights. We would have had to change rooms for that third night but we were able to finagle the same lakeside-view "rustic" room for the whole stay.
Checking out the hotel, we asked a clerk at the gift shop why the hotel was so cold, she mentioned that this day was the first day they were open for the season, and it would take a while for the old hotel to warm up! We hung around the hotel until dinner, then ate at their bar where I had two "Mountain Man Scottish Ales" and a bison burger, which I thought it was a safe bet for opening night. Other tables with multi-generational families seemed to get very inconsistent delivery of meals and drinks, but what do you expect for "opening night."
Day 8, Saturday, June 1: after the usual Xanterra (the concession company for Glacier NP), buffet breakfast, we watched a grizzly way up on the mountain to the north of WY 3. We then hiked the 10 miles out and back to Grinnell Lake, where we saw eight bighorns and three mountain goats up the mountain to the north of the trail, plus a deer right off the trail ahead of us. An Asian Indian group, as we pointed out the bighorn herd, said, "oh, they're too far away to care!" Tech Bros in Mother Nature...
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We refueled our tired legs in the "Ptarmigan Room" (where they also set up the brekkies buffet) and I had a pork steak and Janet with duck confit. It was all very good, but we had to assure our frazzled waitress with "It's only Day 2--don't worry."
Day 9, Sunday, June 2: At this point, we knew the East Glacier Lodge was open, so we backtracked on US89, catching the early opening of the Kyiyo Mercantile and Bakery for their famous huckleberry bear claws...were rather "meh" eaten cold; they would've been much better warmed with butter, but they were the biggest bear claws I've ever seen. We had a nice conversation with the Blackfoot woman owner then were entertained by a Great Pyrenees rolling around in the dirt out on the picnic tables. We then found we could take MT49 to East Glacier, thus avoiding going back through the bleak prairie to Browning. After a lovely scenic drive, we popped in to the East Glacier Lodge's magnificent "lobby" adorned with an extensive poster history of the Great Northern Railway which built many of the lodges in the early 1900's.
We opted for lunch in the lodge, getting another check on our bucket list, and the restaurant was bedeviled with the same "opening issues" that plagued Many Glacier Hotel--their draft beer system was not working, but little did they know I could've put on my old "Markstein Beverage Beer Salesman" hat and fixed it for them!
After a leisurely lunch, we poked around the lodge and the grounds, then over to the Amtrak station that was under renovation, and learned that from April to September, Amtrak runs two trains a day through East Glacier! Amtrak touts a day trip (for $16) on the Empire Builder taking the 8am train from Whitefish to East Glacier, returning on the 6:45pm train.
Retracing our MT49/US89 route we followed a couple of the Glacier Red Busses; at one point (remember the open canvas rollback roof) a hat flew out of the open roof.
Back at the Many Glacier, we found out why the trail on the south side of Swiftcurrent Lake from the hotel was closed: a moose carcass was being leisurely munched upon by a local grizzly, about 200 meters out from the hotel. The lakeshore curved around to the right so we all had a ringside seat as the grizzly would snack for a bit, then chill on the beach for a bit, then get up and snack some more. Every once in a while he'd disappear into the forest off the beach, and then an hour later he'd emerge for a bite. We joined the binocular crowd in the lobby, watching his repast. Then, a real live moose popped up on the opposite shore, clomping along the shoreline then disappearing inland.
Dinner was in the dining room; more start-up delays with dinner, and we said a lot of, "we understand" to the harried staff.
Day 10, Monday, June 3: We woke up to heavy rain and high winds--katabatic winds my private pilot wife tells me, and the window close to where we sat for the buffet was leaking quite a lot. We had a nice long conversation with the manager of the restaurant, and she talked about the "typical issues, issues, and more issues" they find after opening after a long winter. Maintenance staff focuses on guest room issues as first priority, then common areas come next. And, we noticed we were now being served on paper plates and cups as the dishwasher broke down. And as she said, here in sparsely populated northern Montana, it's not like there are lots of repair shops you can call, and the hotel is at the end of a gravel road, with the largest city (Kalispell or Whitefish) a long way down the road.
We checked out and headed north, to Canada, but just south of the border we serendipitously saw a large herd of "Red Dogs" (young bison) right off the side of the road, across from the metal warrior sculptures announcing we were in the Blackfoot Nation. Janet had just read a Chronicle story about the Oakland Zoo, which has a decent sized bison herd in their expanded prairie area and they have an agreement with the Blackfoot to breed bison and ship Red Dogs out to their nation...like right here on the side of US89 north of Babb. The Red Dogs were separated from a good sized herd of adult bison, so I assume they have the cooperative agreement with the Oakland herd to diversify the gene pool. Very cool to just come on up on it, and know the details.
We continued up US89, which turns in to Canada Rt 2, and we stopped in Fort Macleod and checked out the old RCMP Fort and had a light lunch in the old downtown. Back on the road, I saw an interesting sign as we entered Nanton, Alberta advertising a Canadian Air Force museum in town. I'm a sucker for a World War II museum...and this was the "Bomber Command Museum" complete with an Avro Lancaster 4 engine bomber, in the flesh! The had a large display of sections of nose art, and a Lancaster cockpit that Janet posed in:
I really wanted this to be our 2024 Christmas Card picture...I thought it was very cool. This quirky museum, housed in a huge hangar in town, honored the Canadian Air Force's contributions in World War II. Nanton was the site where the Canadian Bomber Command trained their pilots before shipping them over to England.
From there, we finished the long drive north to Banff, sliding along with western 'burbs of Calgary but not missing much of the afternoon traffic, before heading back west on Canada Hwy 1. After pulling in to Banff, we were a little shocked as to how crowded it was; we were used to the light crowds in the just-opened Glacier NP areas, but here was a year 'round resort teeming with people. We scored a parking space on the street close to the Fairmont (formerly when I stayed there in a previous life known as the Banff Springs Hotel) and we took a spin around the now very fancy and expensive hotel. One of the bougie boutiques in the hotel sold Janet some bison and musk ox yarn, and we decided to eat at the little German restaurant's (the Waldhaus) patio just outside the hotel.
After dinner, we continued on to Lake Louise and our accommodation for the night, the Post Hotel & Spa. Everyone who has been there said we had to go to Moraine Lake, so we bought the shuttle passes as that is the only way you can go up there.
Day 11, Tuesday: Moraine Lake and Emerald Lake
The hotel's shuttle to Moraine Lake dropped us in a large parking lot, with lots of other people. It was cold and windy, and we hiked up to the top of the glacial moraine that forms the dam, and therefore the lake, but the crowds were heavy, and the trail to a must-see overlook was iced over and impassible. We ended up hiking out the right side of the lake, ate lunch at their swamped cafeteria, then took the shuttle back to the hotel, a bit bummed by the crowds.
Moraine Lake: the water level was low and the temperature was cold
We guessed any other lake might be less crowded, so we drove out to Emerald Lake and hiked around the left side trail, and we hung out at the Emerald Lake Lodge for a bit after the hike. Damn, too many tourists here!
Day 12: Drove to Lake Louise first thing, then hiked around the right shore trail out to an overlook that had signage to "go no further, you are entering bear country and it's best to leave them be." We then popped in to the Fairmont Lake Louise, which had a lot of cold, miserable people waiting in line for the only coffee available--the lobby itself was blocked off unless you had a room key. "Hey, we want to come in and spend some money, but I guess we ain't good enough for your fancy schmancy hotel."
We backtracked to Banff and spent the rest of the day exploring its downtown and we had dinner at an Irish Pub's bar. All told, we spent about $100 over the last two day's shuttles and parking at Moraine Lake, Lake Louise, and Banff. And Canada has an entrance gate on the eastern outskirts of Banff on Hwy 1; their three day pass for going in to this "national park region" costs CDN $65, and that pass receipt needed to be visible in your windshield.
My shot of Lake Louise
We have the Galen Rowell print of "Valley of the Ten Peaks" which captures an explosion of wildflowers with these sawtooth peaks in the background.
Day 13, Thursday: Leaving Lake Louise, we headed back west and south through some absolutely stunning scenery. We had designs earlier to go all the way to Jasper, but it was quite a ways further north so we scrubbed that from the itinerary which turned out a not-so-good decision, as downtown Jasper was nearly wiped out by a wildfire in mid-July.
We backtracked a bit on Hwy 1 and took Hwy 93 on what is called the Vermillion Crossing on maps, and scenery was drop dead gorgeous, with bear and mountain goat sightings at the side of the road as we made our way to Radium Springs, stopping at their well-appointed Visitors' Center in town. We then followed a valley between the Rockies and the Goat Range on Hwy 93, eating at a diner in Cranbrooke where the average age was north of mine, and I was turning 70 that August! We then headed back east at Elko, AB on Hwy 3 in to the Rockies, then a right at Pincher Creek on Hwy 6 on to Waterton and the Prince of Wales Lodge, sitting on a hill overlooking Waterton Village and Waterton Lake. Along with the Many Glacier Lodge sitting on the Swiftcurrent Lake shore, the Prince of Wales Lodge were the two highlights of our trip.
Same shot as a the top, Cameron Lake above Waterton, AB
We met Norman from Edmonton and his wife at dinner in the lodge, and he gave us all sorts of tips on what to see in the immediate area and across Canada. Among his suggestions was Elk Island National Park, where the first bison given to Golden Gate Park for their paddock came from.
Day 14, June 7, Friday: we spent a spectacular day up at Cameron Lake, where on the drive up and back from Waterton, we say two groups of Bighorns on the road and up the hill from the road, and one Grizzly walking up the hill about 50 yards above us. After going through Waterton Village and Afternoon Tea at the lodge, we backtracked out to Hwy 6 to a dirt road loop through Waterton Park's bison paddock. Just a wee bit bigger than Golden Gate Park's paddock by a few thousand acres, we found a herd of about 20 adults and a couple of Red Dogs hanging around a small waterhole, and watched the Red Dogs playing around like puppy dogs and the adults doing an occasional wallow...we were the only ones out there, watching all these hijinks.
I have an extensive video of a Red Dog frolicking and bothering one of the adult bison, and an earlier one of the Grizzly bopping along up the hill from us earlier that day, but I'm having trouble getting iPhone videos in to Google's Blogger, but I posted them earlier in my 'Gram account.
Day 15, Saturday: Flight back home
After crossing the border back in to Montana, we reversed our route on US89 through Babb, St. Mary, Kiowa and East Glacier then back over to Kalispell after a slight diversion to Whitefish where I met Mr. Mayor of Whitefish who bought me a pint or two at Karen's (and his daughter Maresa) graduation from University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA, just to say we'd been there. The flight back to SFO was uneventful, which is always great for a flight these days.
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