Glacier National Park

Saturday, May 17, 2014--Kalispell to Glacier National Park and Back

We headed out to Glacier National Park this morning after a leisurely breakfast at the hotel.  The park is only about 45 minutes away from Kalispell.  We stopped first at an Alberta, Canada, information center that had some nice exhibits (T-Rex dinosaur, bear, chuck wagon,  a 4-man bobsled, etc.) and promotes the idea of tourists visiting Waterton, the Canadian portion of the mountains that form the international park spnning the border of the two countries.

At the official US visitor center for Glacier, we were helped by a very nice, young ranger with a beard and wearing a ranger hat.  We told him we wanted to hike, and he asked a few questions before recommending a circular hike of about 3 miles (5 km) near Johns Lake.  Then he recommended stops along the way to there and further up the mountain from there.

Our first stop was at the bottom of Lake McDonald, a long finger lake with views of the snow-capped mountains beyond.  The lake was very placid and two men were kayaking over it in the distance.

Our next stop was the Lake McDonald Lodge, the old hotel that has been at the park for most of its history.  Although not as large as the old lodges at Yosimite and other national parks, it has a rustic and dramatic style.  The lobby is a two-story atrium surrounded by a balcony and decorated in native-American/western American style.  The lodge was not open to the public, but employees were busy cleaning it and getting everything in place for its seasonal opening next weekend which made it easy to sneak peaks inside without being detected.

The circular hike that included John's Lake took us through tall cedar trees and along trails that were sometimes quite soft from fallen leaves and other matter.  Eventually, it took us over the McDonald Creek at a point where there was a rushing waterfall.  At that point, in trying to follow the ranger's directions on the map, we made a wrong turn.  It took us about 1.5 miles (2.5 km) in the wrong direction.  We eventually realized it was wrong and turned back.  It was through a beautiful, remote area of the park that allowed us to see more waterfalls, to climb over fallen trees that were as thick as 1 yard (1 m), and to be far away from any other persons in the park, so we didn't mind the extra experience.  We backtracked to find the route we should have followed, and that extra distance made our total hike about 4.5 miles (7.5 km)--1 1/2 times as long as it would have been if we had stayed only where the ranger suggested we hike.

At one stop along the McDonald Creek to see a falls, I noticed a butterfly on a man's hand.  When they left, I went to the same point he stood, and the butterfly was still fluttering around.  I held out my hand, and it landed on it.  I guess that it has become used to the tourists and likes landing on them--somewhat of a domesticated butterfly!

Back at the car, we drove to Avalanche on the Going-to-the-Sun Road.  That is as far as the road is open so far this year.  Generally, it takes them until mid-June to clear the snow from the highest elevations of the drive, so they open it section-by-section as they can.  At Avalanche, we took another circular hike on the Trail of the Cedars.  It was very populated with walkers and was paved/planked for easy access by the handicapped.  We didn't really see anything that special along it, but there was an interesting series of 5-7-5 Haiku poems to read along the route.

We had been at the park about 4 hours by then, so we headed back to Kalispell.  We went through two sporting goods stores--Cabella's and Sportsman and Ski Haus--which are very similar kinds of stores.  Also, we ate dinner.  We were tired by the time we got back to the hotel around 7:00 p.m.