Bound for Flathead Lake

After we left Glacier, we decided not to take The Highway to the Sun back across the park because of the construction delays. So from Babb we headed south on Rt 89 with a plan to drive around the outside of the park. After we left St. Mary we started to climb and we went thru a stretch of road, of about 10 miles where as far as you could see on either side of the road was utter devastation. This was one of the areas hard hit in 2007 by forest fires. Burnt trees everywhere for mile after mile and then we started down towards Kiowa. Open lands, hilly plains, I guess you would call it open range. I had planned to head for Browning , but when we got to Kiowa, we found that Rt 49 was open and because on the map it seemed to be a more direct route to East Glacier we took it. At one point when we were in the park, someone had commented that the 2 most beautiful roads in Montana, or maybe anywhere, were the Highway to the Sun and Rt 12 going over Lolo Pass. He missed the best road of all, because without a doubt Rt 49 from Kiowa to East Glacier has to be the most spectacular. There were no guardrails!! There were signs that said beware of falling rocks and they were correct. Little rocks, huge rocks, strewn over the road and scenery to take your breadth away. I would like to say I stopped and took a lot of pictures, but that's not the case.

Mountain view from Rt 49

We drove around corners where the ground just fell off completely and we did stop occasionally, but only on the turnoffs that were very wide. We stopped in East Glacier for gas and saw the world's largest purple spoon and then had an uneventful ride to Bigfork, MT to rendezvous with Sean and Nicole for a day on Flathead lake. Woods Bay where we stayed is the home of Flathead Brewing. We went to the brewery and sampled their fare. I liked their Pale Ale the best.

Relaxing on Flathead Lake, at Woods Bay

We did go for a swim in Flathead Lake and the water was some chilly, much more like Maine that the Cape. On Saturday we explored Bigfork, which is sort of like a large Marion. Nice downtown with shops and restaurants, a short walk to the start of the lake, a nice place to visit. We made reservations for dinner at the Showthyme Restaurant and then went for a swim in the lake. Well, Sean went for a swim, and I got wet briefly. We had a great dinner that evening, followed up with a walk under starry skies and Sunday, after Ellen, Nicole and Sean went for a swim at Woods Bay we headed back to Missoula. On Monday Nicole had to work so, Sean, Ellen & I headed for RT 12, and found out that it wasn't one of the most scenic roads in Montana, but at Lolo Pass on the Montana, Idaho border we were able to do the span of time. On Tuesday we headed home after a vacation to remember.

Reaching into different time Zones

Farewell to Glacier

This will be the last post on our trip to Glacier. Thursday evening, July 10, 2008, we headed off to Babb for dinner at the steak house, which turned out to be less than memorable. On the way back into the park we noticed a number of cars parked alongside the road and as we slowed to look we saw a pair of Grizzly's playing in the field. We pulled in and watched for about 20 minutes.

The first Bears we saw-2 Grizzly's playing in a field

We watched them until dusk had really settled in and then headed back to the hotel. When all of a sudden a black mama bear and 3 cubs crossed the road in front of us. I was barely able to stop and get the camera out the window to grab a photo. Missed the mother but got the cubs.

3 Black Bear cubs crossing road

Friday morning we checked out of the hotel and then went on our last adventure in Glacier, for a short hike to Grinnell Lake. First we had to take 2 boat trips, first across Swiftwater lake, (the one in front of our hotel) and then another boat across Lake Josephine. The boat in Lake Josephine is stored in a shed for the winter. In the spring the shed has to be dug out by hand to get the boat ready for the summer season. It originally it was just hauled and covered, but one winter there was an avalanche and when the spring crew came to dig it out, they found it in the middle of the lake sitting on the ice. The hike to the lake was easy, nice trail with some boardwalks over wet areas and one trestle bridge. The trail to Grinnell glacier was closed, so the only glacier we saw was Salamander from a distance. There are some nice photos and descriptions of Salamander and Grinnell glacier at the slow hiker.

Salamander is at the top, Grinnell is below it and not visible from the lake

The trail to Grinnell Lake crossed a couple of streams, one by a suspension bridge and then thru a wet area on raised planks. We then had a nice walk back to the boats, back to the hotel and headed down to Flathead lake to get together with Sean & Nicole. The suspension bridge although not long was hard to walk across. You had to walk like on a line, because if if you stepped to the side the bridge swayed the opposite direction. We both had a hard time crossing the first time until we figured out what not to do. Coming back was much easier. When I was taking the video of Ellen crossing the bridge, the man standing next to me asked if he should shake the top wire. I said if he did it he was taking his life in his hands. Certainly looks easy but it was hard walking across. So we said good by to Glacier and the Many Glacier hotel and headed South.

Many Glacier Hotel on Swiftwater Lake

Bears & Meeses

The trail to Red Rock Falls Thursday July 10, 2008

Thursday's hike was just a short hike to a nice set of falls with plenty of wildflowers along the way on a relatively flat trail. The falls was 2 miles from the parking lot in Swiftwater with an elevation gain of only 200' . An easy hike after after the 10 mile Iceberg Lake hike. We did the usual breakfast in the canteen, picked up lunch and headed out. The trail started easy but in short order we ran into some returning hikers who said that there was a ranger up ahead and the trail was closed because of bears. We debated what to do and decided that maybe this was our chance to see some bears so we headed on. Ran into another group who told us the same thing and then we came to a trail on our left that ran down to Fishercap Lake. My guidebook said that it was a small lake with minimal views, but being a good redliner ,(no trail left un-walked), we took a chance and headed down. And lo and behold when we got to the lake there was a bull Moose feeding in the middle of the lake. He was walking along, sticking his head under water and feeding and then coming back up for air. We watched until he got to the other side of the lake. Then we went back to the main trail to the falls. We never ran into the ranger nor did we see any other wildlife on our way to the falls.
We were up on top of the falls around 1 pm. Ellen took a break and I walked on to see how far the next lake was. I came back and told her that I thought we could make it there in about 15 minutes, but she decided it was time for lunch, so we went back to the the bottom of the falls, for a much better view, and enjoyed the water falling down the rocks. Soon some more hikers joined us and told of their bear sighting just up the trail. A Grizzly and her cub crossed the stream and headed up the mountain. We were beginning to think that we would never see any bears while we were in Glacier. After lunch we headed back, planning on the great dinner we were going to have later , when all of a sudden Ellen screamed "Did you see that moose?", Nope, never saw it, even though it crossed right in front of us and headed down the slope toward the lake. There was a man up in front of us who said that he was practically run over when the moose crossed the trail. So when we came up on the Fishercap trail again, we took it to the lake, passing a white tail doe and her fawn, (no big thing we see them at home all the time). At the lake the cow moose was out in the lake eating the bottom grass just as the bull had been doing that morning. And shortly after that another cow and her calf came out of the bulrushes and into the lake. It was very windy so the calf did not venture into the lake, but mama did. She heard some noisemakers up on the trail and started towards us, perked up her ears, but then moved into feeding.

In our family one moose is a "Moose". 2 or more are "Meese". Like 1 goose is a "goose" and 2 or more are "geese". Over the years we have talked about Meese but this is the first time that we have actually seen them. So on the trail we have seen 2 cow, 1 bull and 1 calf Meese, mountain goats, a black snake, and a coyote. Surprisingly we did not see any hawks or eagles soaring around the peaks. We watched the Meese for a while and then headed back to Swiftwater for some more Huckleberry ice cream and then back to the Many Glacier Hotel for a short nap before dinner.