We checked out of our room in Kalispell early and drove through the rain to the east side of Glacier Park hoping for better weather. Even with the rain and ominous congregation of dark and dramatic clouds, we were struck by the views along the way.
After making some calls, we finally located a motel that was willing to take George and Jane. Little did we know, those were the last calls we would be making for a few days. Neither of us had any cell phone signal once we were on the east side of the park. We found the motel located up on a hill across the street from the St. Mary entrance of East Glacier. The views were amazing.
As with our initial arrival in West Glacier, we were greeted by another bear sighting just inside the Many Glacier entrance of East Glacier. This encounter was even closer. A mama grizzly and her two cubs crossed the road directly in front of us. Here are the pictures and short video we were able to capture:
Before we embarked on our journey to discover the treasures of Many Glacier, we decided to ask a ranger what the best hikes were given the bad weather. He directed us to the Swift Current trail that had views of a waterfall about 2 miles in, and Bullhead lake that was about 4 miles in. He said if we went a couple of miles further down, the trail would turn into ice and snow. As an alternative, he mentioned that we could check out the waterfall and if the weather didn't clear up we could turn around and have a drink in the historic Many Glacier hotel.
We grabbed our Disney ponchos with Mickey on the back and made our way down the trail.
At first glance, from a considerable distance, the waterfalls didn't impress us. We couldn't understand why he would tell us to hike 2 miles each way to see some piddly waterfalls all the way across the lake. We decided to keep going down the trail and see if we could get a closer look. We were happily surprised to find out that not only could we get closer, but the falls were absolutely beautiful.
At this point the weather hadn't cleared up yet, but we weren't done. We wanted the snow. So we pushed forward into the rain, wind, and cold. And of course more beautiful views:
We came upon a deer gently nibbling on some leaves in the rain. He looked at us curiously before moving along:
We found the snow! You would have thought that we just discovered gold, but a snow patch in the middle of summer was enough to make us giddy:
Having found our snow, we debated turning back. But we weren't done yet. We wanted to know what was ahead.
This is where the trail would start to get a lot more interesting:
Then we arrived to find a turquoise jewel at the base of snow capped mountains in a valley of lush greens and multi-colored wild flower. The pictures speak for themselves:
At first glance, from a considerable distance, the waterfalls didn't impress us. We couldn't understand why he would tell us to hike 2 miles each way to see some piddly waterfalls all the way across the lake. We decided to keep going down the trail and see if we could get a closer look. We were happily surprised to find out that not only could we get closer, but the falls were absolutely beautiful.
At this point the weather hadn't cleared up yet, but we weren't done. We wanted the snow. So we pushed forward into the rain, wind, and cold. And of course more beautiful views:
We came upon a deer gently nibbling on some leaves in the rain. He looked at us curiously before moving along:
We found the snow! You would have thought that we just discovered gold, but a snow patch in the middle of summer was enough to make us giddy:
Having found our snow, we debated turning back. But we weren't done yet. We wanted to know what was ahead.
This is where the trail would start to get a lot more interesting:
Then we arrived to find a turquoise jewel at the base of snow capped mountains in a valley of lush greens and multi-colored wild flower. The pictures speak for themselves:
We still weren't ready to turn back. We had to push on and hike as far as we could. And then the trail got really interesting. Here's Kim to show us just how interesting:
The ranger's words had proven true. The trail turned to ice and snow. We crossed rivers and streams and ended up at the base of an enclosure of mountains and we were once again in awe. We had reached some place special. Some place untouched and unpredictable. We had taken the road less traveled and were rewarded with something we would never forget.
What we thought would be an easy 4 mile hike to see a nice waterfall, turned into an epic 10 mile trek through adverse conditions that brought us face to face with true wilderness in all her glory. Here's a video and some pictures of what we saw:
Our shoes and pants from the waist down were soaked through, but we made it back to the charming and rustic Many Glacier Hotel to warm up. We decided to leave the park to get dinner, and just when we thought we had seen all the beauty we could for that day we were met with this:
Our dinner consisted of true Montana fair, a Bison Burger and Bison Egg Rolls at Two Sisters Cafe in St. Mary. After seeing all the advertising of Huckleberry Pie, Ice Cream, etc we decided to get some Huckleberry Peanut Butter Pie for dessert. It was delicious. We then made it back to the hotel and found a laundromat to dry our shoes and wash our clothes.
The next morning we arose early and made it back to Many Glacier for a 2 hour scenic horseback ride through Cedar Flats. Luckily we were the only ones there for the 7:45 am ride so we had our own private guide as we rode on the trails and enjoyed the views. Our horses Steel and Elmo were a lot of fun and our guide, Erin, was great. She was fun to hangout with and gave us some great information. My favorite parts of the ride were crossing the streams, seeing the moose, and getting to play cowboy in my mind. It was a darn tootin' good time.
We drove back to the motel, got the dogs, took one more drive on Going to the Sun Road as we could, and then headed towards Yellowstone. Here are a few parting shots from our drive:
