Joe's and Lori's Lives and Adventures: Glacier National Park

When Joe and I got married, we bought tickets on United Airlines. There were a couple of reasons - 1) I wasn't working at American at the time and it was actually cheaper and 2) the routing was better because we got married in Lake Tahoe and honeymooned in Hawaii. (To travel on American, we would have had to come all the way back to Dallas from Reno to get to Hawaii.) So, since we were traveling over 10,000 miles, we both signed up for their frequent flyer program. Joe would have been content to let the miles expire, but I decided we should each get a Chase credit card, earn some free miles and take a free - confirmed - trip. So we did!! And for our free, confirmed trip we picked Kalispell, MT because AA doesn't fly close to there and neither Joe nor I had ever been to Glacier National Park.

We moved around the park during the week and even took a side-trip up to the Canada side of the park - Waterton Lakes. It was a really beautiful week of exploring, boat trips, and hiking.

Our first stop was at the historic Lake McDonald Lodge. We would make this our home for a couple of nights. Unfortunately, I was not able to secure us a room IN the lodge, but instead, we stayed in an extension. I was mildly disappointed, but I must say that the room was clean and comfortable, and we don't spend that much time in our room anyway! It was Lake McDonald where we took our first boat tour - AND we saw a bald Eagle!!! He was quite beautiful!! It was also here we saw evidence of the 2003 Robert Fire and learned a little about the natural cycle of the forest and the eventual benefits of fire.

This is actually the back of Lake McDonald Lodge - the front faces the lake because that's how visitors arrived before they built the road:

Bald Eagle in the tree:

We did a couple of hikes from the Lake McDonald area including the John's Lake Loop Trail and the Avalanche Lake Trail. I was a little nervous when I saw all the signs posted concerning the Bear warnings. I'm not the least bit interested in happening across a bear on a hike!!! We did happen across a deer, which was okay, but scary in a way because we never saw - or heard - him coming. He just appeared!!

At Avalanche Lake:

From Lake McDonald, we headed over to Many Glacier Lodge, which was my favorite lodge during our visit. It was on our way there that we had our first bear sighting - a momma and her 3 cubs. Also during our stay at Many Glacier, we did our favorite excursion - the Red Bus Tour. They picked us up in the morning and we spent all day touring across the Going-to-the-Sun road back to Lake McDonald. It was really fun!!! The day was nice, so we had the top down and Joe was able to enjoy the Going-to-the-Sun Road since he wasn't driving!!!

Many Glacier Lodge:

Momma and her babies:

Red Bus Tour:

At St. Mary's Lake:

From Many Glacier, we headed north to Canada to Waterton Lakes National Park and the Prince of Wales Hotel. We were on the 6th Floor here. Unfortunately, the elevator only went part of the way and was often hard to catch, so we took many, many stairs during our visit!! Still, I enjoyed our little room in the attic - and, in general, liked this hotel although I thought the staff was least friendly here.

We took another boat ride while at Waterton Lakes - of Waterton Lake. The tour actually docks on the other side of the lake, which is in the US at Goat Haunt. And, we did a few hikes in Canada - the Blakiston Falls Trail, the Cameron Lake Trail, Akimina Lake Trail, and Bear's Hump. Bear's Hump was really hard for me, but the reward at the top was spectacular!!!

Cameron Lake from the hiking trail:

From the top of Bear's Hump:

Back to the US, we stopped back at Many Glacier and took our final boat tour - Swiftcurrent Lake and Josephine Lake (2 for the price of 1). You take the boat to the far side of Swiftcurrent Lake, get out, and walk a short trail over to Josephine Lake. At the far side of Josephine Lake, you can get out and hike to Grinnell Lake. This was probably my favorite hike of the week. Grinnell Lake is so beautiful!!! We opted to hike all the way back to Many Glacier instead of taking the boats - it was a nice hike, as well.

Grinnell Lake:

Our last stop was at Two Medicine, but we didn't hike here. It was late in the afternoon and we were on our way to the last of our historic lodges - Glacier Park Lodge.

Overall, we really enjoyed our trip and our week in nature. We saw a lot of different wildlife while we were gone - bears, elk, mountain goat, and big horn sheep - and we thought that was pretty cool. The mountains are absolutely beautiful and we saw a couple of the glaciers that are still left. We have a full week of stuff left on our to-do list and we have, more than happily, added Glacier National Park back to our vacation destination wish list.

Bear: