On our days off last week we made the decision to travel to the Canadian side of the park. For those that may not know, there are two national parks–one American(Glacier) and one Canadian(Waterton Lakes)–that form an international peace park.

We drove to Waterton townsite, which reminded us of a Bar Harbor or Camden. It is a small town right on Waterton Lake with shops, restaurants, motels, and summer homes. It is also the home of the famous “Prince of Wales” hotel. We tried to go visit it, but it wasn’t very RV friendly and was a bit away from the rest of the town. I’ll just have to imagine the good looking waiters in kilts! Here is a photo of the hotel. High tea is served in the afternoons.

We were lucky enough to get a campsite in Crandell Lake campground in the park so we decided to stay over and do some things while we were there. The first day we played tourist and walked around all the shops, ate at an outdoor cafe for lunch, and took in the sights.
We enjoyed a lazy afternoon reading books by the lake.
We got tickets for a boat tour the following day and returned to the campground.
That is where the 10 bears came in. First we saw a mom and cub. We were able to pull over and take photos and watch them feed for about 30 minutes. It was great fun. We continued on down the road and saw another mom and cub. Then a third pair, a lone grizzly, and a mom with two cubs. That satisfied even Kyle’s quest for bears (for a little while, anyway!)

After setting up camp and getting a good night’s sleep, we were set for our boat tour the next morning. We took the hiking gear because the plan was to take the boat from Canada to the US end of the lake, do a hike, and then hike back to the Canadian side.

The ranger station on the US side is an official border crossing and we had to show passports. It is called “Goat Haunt” and there is even an official stamp you can get put in your passport.

We hiked from Goat Haunt up to Kootenai Lake (5.6 miles round trip). We were treated to five moose feeding in the lake. There were 3 cow moose and 2 bulls.

We walked back to the ranger station where we had a lunch break, and then started on the Waterton Lakeshore Trail to walk back to where we had started. (9.7 miles) This trail was a bit disappointing when compared to the others we have done. It was somewhat overgrown in places, although rangers lead an “international peace” hike on the trail twice a week. We were hoping for more views of the lake, but weren’t rewarded. There were some interesting suspension bridges on the trail. I decided I would never make it in Africa on those long ones that are in all the adventure movies. Especially when the bad guys are shooting and the boards break! Kyle, on the other hand, thought longer ones would be cool.
One neat thing…we hiked across the international border. Not everyone that does that can say they didn’t have to worry about being chased by border police! 🙂After getting back to town we rewarded ourselves with dinner out and bought some souvenirs to bring home. Kyle decided he wanted a pair of moccasins trimmed with rabbit fur. Terry got a decorative pottery plate with bears on it, and Glen decided on a t-shirt with a running shoe and a hiking boot making claims about having only to be faster than your hiking partners when hiking in bear territory. Too bad for Glen….the store where we had seen that shirt the day before was closed, and he didn’t get to purchase it.

We headed home, crossing the border and being inspected AGAIN. It seems that we get into Canada with just a few questions, but every time we try to come home we need to let the customs officials inside the camper where they check the refrigerator, cupboards, and look in the bathroom to see if we have anyone hidden in there. So, I guess you can all feel safe. They are inspecting all suspicious characters trying to get in the country!

Kyle’s cross-country training is going well, but on the long hikes his knee starts to feel twingy. So, on our last couple of days off this week we think we are going to just do some short day hikes that are pretty photogenic and get our last fill of Glacier. Our work schedules run from Sunday through Saturday, and we are not sure yet what will happen with next Sunday. Usually, we work Sundays. We are scheduled to leave bright and early Monday morning to begin our trip home. If we are not needed to work Sunday, we may try to escape a bit early…but won’t know until probably Saturday if we can. The good thing is it is easy to pack. Just pull in the slideout and unplug the cords! See you all soon,
Terry, Glen, and Kyle

P.S. While nobody took a guess, the glacier in the last post is named “Salamander Glacier”

For those that think you have to hike to enjoy Glacier, this post may be reassuring. There are things to do that don’t involve backpacks. While the family was out, we did some of these activities and will share them with you.

The first day we slept in after arriving late from the airport, and then went for a drive to the “Two Medicine” area of the park. We took a short walk~~related to a hike but no backpacks~~to a waterfall. Running Eagle falls are named for a woman warrior from the Blackfeet tribe who came here on her vision quests. The falls seem to come out of the side of the cliff. We drove on to Two Medicine Lake where we were thinking about a boat ride. It was pretty windy, and we also missed the boat by about 5 minutes. So, we settled for a trip around the gift store where Grammy found the perfect puzzle for our next Sugarloaf vacation. (No, Carl, we promise it really isn’t ALL blue)

We finished off day one with a ride into the Many Glacier area of the park to see if we could spot some wildlife and maybe catch a boat ride from the hotel there. But, once again we were a bit late. We did pick up a schedule to use later in the week and booked a trip on the red jammer bus tours for the following day. Grampy decided he wasn’t really excited about mountain roads, so he bought a book of bear stories and planned to stay in the cabin while the rest of us took the tour. We told him he couldn’t share any of those stories, so we don’t know how the book was!

When Wednesday dawned, it came in with a roar. There were thunderstorms in the early morning. As things cleared up a bit we were treated to a beautiful rainbow in front of the mountains. It stayed really windy so for part of our tour the red bus kept the canvas cover on.
As the weather cleared, we did remove the top for the classic jammer tour. We stopped at Logan Pass, and we had fun seeing how much snow had melted since the beginning of the summer. If you compare the photo below to the one we took on our first trip across the Going to the Sun Road, you can see there is a big difference.
We ate a nice lunch at Lake McDonald Lodge on the west side, and came back over the mountains. The views never get old. We stopped and our guide told us a bit about the glaciers where we could see Jackson Glacier. Like the others, it is shrinking. Right now, it is covered in snow so it is hard to see the bluish color and all the cracks.
Kyle and Paul enjoyed the back seat of the red bus, and near the end of the tour discovered the chest of wool blankets in front of them. I am sure they (and a few others) had wished to know about them earlier, as it was pretty chilly in that convertible!
Thursday, we went back into the Many Glacier area of the park for a hike. Yes, backpacks were involved, but only the small ones. We hiked up part of the Iceberg Lake trail to take Marge, Vaughn, and Paul to Ptarmigan Falls. While hiking we heard there was a grizzly that had crossed the trail just a bit ahead of where we were. We were told to make noise. Grammy did, but Kyle got awfully quiet! We never did see a bear on the trail.
Friday we returned to Many Glacier to try a boat tour (schedule in hand). On the way in we were searching the area for the famed wildlife. You can imagine Kyle’s disappointment when we rounded a corner and Mom yells out, “Bears–two of them!” Pause….”Oops! Sorry, cows.” It got even better as we saw more and then had to wait out a “Montana traffic jam” while they decided which side of the road they wanted to be on.
During our boat tour, we got a great view of this glacier. Does anyone want to guess the name? (Hint: look at the shape of it) We’ll tell you the name in the next posting.The tour itself begins at the Many Glacier Hotel. For Stephen King fans, this hotel is the one he based his novel “The Shining” on. A caretaker still lives here all winter. He gets snowed in and sees nobody all winter. Snow covers the lower stories of the motel.

The boat crosses Swiftcurrent lake and lets the passengers off at the boatdock on the other end. You walk two tenths of a mile to Lake Josephine and board another boat. After crossing this lake you have an opportunity to take a ranger-led walk to Grinnell Lake and view Grinell Glacier. You can also do some other trails or hike on your own. You get a ticket to get back on a later boat. Since we had done a hike the day before and some of us were wearing sandals we opted to just stay on the boat and ride it back. We saw several deer on our boat ride as well as some ducks.
It was after the boat ride, on the way out of the park to find lunch that we spotted that grizzly I posted yesterday. We were really glad to see one and it was a great ending to the park portion of our trip with all the family.

The last day we couldn’t think of anything to do that didn’t involve mountainous roads or hiking, so we went to the town of Browning and toured the Museum of the Plains Indian. There were some interesting displays, but overall it was a disappointing museum. Pretty small, no interactive displays with audio or videos like some we have seen. (Guess we’re spoiled) We would have like some kind of a guided tour or something!

We had to work the 3-11 shift that afternoon, and then get a little sleep. The airport is about 2 and 1/2 hours away so we had to get up at 3am to get people ready for the flight. Good thing we found some coffee on the way! We were glad to get updates from home on the progress of the flights and to know that everyone made it safely.

Can’t quite believe our work week is almost over again and we have Wednesday and Thursday off. We are not sure yet if we will go visit the Canadian part of the park or go on an overnight backpack. It is hard to know what we REALLY want to do before we go home. Still lots of choices that all look good. We’ll let you know what we decided when we get back.

Glen, Terry, and Kyle

Well…..Our hats are off to all who knew that Paul was coming out to visit us. We had NO idea, and were stunned to see him get off the plane with Marge and Vaughn. I don’t think we stopped grinning all week, and we are extremely thankful to everyone that had a hand in this. Not even suspecting made it extra special.

We had a fun week as a family and saw some of the park together. We also tried out more local restaurants, did a small hike, took a boat tour, had a red bus tour, and played some cards. I’ll try to get some photos up soon, but am just rushing to get this message out before heading to work this afternoon.

One big highlight…..FINALLY we saw a bear. Paul had the magic eyes. It wasn’t close enough for Kyle, and perfectly fine with Grammy that we were in the car at the time!

First…Gary, you HAVE to do this one sometime. And you would have some willing hiking buddies. We know we couldn’t see everything on one trip. 🙂 We’ll share more photos if you need convincing, but it takes a long time to upload them to this site. We’ll just give you a taste.

We hiked 15.2 miles over some of the most breathtaking scenery we have ever seen. For anyone that might be interested in the trail details, there are topographic maps at the Glacier National Park website that will give you an idea of the trails and landmarks. This one just has photos and an idea of where the trail starts and stops. Trail Map We started at Logan Pass on the Going to the Sun Road, hiked the “Highline Trail” to “Granite Park Chalet”, then climbed up “Swiftcurrent Pass” to the “Swiftcurrent Trail” and descended in the valley and past the lakes to “Many Glacier Hotel”.

Along the way we worried about the weather and had a great deal of clouds and mist at the beginning. As Kyle put it, “I didn’t agree to hike in the rain.” Luckily, we only got sprinkled on a little bit, but the mist would lift away and then return as we skirted the mountainsides. We got to look down on the Going to the Sun Road from high above. At one place there were cables to assist hikers who wanted a security blanket to keep them away from the drop — read this to mean Glen — but the drop itself was shrouded in mist. No stomach clenching moments at all, and Glen was happy to give up that particular view. We were on the Continental Divide trail looking at the western view. We crossed some snowfields, interrupted a mountain goat family eating near the trail, and saw many beautiful sights. We ate lunch at the Granite Park Chalet, and realized why it costs so much to stay there and why it is so hard to get a reservation. What a beautiful location!

After lunch we climbed up through Swiftcurrent Pass and got the view on the other side of the continental divide. Now we were descending on the eastern side of the divide. We saw bighorn sheep, lots of waterfalls, and had views of the lower valley and lakes all the way down. The switchbacks were many, the trail was narrow, but we enjoyed the view.

In the valley, we still had many miles to go as we had to skirt the lakes to get back to the motel where we had left our camper. This area was labeled as having high bear activity and the ranger we met had seen three that day. Kyle is still disappointed that we haven’t seen one, as our “bad?” luck continued. He thinks we should hire out as guides for people that don’t want to encounter bears on the trail!

We did have a fox cross our path and see a deer in the trees on that final leg. Overall, a great way to spend a bit less than eight hours. We didn’t get rained on much, the sun broke out at the right times, and we ended the day with a great dinner at a little cafe.

Can’t wait until we meet up with Marge and Vaughn Monday night. We expect to have a great time showing them around the park. We promise not to take them on any long hikes with cliffs! Until next time,
Terry, Glen, and Kyle

Glen has a post almost ready to publish about a hike he and Kyle took, but I wanted to tell you about our rafting trip. We had some days off last week, and made a spur of the moment decision to go rafting on the middle fork of the Flathead River.

There are several rafting companies, but we had heard good things about Glacier Raft. We signed up, and had a pleasant surprise….they have a special rate for area employees~~ $15! So, for $48 dollars total, we went rafting.

The rapids weren’t HUGE, but it was a great ride. We alternated between sets of rapids with some great wave trains and fairly tranquil pools. The rapids were mostly class 3. The water was only about 42 degrees, so getting wet was an invigorating experience!

The other cool thing was that the weather had been a bit unsettled during the day, and some rain showers had moved through. The company had some cancellations, so at our time slot, we were the only boat. We shared our raft with some other local employees and their family(we didn’t know them), and the sun came out to make our trip pleasant. We had the river to ourselves.

Glen and Kyle volunteered when the guide asked for “strong paddlers” to sit in the front. They were in charge of setting the paddle stroke rate. I got to sit right behind Kyle. If you have been rafting, you may know that the front is a pretty wet place to be. But we prefer it to the back, which is a “bouncy” place to be.

Of course, we didn’t take the camera, but like all good rafting companies, they had a photographer stationed at critical points along the river. They post the photos online, so I will include a raft photo link so you can see how much fun we were having. Raft Photos

I’ll make Glen finish his hike post, and we’ll update you again soon. We have been having a few Internet connectivity issues in the campground, but we think they are solved.

Kyle is “dog-sitting” tomorrow. (For those that may not know, he isn’t too fond of dogs) Luckily it is for a cute, friendly, little poodle, and all he has to do is take him for a walk around noon while the owners are on a tour in the park.

Hope everyone is happy and healthy. Talk to you soon,
Terry

Hello everyone! One day while Terry was working, the owners of the campground offered to take Kyle and I on a hike to Ptarmigan Tunnel. The hike started on the Iceberg Lake trail, then took a turn towards a tunnel through a mountain pass. This tunnel had just recently been cleared of snow, and Kyle and I jumped at the chance to have a guided tour of the trail.
This picture is looking back at a lake that we passed along the trail, just before we arrived at the tunnel.

Here is another picture of the lake, taken from a closer vantage point. By comparing these two pictures, you can see how much we had to climb up from the lake. The trail had snow across it in several different places.

Here are Kyle and I posing at the top of the trail, and the view in back gives you another look at the direction we came from. The trail to the tunnel was 5+ miles from the parking lot, but the climbing was mostly gradual.

This is the view from the other side of the tunnel. We could have continued down the other side, but we had no desire to camp in the back country overnight. The payoff was certainly worth the effort expended.

Several of us in the hiking group had to get back early for our work shifts, and somehow I was the only adult who had to scurry to keep up with the youngsters as we headed back down the trail. We did the return trip in one and one half hours, which is hoofing it pretty hard.

I would stop to take a picture, the young pups would gain some ground on me, then I would literally have to run to catch up with them. It’s a good thing that I’m not competitive, or it might have ended up in a race.

Here are three of the teenagers who Kyle works with. The boy in the middle is from the country of Moldova, and the two girls are related to the campground owners. Kyle and the boy had a contest to see who could hold their hands in the snow covered lake the longest — they declared it a draw about two minutes in.

This hike was, scenery-wise, one of the high points of our trip. Kyle and I finished a little bit foot sore, but that was a small price to pay for a perfect day of hiking. Oh, yeah, if the return trip had been a race, I would have won. At least that’s my story.

Until next time,

Glen

Hi everyone! We all had a day off together yesterday, and decided to “play tourist” as we call it when we do what everyone else in an area is doing. The major attraction in this part of the park is the “Going to the Sun Road”. It takes about three hours to drive/ride one way. We rode the free shuttles all the way from the East to the West side of the park and back again.

One motivation for this was the memory of a little cafe on the west side where we ate lunch and pie when we came through in 2004. The cafe is called “Eddie’s” and has a little old “pie lady” that has been baking for years. The specialty is a pie called peach-huckleberry. It is yummy! But, we decided to try something new this time. Glen had huckleberry cobbler ala mode, I had chocolate moose cake, and Kyle didn’t find anything to his liking. (poor Kyle)

We enjoyed the ride, took a few photos, and saw some wildlife. I missed the chance to get a photo of a really new baby mountain goat, so Kyle says I am an awful photographer. Probably he has a point, because I tend to forget I have the camera in my hand when exciting things happen!

Here are a few of the things we saw on our “three hour tour” (no lifeboats!)
Lots of beautiful vistas along the road. You can see the road in the photo on the right side. There is a trail just above the road that we hope to hike later in the summer. Right now it has too much ice on it.
Here is where I missed the photo of the baby mountain goat, because I was trying to get a photo of the one I could see. The mom and baby were just past this one, down lower.
A small herd of bighorn sheep were playing just below Logan Pass.
Kyle and Glen at Logan Pass. Behind them you may see some people hiking on the trail(?) to Hidden Lake Overlook. It is snowcovered at the moment, and some people have had skis out there.
While there is still a lot of snow at Logan Pass, there are some beautiful yellow flowers that are blooming now as well.
The waterfalls are really flowing. Everywhere you look almost, you can see the snowmelt flowing into the crystal clear rivers. Not really swimming temperature! (Unless you are a teenager. Then you seek out the chance to jump off cliffs into the water and swim to shore with your teeth chattering. I’ll try to get Kyle to write about that soon)
As you can see, there is still lots of snow left to melt off. It is fun to watch the scenery change each day as the snow melts and things turn green. It is almost as if the mountains change shape!

We are all getting our excercise, reading, and playing lots of cards. Hope things are going well at home. Talk to you again soon,
Terry

Terry requested that I write an entry for our blog, and I don’t think that she knows what she’s getting into. I’m the person who writes 2 page morning announcements detailing the exploits of my school cross country team, so who knows how long my entries might be.

The three of us went on a hike today with the intention of ending up at a place called Iceberg lake. We didn’t quite make it there, but we had a great time on the trail. Terry is going to attach a few photos, and I’ll write a few comments about each one.
These first two pictures show off some of the scenic views that are around every corner on the hike to Iceberg Lake. We included these specifically to bring envy to the minds of my buddies who enjoy the outdoors. Gentlemen, you know who you are, and I hope you enjoy the pictures.
While Kyle hasn’t vowed to get through the entire vacation without smiling(as he did when we crossed the country a few years ago), any picture with him in it will probably demonstrate the serious nature of the task at hand.

This photo illustrates my take on the famous expression “Stop and smell the roses.” I stopped and took photos of flowers along our way, then would race to catch back up to Terry and Kyle. And you didn’t think that I had such an appreciation for nature’s beauty, did you?

This is another example of “Bear Grass”. Thankfully, we didn’t see any bears close up enough to take a picture. We did see a grizzly after we finished our hike, but it was high on a mountainside a long ways from us. At least Kyle can no longer say that the grizzlies are only a myth to attract tourists.
I guess that Terry included this picture to document that I actually went on the hike instead of staying behind at the parking lot asleep in the R.V.

Terry and Kyle are showing off the first snow that we found on the trail. While this certainly isn’t one of the glaciers that gives the park its name, it was an indication that we had traveled a far piece from Maine. Further along the trail we had to hike through snow in several places.

We had hiked about 4 miles of our 5 mile journey into the lake when a ranger came from the other direction with news of severe thunderstorms with hail that were heading our way. We decided to cut our hike short and see the lake another day. As we hit the pavement of the parking lot the rain started to fall, so even though Gary would have made a different choice, I believe our decision was a good one. I know that Doug would understand.

Until next time,
Glen

For those of you that know Kyle, it may come as a shock, but he is now a pretty good short order cook. He is working in the snack wagon making burgers, hot dogs, and pizza. He sometimes delivers the pizza as well. When the golf-cart wasn’t around, he could be seen using his cross-country skills running through the campground with a pizza in hand!

He makes pretty good tips, and is becoming quite good at carrying on conversations with his customers. It helps that he has traveled to so many places. He often can speak about visiting somewhere near where the customer is from. He’ll probably get tired of telling everyone that he likes lobster, too! (The nametag tells everyone he’s from Maine)

Tomorrow is the first day that we all have off together, and we are heading up to the Many Glacier area of the park to hike the trail to Iceberg Lake. We will be sure to take photos and share details when we return. Now…off to buy some bear spray. 🙂