50 After 50 – Glacier National Park

For me, one beautiful part of travel is research and discovery...learning from others while listening to their adventures. Summer months may be actual "go time," but winter can play an important role. Once our vacation days are scheduled, we're like Santa checking his list. The list of places to go, things to see.. and National Parks never seem to disappoint. Do you make a list when you travel?

Glacier National Park made the top of the list this time. Montana is a state we have never visited. For cost efficiency, we used our Southwest points and flew to Spokane, Washington. There we rented a car to experience the beautiful drive across Idaho into Kalispell, Montana, then on to Glacier Park.

Leaving the Spokane airport, we drove I-90 to Sandpoint, Idaho for a Cozy Cabin AirBnB our first night. Waking up on a cool Idaho Sunday morning, our obvious choice for breakfast was a Trip Advisor recommendation... a lakeside restaurant called Spuds. After breakfast we purchased a few grocery supplies and headed north to Bonners Ferry, taking Hwy 2 (the scenic route into Kalispell, Montana). Traveling along the Kootenai River, wildlife was abundant. We saw mule deer, ravens, a bald eagle, and more. After arriving in Kalispell, the walk downtown from our upstairs AirBnB to Hops Downtown Grill for dinner, felt nice. Slider burgers made from Yak-Bison and Elk were our menu choice. After dinner we explored the Flathead Lake area and learned of the native Bullhead trout.

Monday morning, chilly rainy weather greeted us. However, Going to the Sun Road had just opened for the season, and I couldn’t wait to see this magnificent place! Loading our cooler with snacks and water, along with cold weather and rain gear, maps, etc., we drove to the West Entrance. We spent the day along the entire 50 mile Going to the Sun Road stopping at pull offs to gawk, finding restrooms, tossing a snowball, visiting St Mary’s Visitor center – a recon mission of sorts. We saw Cascade Falls, snow, clouds in the sky, mountains, bighorn sheep, waterfalls, traffic, rain, fog, the weeping wall, elk, bison. The Snow Goose Grill, equipped with a warm fire, was our late lunch spot. The rest of the day was spent exploring from Kalispell to the West Entrance, Going to the Sun Road and the East Entrance, then back to Kalispell. That day the temperatures ranged from 51 to 39 near Logan Pass.

Tuesday we packed everything and left our Kalispell lodging. Sunshine and blue sky made today’s drive to the park and Going to the Sun Road look amazingly different. Some of the views were breathtaking. Who knew there were so many shades of green? Our original hiking plans were thwarted due to a full trail-head, our second idea met with full crowd capacity at Many-Glacier. Our word for today was ‘fluid’. If plan A doesn’t work, then it’s always good to have plan B and C in mind. Our plan C was to head to Waterton. At the Canadian border, we used our passports for the first time and had a conversation with the border patrol agent about RC Cola and Moon Pies. Passing thru part of the Blood Indian Reservation and realizing the 80 speed limit sign is kilometers, not miles per hour, was part of this trek. We hiked to Lower Bertha Falls, which had beautiful scenery and a nice cool waterfall. Waterton wildlife included mule deer, mountain goats and black bear. Free range cattle roam freely, nice looking cows which we often stopped and watched cross over the roads. It was almost like herding cows with a car. At the end of the day we checked into our cabin at Rising Sun inside Glacier National Park. It was a nice cozy place to call home for four more nights under the Montana sky.

Wednesday morning our plan was to hike a couple of waterfalls near the Sunrift Gorge Trailhead. However, due to a paving project on GTSR that trailhead was closed. Because we had our breakfast with us ...the good old peanut butter and apples... we found a pull off and ate. Once again, adopting the word ‘fluid,’ we chose plan B and drove to Many Glacier. Sunscreen, snacks, and hydration packs all on our backs, we spent the morning hiking Red Rock Lake, Red Rock Falls and Fishercap Lake. It was a beautiful day on a busy trail with bear grass in full bloom and lots of other hikers. We took a local fisherman’s advice and saw another waterfall on the horse trail. It was a hidden gem that required lots of singing made up songs because of the privacy and possibility of bears. After our hike, lunch at Nell's hit the spot along with some delicious Montana trading coffee. Many Glacier Lodge was a nice stop before heading back to Rising Sun. A Blackfeet Dance program at St. Mary’s Visitor Center was our evening entertainment...learning history, seeing dances and beautiful regalia.

Early Friday morning we loaded our hiking packs and drove to Sun Point Parking trying one final time to find this waterfall hike that includes three beautiful waterfalls. Bingo! Room at the trail head, no paving projects and off we went for what was our longest and probably favorite hike. Maybe it was knowing it was our last, maybe it was the turquoise water at St. Mary’s Falls or the peaceful walking along St. Mary’s Lake. We saw beautiful views of the lake itself, the undergrowth of newness appearing from the fire of 2015, blue skies and multiple colored wildflowers. Baring Falls was first, across a wooden bridge where we saw a bear footprint. St. Mary’s Falls was next, with the beautiful teal turquoise water, another wooden bridge and plenty of places to gaze and eat a snack. We saw a hummingbird visiting some of the wildflowers along the rocks and listened to the song of other birds. Then, we were off to Virginia Falls, a popular trail with many other friendly hikers. Of all the parks we’ve visited, these seemed the most friendly, encouraging each other along, loaning bug spray, taking photos or simply offering information. After Virginia Falls, we started the return trek back on this in and out trail. Lingering a while at St. Mary’s Falls, it was hard to leave this one. A very hungry mule deer was grazing along the trail and it was all as beautiful going out as the entry. A shower and dinner rounded out the day. While driving on Going to the Sun Road , we saw both a black bear and a grizzly, and gave a Continental Divide hiker named Compass a ride.

The next day, we packed for a super early departure from the cabin and savored the drive back through a different Idaho route. It was going to be a stupid long day driving to Spokane and flying home to Nashville. We left the cabin at 6am mountain time and arrived home at midnight central time, after two delays in Denver. Who can even calculate how many hours that entailed? Thankfully we cushioned this trip with a day of nothing before heading back to work.

Glacier National Park - expansive and rugged. A beautiful place of mountains, lakes, waterfalls, wildlife, great coffee and friendly hikers. You must might wanna add this one to your list.

My aunt told me years ago, “Get out there and make some memories. Cause when you are old and can’t do it anymore, you can remember. You will have a box of memories to revisit.” Maybe now is your time to start planning, to build a box of memories. Set some money aside, investigate, make some plans. Don’t just talk about it. Make it happen.

Beverly Alice

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