The Not-So-Sunny Side of the Glacier

We modified our plans a bit to go from Yellowstone to Glacier National Park. It's a long drive from Yellowstone to Glacier, over 400 miles. We'd seen everything in Yellowstone that we could, given the road closings on the north side of the park due to heavy flooding a couple of weeks before our trip. So, instead of staying in Yellowstone another night and driving 400+ miles the next day, we decided to leave Yellowstone around noon after doing some morning sight-seeing, and get some miles behind us to shorten the next day's trip. 

We left the park at the west entrance, which is just inside Montana and only a few miles from the Idaho border, and then headed north. That part of Montana is lovely. Rolling hills with mountains on either side. Very sparsely populated. Mostly cattle ranches, but an occasional recreational area. We were headed for our first hotel stay of the trip in Ennis, Montana. It's not too far from Yellowstone, about 70 miles from the park and about 120 miles from our Yellowstone campsite. We'd get there early enough to do some laundry and have a nice dinner.

Ennis is a local hub for the ranchers, as well as being a hot spot for guided fly-fishing tours of the Madison River, which flows there from Yellowstone. We stayed at the Red Bear Inn. I'd recommend it if you're headed that way. It's clean, inexpensive, and a one minute walk from the Sportsmen's Lodge. Great dinners, and an early breakfast.

The Red Bear Inn in Ennis, Montana - A family operation

The next morning we headed for Glacier National Park. The park is on the western border of Montana, and its main entrance is about 30 miles south of the Canadian border. We'd heard that Glacier, like Yellowstone had had its share of problems from the snowy winter and June storm. There's only one road through the park, a must-do drive, but we didn't get to do it. More on that below.

We arrived at Glacier late in the afternoon. There is only one road, the Going to the Sun Road, that traverses the whole park from east to west. It's about 50 miles one way. so a long sight-seeing drive to go out and back. There are a couple of other roads that go into the park from the east, but only go so far. From the ends of these roads, you can park, and if you're able, hike to the nearby glacier fields. But these hikes are long and a bit arduous. After getting our bearings, we decided to do as much of the Going to the Sun route as possible the next day. On our arrival day, we'd drive to the end of the Many Glaciers entrance and do a bit of walking around.

Glacier is the first park where we were actually concerned about wild animals, specifically grizzly bears. The park is loaded with them. We saw a few near the roadsides. Most people we saw hiking were carrying bear spray. The general knowledge is that, despite their reputation, grizzlies want to avoid you. Each of the situations here becomes more and more unlikely as you go down the list. So, walking, make some noise as you walk and you probably won't see a bear. If you see one, don't run, but don't go toward the bear. Back away slowly. If the bear seems aggressive, you may want to make yourself look big and start to reach for the bear spray. If the bear advances, lay out a cloud of spray. If the first cloud doesn't work, do a second. Etc. Each step is in the above chain is an order of magnitude less likely to happen, so by the time you get to the bear gnawing on you, you're down to fractions of a percent likelihood. And on top of that, there are enough people (especially later in the day) on the trails, "cow catchers" if you will, whose previous presence will have scared away the bear. Still....it's a bit unnerving if you're not used to hiking in grizzly country,

We went to the end of the Many Glaciers road, parked, and did a short hike. Didn't meet a bear. Took some nice photos. Then headed to camp.

Our last sunny day, at Many Glaciers

That night, as reported here, the weather got crappy. It rained all night, more than forecasted. The next morning we thought, by the forecast, that it might clear up at some point, so we decided to drive up the Going to the Sun Road. We stopped at the Rising Sun Motel, five miles into the park, for a great breakfast. Then we continued up the road. We got nowhere near the half-way point before we hit the road closure. The park was still dealing with the 80 feet (!) of snow that had originally blocked the highest points on the road. That was not helped by the late snowstorm in mid-June. 

The Rising Sun Motel. Two great breakfasts. Never saw the sun.

We could only go so far. And the weather was horrible, so we could only see so far. Very drab and wet, and not worth taking a hike to try to see more. So, we went back to the Leaning Tree campground and spent to day as reported here. We only went out to have dinner, with Kinga serving us water, and then to a seedy mountain dive, Kip's Beer Garden, for a couple of beers before heading back to camp.

Kip's Bear Garden, a local dive

The next day, it wasn't exactly sunny. But maybe it would be nice enough to see more than we'd seen seen the day before. We returned to the Rising Sun Motel for breakfast, then drove up again as far as we could go. The sights were a little better. We even got out and went for a walk. But no close-ups of glaciers.  Maybe Banff would hold more for us there. Time to get on the road and head up to Canada!

Lake St. Mary with it's pastel green, glacier fed waters