Flexability
Six months ago I could not get campsite reservations at Glacier so I made them at Flathead Lake State Park, however it appeared closer to the park than reality dictated, so Tina and I decided to find something closer. Flexibility! The ranger told us that they open up new sites everyday so we should check recreation.gov. Unfortunately, we could not find a campsite for our first night at Glacier, but I had noticed that there was National Forest land that surrounded Glacier, so we went to the National Ranger Station and asked about dispersed camping. He gave us a map of places we could find campsites. The upside is that they are free and the downside is that there are no services: no water, no toilets, no picnic tables. We scoped out a sight and found a near by lake with picnic tables where we cooked our dinner. It worked out well, despite the forest fire smoke that filled the valley. We even got our money back by cancelling at reservations at Flathead.
Taken from my roof top tent at our dispersed campsite
Tina found a campsite in Glacier for all the other nights which gave us our ticket to get in the park. On August 4th we headed up “Going to the Sun,” by 6:30 a.m. in hopes of beating the crowds. Driving up that road was another white-knuckle experience. By the time I got to the top of the pass my hands hurt from holding the steering wheel so tightly. Tina was a tad freaked out by the drive as well. The only way I dared look at the beauty of the surroundings was when we stopped at a turnout.
We stopped at St. Mary’s lodge for a cup of coffee and learned that “Going to the Sun” road was going to going to be closed from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. to remove a car that crashed. Rumor had it that the day before someone hit and killed a bear on the road. They continued on their way without warning the drivers after the that the bear remained in the road. The next car that came through swerved to avoid hitting the bear and went over the edge. No one seemed to be aware of the condition of those in the car. We were horrified to learn why we had seen so many emergency vehicles pass us at the bottom of the road on Aug 3rd. We continue to hope that the people survived.
We had planned to go back down “Going to the Sun” and doing some hikes on our way back to our campsite. Flexibility! Instead we decided to go to Waterton National Park in Canada. What a splendidly beautiful place. There was a lodge there built by the Prince of Wales in 1927. The setting was stunning, the village of Waterton was clean. The crowds were much more manageable than Glacier. We went on a hike to see Bertha Waterfall. The waterfall was not as impressive as the waterfalls on the North Shore of Minnesota or the waterfalls of Oregon. However, the landscape was stunning and the first bear of the trip (cinnamon colored black bear) was spotted. It was a long ways off, so we could relax as we watched it meander down the trail and stop to munch some blueberries which were plentiful.
We drove around the south-east end of Glacier to get back to our campsite without going through Logan Pass again. It was another long day, so we cooked dinner and went to bed early
