Glacier National Park - Heading Home

I didn't think I'd have much to write about today, but I've taken quite a few pics already and it's not even 11:30am. We still have an hour before our plane leaves. This morning dawned with heavy clouds and rain once again. Looks like they're in for a few days of this, which really sucks for those travelers here for the Labor Day weekend. We didn't have much to do this morning since most of our packing was done last night.

Breakfast for the last time at our favorite little dive, Two Medicine Grill. We both had their blueberry pancake and breakfast eggs special. And, of course, coffee for me. 

I said something to our server about how good the coffee is and he told us we would be passing by one of their stores on the way to the airport. I love supporting local Montana coffee and even more so when he said they support local Glacier charities. I was so tickled when we actually found the place inColumbia Falls and picked up a couple of bags. I'm gonna milk this stuff as long as I can. I love the smooth flavor.

The weather was pretty bad. Lots of low clouds and at times the rain was pretty heavy. Thankfully, the closer we go to the airport, the lighter both the sky and the rain were. We had turned in the car, checked in and we're through security by about 10am. The flight leaves at 12:30. I think we beat the rush. 

Both flights were uneventful. It's pretty amazing to be able to go from Northern Montana to Virginia Beach in 6-1/2 hours, which includes waiting time for changing planes. The only hiccup we had was getting our bags once we landed in Norfolk. It took over half an hour once we deboarded. Crazy. 

We grabbed some grub at Whiskey Kitchen on the way home. Sure is good to be home. Going on vacation and doing all those fun things is awesome. But there's nothing like home. 

Another trip bites the dust.

Glacier National Park - Day 7 (Friday)

Not much to share today. The rain from yesterday continued and this morning was pretty messy. Our Plan B was driving to Canada to check out Waterton Park since we're about 90 minutes from the border. We grabbed some cereal from the office and hit the road. It was just nasty. The further we drove, the nastier it got. There were large distances we couldn't even see 50' in front of the car. There were times when it was spitting rain and times when it was raining pretty hard. A few miles from the border we just decided to turn around. We couldn't see anything anyway. So after three hours of driving we found ourselves at the lodge warming up and filling our bellies with a sandwich and a beer.

Back at the room, we had some down time and caught up a bit on what had been happening all week while we were in our own little bubble in Montana. It's pretty chilly. Temp is 43 and it feels like 31. Our thermals got some use this vacation. And it's been sweltering at home. Not looking forward to sweating and humidity again.

Went back to Luna's for dinner tonight. Bob got chili and I fell for meatloaf and garlic mashed potatoes - comfort food. I love talking to people when traveling. When in a place like this everyone knows everyone else is from somewhere else and we all want to know what each other did and how they liked it. There's something special about being able to share with strangers and hope you may have made a little difference in their trip like others did for ours. 

All packed up and ready to pull out early in the morning. It's been a wonderful trip but we're both ready to get home. Bob's already researching our next park trip, wherever that ends up being. 

Glacier National Park - Day 6 (Thursday)

It had been raining on and off all night. We knew the weather wasn't going to be great today so we sort of planned to lounge a little this morning. It was nice to have some leisure time. It started sprinkling  by the time we walked to Two Medicine Grill for breakfast. We both got their special with 2 eggs, sausage, hash browns and biscuit. I couldn't even finish mine. This place is a little hole in the wall diner. But the service and food are pretty good.

After some debate, we decided to drive "the road" again. It couldn't hurt and we weren't doing anything else anyway. Besides, you never know how different the weather will be inside the park. We swung by Two Medicine since it was on the way. I finally got my pic of cows on the road. For real, you have to go pretty dang slow and be very careful not to hit one. They don't care! It's as if they look right at you and dare you. Just call 'em honey badgers. See that red truck? That's a ranger honking his horn at them to make them move off the road. He has a big boy horn. We tried that the other day and our little Subaru horn sounded like a bicycle in comparison. It was pretty sad, which made us laugh. 

Doesn't it look like he's saying, "Whatchoo lookin' at Willis?" (I know, showing my age, right?) On to Two Medicine - it didn't look very different from the other day. 

The cloud formations over the mountains are so cool. Even though we've driven "the road" I don't even know how many times, we see something different every time. Of course I haven't gone back and compared the shots from each day either. Whether blue sky and white fluffy clouds or gray sky and storm clouds, it's all gorgeous.

The front was sweeping in before our eyes. We were hoping, once again, to do the Hidden Lake hike at Logan's Pass. It just wasn't meant to be. All of a sudden we were surrounded in clouds. 

Then the rain started. At this point we were half way through the park. (The temp was 41 at Logan's Pass.) We could either turn around and head back to East Glacier or forge ahead and take a chance that maybe Lake MacDonald on the western side had different weather. It's so fascinating how much the conditions change from one part of the park to another. The further west we drove, the clearer it got. And the temperature continued to climb. By the time we reached Lake MacDonald it was pretty clear and 60 degrees. A doe crossed the road right in front of us. Isn't she beautiful?

At least we got to see more of the lake than before. After we played around with different shots it was time to hit the road again. Decision time ... do we go out of the park and take the highway around the south back to the motel (which would've been significantly faster), or backtrack "the road" one last time and see if things had changed enough so we could do the Hidden Lake hike. Bob had his heart set on this hike and had been talking about it all week. He couldn't resist. The boy took a left and drove the 50 mile road back across the park again. Believe it or not, conditions HAD changed. Clouds had blown through and views that were white on the way were now much more visible. Hope was restored. We may be able to do that hike yet ... (You know there's a story coming when you see these three dots ...)

Before we left Lake MacDonald my stomach started cramping a bit. It's usually worse when traveling anyway so it wasn't much of a surprise. By the time we got to Logan's Pass I was sweating bullets. I jumped out of the car and ran to the bathroom. When I came out Bob was suiting up. Boots, gloves, beanie, etc. Imagine his disappointment when I told him I just couldn't go on a hike right then. My tummy needed time to calm down. I convinced him to go ahead without me. I would be fine waiting in the car. I could see the internal struggle he was having but the desire was too strong and it finally won. He left. 

I uploaded pics to my iPad and started journaling. About 30 minutes passed and the white, dense fog started rolling in again. I look around and cross my fingers he's actually able to see the lake. Another 15 minutes pass and it starts raining. He's only been gone 45 minutes. Not nearly enough time to hike nearly 2 miles there and back. The longer the clock ticks, the worse it gets. The steady rain becomes a downpour. Visibility is really bad. This was the view from the car ...

My heart sinks. There's no escaping that he's getting drenched. It's about 40 degrees by now. I know he is hauling butt back to the car. And I am thanking the gods that be for my upset stomach at that point. Holy cow am I glad I didn't go. He got back to the car, a drowned rat, about an hour and ten minutes after he left. About 25 minutes after the rain started. First words out of his mouth, "You made the right decision." What? Can you say that again? 

Bless his pea picking little heart. He said there was a grizzly up there he stopped to take a picture of. The damn lens didn't cooperate and he lost a few precious minutes fiddling with it. Finally he gave up and got to the overlook, pulled the camera out again, snapped one shot and the rain came. He barely saw the lake at all and booked all the way back down. If I had gone it would've taken us a lot longer, he wouldn't have seen the lake at all and we'd both have gotten even more drenched. So again, thankful I stayed in the car.

Once more, the closer we got to the exit the clearer it looked. It's just crazy how the park seems to make its own weather. The roads were dry, visibility was good even though it was still cloudy and the temperature warmed right up. Amazing. 

We'd read that Luna's got good reviews for dinner. We were starving since we had a big breakfast and snacked for lunch. The reviews were right. It's another hole in the wall place with good food. Bob enjoyed his salmon burger and I woofed down a piping hot bowl of chili. Of course their homemade huckleberry pie was a must for dessert. 

Back at the room a hot shower was first on the list. Uploading and editing pics and journaling rounded out the rest of the evening. The weather isn't supposed to be great tomorrow either. We'll see how it goes. I'm sure we'll find something to do. 

Glacier National Park - Day 5 (Wednesday)

Red Rock Lake/Falls and Bullhead Lake

Up and attem early again this morning. We had some yummy oatmeal and fruit at the lodge this morning, then hit the road back up to Many Glacier to do the Red Rock Lake/Falls and Bullhead Lake hike. Making decent progress on a two lane, winding road is fairly challenging when you get behind trucks that creep and felt like it took forever to finally make it to the trailhead. (It's 12 miles down this two-lane road once you turn off 89 towards the park. Lots of signs saying "Rough Road."  Uh huh I think we got that. But dude, really? You can go past 25mph. When you have to go 12 miles and the dude in front of you is only going 25mph, well you do the math. Eventually we did make it to the parking lot. 

All packed up we set out around 10:00. Originally, Bob had read this was a 6-mile roundtrip hike. Dude grossly miscalculated (not Bob, the dude Bob got his info from). Turned out to be almost 8 miles roundtrip.

No worries, eh? We just did a 10 miler yesterday. Piece of cake, right? Remember I was already nursing sore everything from yesterday's fun, plus a beautiful blister (guess either my shoes or my socks aren't appropriate and I'm sparing you the visual of a picture of that ... Eeewwww). All in all I wasn't moving even as fast as normal for me, which is slow motion for Daddy Long Legs. Anyway, off we went. The hike wasn't difficult at all. However, shoving these tootsies in hiking boots and  putting one foot in front of the other was challenge enough. At some point I was able to mostly ignore the excruciating pain. Hahahaha. Yes I just had some cheese with my whine/wine. Wanna see? Too late, it's gone. 

Moving on ... Our first stop was Fisherhead Lake. Hoping to see some king of wildlife, aka a moose, we detoured down this short path. No moose. I shot my pic and we continued on. 

Along the way we had some pretty views. (Code for any excuse to stop walking and rest.)

It's not unusual to start conversations with other hikers. The couple we hiked with a lot today is from Florida and boy have they done some hikes! Jeez Loiuse!! I thought we were rocking it until we talked to them. But they gave us some good ideas for our next visit. There will be, of course, more visits to this park. It is incredible. And that's putting it mildly. 

Red Rock Lake is beautiful as they all are. It doesn't have the gorgeous turquoise color from the glacier water but still beautiful. Sadly, no moose here either. They frequent this lake so we were really hopeful. 

Red Rock Falls were a short 1/4 mile further. 

Kind of pitiful for falls, huh? It is what it is. At this point, we could turn back or plow on 2 more miles to Bullhead Lake. What the hell, right? What's another 4 miles in the big picture? I mean, we've come this far so ... Overriding my screaming blisters (yup, acquired another one on this hike) we went for it. Again, we were blessed with more incredible views along the way. 

(Note: see that big glacier in the background? That's where Bullhead Lake is. So that's where we're going.)

I had to include this bridge in the photo journaling. LOL. How about that ...

If you're cant read the sign, it says, "Load Limit - One Person at a Time." I actually took a shot of Bob crossing it but he wouldn't let me use it. :(

It seems the last mile of any hike, going or coming back, is the longest. Eventually, we made it. 

This is why we hike. As awesome as the views are from the road, you can't see this from a car. Do I bitch? Yes. Am I sore as hell? Yes. Is it worth it? Absofreakinlutely!! On the way back we pulled out our gourmet peanut butter and banana sandwiches for lunch. Sustenance is important dontchaknow. The rain clouds were threatening and they did periodically leak once in a while. But we made it back (in my case limped back) to the car unscathed. (Except for all the muscles having a shouting match trying to get my attention, battling against the voices of my honking blisters. LOL. Yes I am pitiful. Lobbying for sympathy. Is it working? I didn't think so.)

The scenery on the way back to our room was fascinating. A front is moving in bringing rain and cooler temps. It was looking rather dismal on the drive out of the park but the closer we got to the exit, the bluer the sky got. Crazy!!! The route from Many Glacier to East Glacierr Park is 89 to 49 which both run north to south. So we're driving parallel to the edge of the park. The system sat right over Glacier and it looked formidable. To our right the view was heavy downpours and dim visibility. To our left we saw blue sky and white fluffy clouds! I snapped some shots with my phone of the front sitting over the park. 

We stopped at the little pit stop and picked up a bottle of w(h)ine to go with our cheese and crackers and came back to the room. After chilling and looking at tripadvisor.com we walked over to Serrano's for dinner. It's a Mexican place that gets really good reviews.

The reviews said to get there early because there would be a waiting line. We couldn't imagine that so took our time. Guess what? There was a 25 minute wait. LOL So we ordered a drink from the bar and went outside to the patio to wait. Of course we talk to other people out there waiting and before long the patio was full. The next thing we know couple is asking if they can sit with us to wait for a table. We hit it off and end up sharing a table for dinner with them. Tim and Nancy are from the San Francisco Bay Area and it was a joy to share a meal with them. There is something liberating about talking to people whom you know you'll never see again. We had a wonderful dinner with great people we were blessed to share an evening with. They told us about a restaurant about 10 miles south of here that's supposed to be awesome. You never know, we may meet again. 

Glacier National Park - Day 4 (Tuesday)

Iceberg Lake

I'm prefacing this with the fact that I've walked over 31,000 steps today and had two mojitos at dinner. With that being said ... Here we go ...

John, the proprietor of this establishment (yes, I use that term loosely because he's an arrogant ass) recommended Breakfast at Two Medicine Grill. Since this is a one horse town, we chose Two Medicine Grill for breakfast, because well, we're just that smart! It was within walking distance and we were desperate. Sounded like good motivation at the time. It wasn't horrible. It was ok. And as desperate as I was for decent coffee, I was thrilled when the coffee wasn't just passable, it was really good - not as good as mine mind you, but good since I couldn't get mine. Just sayin'.

We were on the road to Many Glacier a little after 7:30 and the sky was a gorgeous blue. No smoke in sight. And a few billowy white clouds drifting by. The only drawback was the wind. Good God the wind can whip around out here. We'd have advisories out at home. In all honesty they do here too but it's just not the same. It took a little over an hour to reach the starting point over Iceberg Lake hike. A 10-mile roundtrip hike. It was supposed to be around 70 today, and we dressed accordingly. But with the hellacious winds, we figured it would be prudent to bundle up a little more. So we changed clothes in the car. Getting a visual? Never mind. I'll just leave it with the fact that we bundled up. I'm talking hats, gloves and the works. 

We started the hike about 9:15am. It started off with a bang. Uphill. The total elevation climb is nearly 1300 feet. A good portion of that is in the beginning. Back tracking a bit - we ran into a older couple at the Lake MacDonald Lodge who told us about this hike. We really hadn't considered it since it was a 10 mile hike. But when people are are at least 10 years older than us did it and said it was great, well we rethunk it. That's kind of a challenge isn't it? If they can do it, certainly we can do it. They also said there were icebergs in the lake. Okay. Done deal. We have to do this. Fast forward to this morning ...

We hiked for a while with an older couple from San Diego, who hiked the ruins to Machi Picchu. They covered 26 miles in 4 days in groups of about 30 and said it was amazing. Sounds awesome and that will definitely go on our bucket list. Bob discovered that he played golf at the same course in Camp Penddleton as the husband. Small world. Again.

The views around every corner were amazing along the way.

Take a look at the two glaciers on the mountain in the background (photo above). Iceberg Lake is right under those glaciers. That's where we were headed. The trail was pretty easy for the most part. Towards the end, though, it just went on and on and on and on. Finally we made it to the lake. It was beautiful.

But there no icebergs in the lake which is why we did the hike in the first place. Kind of too late to make that an issue at this point, huh?

We made a friend while resting. A little Ground squirrel was very friendly. He came right up to us looking for food. We had packed nuts for a snack so pulled the bag out and that little guy was in heaven! He loved our nuts! He ate some of them (didn't like walnuts thought, left them on the ground, but his friend later snatched it up) and stored the rest in his pouches. Reminded me of Bob eating cereal. He does the same thing!! It was reminiscent of the squirrels at Yosemite on one our hikes back in 2008. We had peanut butter and jelly bagels then and they thought they had struck gold. It was the highlight of our day then and this little guy was a highlight of my day today. How cute is he?

Both of us we dragging butt on the way back. We had motivation though. The views to the east that were shadowed on the way were now lit up with the afternoon light.

Trust me when I say it was a blessing to have to stop so often to take pictures. We made it back around 3:30 and everything was screaming - my hips,my knees, my lower back, my feet (I could feel at least one blister), my calves ... Everything. I was even over the scenery. The only scenery I wanted to see was our car. 

Since it was such a pretty day we wanted to drive the Going to the Sun Road again, hoping to get better views with a pretty blue sky. We did.

Took a few shots but honestly our hearts weren't in it. We were just done. So about 5:30 we headed back. It was quarter after 6 by the time we hit 89, which is the cow road. Thankfully we didn't see too many and we're back at the hotel by 7:00. We freshened up and hopped back in the car to go to dinner at the lodge, where we will hopefully stay if we ever come back to stay in this area again. We both ordered a wonderful tortellini dinner with adult beverages. Glacier mojito for me. Pretty good. Not as good as my mojitos but not bad. 

Tomorrow is another day! Hoping for more good weather because we have at least one, if not two hikes planned. 

Night!