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!

Glacier National Park - Day 3 (Monday)

Many Glacier Hotel - Runñing Eagle Falls

Another smoke free day! Something to celebrate! Lots of clouds in the sky, though and the wind was whipping. Holy Moly. Breakfast today was a repeat of yesterday. We had the yogurt parfait again even though as chilly as it was, oatmeal sounded good too. We were checked out and on the road by about 8:30, driving the Going to the Sun Road again. We didn't take too many pictures because it was so cloudy, but some of the views were pretty neat because of the clouds. And the tops of the mountains were dusted with snow. So that rain we got last night fell in the form of snow in the upper elevations. Brrrrrr!

Bob had his heart set on hiking the Hidden Falls trail so we pulled in at Logan's Pass where it starts. Hahahaha. I don't know how hard was blowing, but it was wicked. And the temp? LOLOL. Let me just let the photo tell the story. 

And that's the temp not factoring in the wind chill. We decided not to risk pneumonia and got back in the car. Hopefully, we'll have the chance to do that hike another day. Just like yesterday, the sky seemed clearer and bluer in the east. Since the hike didn't pan out we decided to drive to Many Glacier hoping that it would be pretty enough to do a short hike there or get some nice shots at the very least. Yeah well, not so much. As we headed east leaving the park the sky did look better. But then we had to head west again going back into the park to Many Glacier. It's like there was this black cloud over the park. The Many Glacier Lodge is modeled after a Swiss Alps lodge. It was beautiful. And the location? Wow. But the cold temperature and the winds and the clouds made it feel like a winter day at home. We went in the lodge and had lunch. When all else fails, we eat and drink. 

After lunch we drove 89 to 49 to Two Medicine. There were hikes in that area of the park we want to do too. Plus we were still hoping the clouds would go away and show us some blue sky. These roads go through the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. There are cows all over the place. They graze wherever they want to. Right next to the road. And they look at you when you drive past, as if to say, "Whatchoo lookin' at homie?"

The views on 89 were really pretty. The clouds made for some dramatic images. And when we hit 49 things got even more interesting. Glacier is huge and mountains are ginormous and there are so many of them! It's not like there are only a few. It really is mind blowing. And we haven't seen any of them under great circumstances. 

The drive into Two Medicine was equally as beautiful. Here's a view of the lake before we turned back into the park. 

This is the view we'd been seeing on the webcam for the last month or so. Looked pretty much the same. 

Everything is so dry here. All the lakes are dry, the creeks are barely even still creeks. It's just sad. It's hard to believe it's so dry when they routinely get 80' of snow a year. That's a lot of snow. Anyway, there isn't much at Two Medicine - A ranger station, campground and small store. That's about it. We did do a small 1/2 mile roundtrip walk to Running Eagle Falls. We didn't expect much so weren't too disappointed. This one is glacier fed so at least there was something coming out of it. But all in all it was really dry. 

I took these pictures to show the "bridge" you should need to walk across to access the falls. All this rock bed should be covered with water. Instead, we're walking across dry rocks. Crazy, isn't it?

It's around 4:00 so we headed to our hotel. The Dancing Bears Inn. It's a step up from the Lake MacDonald Motor Inn. When Bob made our reservations all the lodges were full so he took what he could get. But now all the lodges have vacancies. Ugh. And we couldn't cancel without losing part if not all of the reservation. It's fine. We're just scoping out where we'll stay next time we come. 

The East Glacier Lodge. Wow. Wow. Wow. Built in 1912 and it is still amazing. Would love to stay here. The support tree trunks used all throughout the lodge weigh 15 tons each. Yeah. Really. Wow. Amazing. I know. I'm repeating myself. Can't help it. So much history in this place. Google it. You'll be amazed too.

We ate dinner in the lounge. I got a Glacier Mojito, made with some kind of huckleberry liqueur. Uh huh. It was good too! Didn't send this one back! 

Bob got a local oatmeal stout he loved. And we both got a chicken salad for dinner. Nice end to the day. 

Quote of the day: Bob was eating and said he needed a FitBit for his arm. Maybe you had to have been there. It was funny at the time. LOL

It's only 10:00 and I'm done with journaling!! Early night tonight!