Once we realized (rather late, I might add) that we would not be able to just drive into Glacier National Park or just hop on a shuttle bus, we got busy trying to get tickets. That was nearly impossible a month prior to our visit. We were able to book an all day tour with Sun Tour, a company owned and operated by the native people, the Blackfeet. There is one other tour bus option and I will comment on it later.
Glacier National Park and many of the others (like the Smokey Mountain Park of our June trip) are so crowded with visitors, the only way to manage the number of people is through tickets. We did not understand to get on the free shuttle you had to buy a $2.00 pass for a specific day and time long before you wanted to ride the hop-on-hop-off vans. After several phone calls to the campground and some very competent and helpful staff people, we finally got it...the Tour and the Ticket-to-Ride.
So this post is from the Sun Tour. We drove south to East Glacier Park Village to catch our tour van.
We knew this would NOT be our tour ride. I think it is publicity for the lodge and the Glacier National Park Red Bus Tours, which could be booked (in advance) at the lodge.
Dan from the Blackfeet people was our driver. He is to the right of the van. There were 20 of us on the tour.
The Red Buses have an open top and bench seats. We did not see any people wearing their masks when we met a Red Bus. Everyone on our tour did wear their masks. It was required, as it was in all buildings in the park. (Of course, there were some who did not wear masks.) Our van was air conditioned and equipped with seat belts and a roof.
The lodge at East Glacier Village is known as The Big Tree Lodge.
And this is why.
Glacier Park Lodge is the original lodge constructed by the Great Northern Railway in 1913 and for the last 100 years, it has been the first stop for visitors traveling to Glacier by Amtrak train.
The highlight of Glacier Park Lodge is the huge Douglas fir pillars that are over 40 feet high and 40 inches in diameter that form the supports in the distinguished lobby and the lodge's decor is reflective of the culture of the surrounding Native American communities.
It is impressive. The Amtrak station was across the street and several (I think 6 or 8) of our tour companions had come to Glacier via Amtrak.
Our driver pointed out this beaver dam along the highway back to Glacier National Park. (We were 40 miles away from the main entrance.)
The flags at the Visitor's Center. The Canadian flag, the Blackfoot Nation flag, and the US flag. The border to Canada is open to US travelers showing proof of vaccinations and 72 hour negative covid test. It opened on August 9th. The border is not open to Canadian visitors until August 14th.
A tour boat on Saint Mary Lake. There were white caps on the lake when we passed by in the morning. The day of our tour was very windy and quite chilly, but better than the day before. A front was moving through so once we got into the mountains the views were not very good, for photos.
Goose Island in Lake Saint Mary. Notice the clouds and view of the snow on the mountains in the distance.
Our view of Jackson Glacier. My map says there are 25 glaciers on the US side of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. This is the only one pointed out to us by Dan.
A waterfall; one of the longest we saw on our East Glacier tour. We did stop here for a photo opportunity because there happened to be parking space available. There were places Dan could not stop because of all the vehicles.
Another view of Jackson Glacier. The sky was also affected by the smoke from fires in Montana and Canada. And probably other states, too. Between the weather front and the smoke, it was a disappointing photo day.
Another waterfall
And another one. I will say we did see lots of waterfalls. And no, I did not get photos os all of them.
This is considered the midpoint in the park, although by miles it is not. Logan Pass has a bookstore/gift shop, bathrooms, shuttle exchange, big (packed) parking lot as it is a starting point for many popular hikes. Notice our sweatshirts and jeans. We were happy to have dressed that way. (Dan did say it was in the 90s for temperatures last week.)
Going-to-the-Sun Road is the only road going east to west/west to east in the park. I did not realize our all day tour ended at Logan Pass, just like the half-day tours. After Logan Pass we went back to St. Mary/East Glacier for lunch at the lodge and then the ride back to East Glacier Village where we started. WHAT???? I don't get to West Glacier on the tour? So what are we doing for the next 3 hours????
Dan took us back on Scenic Highway 49, a shorter distance than what we traveled on our morning trip because we had to stop in Browning to pick up passengers. We had also driven Scenic Highway 49 (Looking Glass Road) at 7 AM that morning and there were parts of that road that made me glad I had not eaten any breakfast. But with Dan in charge of the driving I was more relaxed and able to take in the views.
prairie before the mountains
A view of Lower Two Medicine Lake created from Two Medicine River when it was damed for hydro power. (There is an Upper Two Medicine Lake that is a natural lake.) Also notice fewer clouds and blue sky as we were south of the morning tour area which had begun to get cloudier by when we left mid-afternoon.
After leaving the bus tour at the lodge, we did some exploring of East Glacier Village on our own. We were in search of a geocache.
We found the geocache on one of the horse's legs. These metal sculptures are very interesting. Some of the parts are from cars. There will be a close-up in another blog post. We have seen 3 of these sculptures on the east side of Glacier Park.
Once we found our geocache in the village we drove to the Two Medicine Lake entrance of the national park. No waiting line. Just show our pass and drive. This sign was our greeting.
This waterfall was our destination. It was a short .20 mile walk along a nature trail. We could hear the falls before we saw it. It looks like it just comes out of the rock wall.
This is a shortened version of the real person, Running Eagle, and her importance to the Blackfeet people. The falls are named in her honor.
These are thimble berries, or wild raspberries. They are beginning to ripen and are a favorite of the black bears in the park. When we arrived at the parking lot for our walk to the falls, two park rangers were there. They told us a sighting of a black bear had been reported, but they did not find anything. There were quite a few people around, so we decided to continue to the falls. Hubby had his hiking stick...just in case. We did not see any bears in the Running Eagle Falls area. BUT...
we did see one along the road leading out of the Two Medicine park entrance. It was about 15 feet from the side of the road. Hubby stopped, rolled down his window and I took photos while the bear collected thimble berries. he did not bother to look at us and only moved on when Hubby honked the horn several times.
I had seen a bear along the road from our campground to St. Mary that morning, about 6:45 AM. But I had not had enough coffee. Hubby did not see the bear. In fact, I don't think he believed me when I said, "There's a bear!" We did not stop because we did not know how long it would take to drive to meet the tour bus. In the mountains the number of miles do NOT equal number of minutes. The sighting near Lower Two Medicine made up for the missed photo opportunity that morning.
I finally get to West Glacier on the Ticket-to-Ride shuttle. That is the next blog post.
Good information because Glacier is in our plans for next summer. We will be marking our calendars to make the appropriate reservations. Sounds like a nice visit. Can't wait to see you in just a few days.
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