Western Adventure 2014: Stop 24: West Glacier, MT (Glacier National Park)

We had a short, beautiful, 68 mile drive to West Glacier. We started late but still would have arrived so early that we called ahead to make sure that our site was empty.

Beautiful mountains like this surround our campsite.

Another shot of those mountains with our trailer in the center of the picture.

Kristen walking through the woods near our campsite.

Our first full day: rain, rain and more rain

We intended to spend our first full day, exploring the park but the rain definitely made a difference. Upon doing a little bit of research we learned that Glacier's highlight, the Going-to-the-Sun Road, had 80 feet of snow this Winter and, so far only 16 of its 52 miles are open. They've actually cleared a lot more than 16 miles but, so far, there's no place beyond the 16 mile mark where they can reasonably turn traffic around. The road might be open in 2 weeks or so but that won't do us any good.

We spent the day taking care of some laundry and making some more RV park reservations. Later, we went in search of lunch and a good piece of huckleberry pie (found pie but found it lacking) and then we explored the shops in the local communities. We haven't had access to the Fox Network for the last couple of weeks so, upon our return, we took advantage of the great internet connection at this park and caught up on the last couple of episodes of 24.

Speaking of TV, West Glacier has been one of our weirder locations. We've been in the Mountain Time Zone since way back when we entered Utah. Prime time starts at 7pm in the Mountain Zone. We don't have cable at this park but the reception with the antenna is excellent. The part that's weird is that some of our channels originate in Kalispell, MT (prime time starts at 7pm) while the rest of our channels originate in Spokane, WA (prime time starts at 8pm Pacific which is 9pm here). We can watch 2 hours of prime time on NBC before the other networks even start prime time.

Our second full day: we finally get to Glacier (at least 16 miles of it)

The first 16 miles from Glacier's West Gate climb very gradually toward the mountains but never get there. The entire route is heavily wooded. Most of the route follows the shore of 10 mile long Lake McDonald. The rest follows McDonald Creek.

Glacier has an enormous variety of wildlife, including all of the major American predators (Grizzlies, Black Bears, Wolves, Coyotes, Cougars, etc.). They were all asleep ... we saw these 2 deer.

Looking East along Lake McDonald.

Looking West along Lake McDonald.

McDonald Creek (looks like a river to me).

Foot bridge over McDonald Creek.

Looking upstream from the footbridge.

McDonald Creek (love the carved out rocks along the edge).

Better example of those carved out rocks.

McDonald Creek.

Kristen over McDonald Creek.

Once we reached the end of the road (at a campground called Avalanche Creek - why would anyone stay at Avalanche Creek) , we parked and hiked the Trail of the Cedars Nature Trail. It followed Avalanche Creek about 1/2 mile upstream, crossed over and then came back down the other side - just beautiful.

No nature trail is complete without its Grizzly warning (there were a lot of people on the trail so we weren't worried). Good place to mention that the stores around here only sell the king-size (dog-the-bounty-hunter-size) bear spray canisters. The woman in one store told us that they were forced to stop selling the small, self-defense size because they gave people a false sense of security. In use, the small canisters were just enough to make the bear angry.

As a precaution against grizzlies, I sent Kristen ahead on the trail.

Avalanche Creek.

Couldn't believe the amount of moss on the rocks.

Avalanche Creek with mountain in background.

Closeup of the waterfall on the side of that mountain.

Confluence of Avalanche and McDonald Creeks.

After our hike, we drove back to the McDonald Lodge for some lunch (and an excellent piece of huckleberry pie).

The old red buses at McDonald Lodge. When the Lodge first opened, these met visitors at the West Glacier Station and shuttled them to the Lodge. The only way to get anywhere else from there was by boat.

Inside the McDonald Lodge.

The lobby in the McDonald Lodge had this enormous fireplace. There was actually another tier of bricks around this so the chairs and benches were actually inside the fireplace (very cozy spot).