Alaska 2015 - Day 65 Columbia Falls Montana

Day 65 – 7-15-15 Wednesday After breakfast we packed some snacks and lunch in our backpacks and drove about 15 miles to the West entrance to the Glacier National Park. We were surprised that we got into the park free with our National Parks Senior Card. We were expecting to get a discount but not free entrance but we'll take it. Sometimes it is good to be “old”. We stopped at the visitor center to get some info on a few hiking trails. The first one we stopped at, Jones Lake Loop was a combination hiking and horseback riding trail. HuH!! We walked down it for a distance and got tired of dodging mud from where the horses had churned the ground up and all the “horse apples”. We got back in the Jeep and drove to the Lake McDonald Lodge that was built in 1914. It is a really nice old log 4 story lodge that is still being used for guest.

Nice ride - Indian motorcycle

Lake McDonald Lodge circa 1914

Tour bus

Lobby

Rear View

Then we drove to the Avalanche Lake and Trail of the Cedars hiking trail-head but could not find a parking spot anywhere. These is a very popular trail. So we drove on up the Going-to-the-Sun Road. This road took us out to the East entrance of the park at St Mary after climbing up to Logan Pass at an elevation of 6646'. This is another one of those roads that “the faint of heart” don't need to drive or ride on. Vehicles greater than 21' in length and a width of 8 ½' are prohibited due to the extremely sharp turns and narrow two lane road. There were some low wood and rock guard rails but if you go through them it is a drop down to the bottom of a few thousand feet. The views were terrific and worth the drive. There were a lot of people in the park today, we can only imagine what it is like on the week-end. 

Going-To-The-Sun Road

Going-To-The-Sun Road

Going-To-The-Sun Road

Going-To-The-Sun Road

Red Rock along road

St Mary Lake

When we exited the park at St. Mary we were on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. The landscape was lots of wide open rolling range with only an occasional house. The road looked like they had followed the trail of a black snake as it followed the shape and the lay of the hills we went through. We came around one sharp curve and came right up on lots of “T-Bone on the Turnpike”. There was a small herd of cattle on the road and along the shoulders. One cow (#73) looked like she couldn't decide if she wanted to butt our Jeep or let us on by. We eased by her and drove on. We stopped in a little town named East Glacier and had a mid afternoon snack of huckleberry pie with huckleberry ice cream and huckleberry lemonade. We have seen several businesses advertising huckleberries and flathead cherries. They must be popular here.

#73 on the right

Yummy

We continued around the outer edge of the park and went back into the West entrance and went back to the Avalanche and Trail of the Cedars hiking trail-head. We parked and began hiking. Then it started to rain so we finished the Trail of the Cedars and skipped the Avalanche trail. There were some really old and big Western Red Cedars, Black Cottonwood and Hemlock trees along the trail.

Western Red Cedar

We returned to the campground and hooked up the Jeep to the motor home since we are leaving here tomorrow and continue our journey back to North Carolina.