Yellowstone to Glacier NP

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Yellowstone NP, WY to Glacier NP, MT 06-14-24 to 06-29-24

After departing Yellowstone via the 8,541’ Sylvan Pass, we spent a couple of nights in Wapiti Campground (with no cell service) before attending a Cowboy Church in Cody, WY. From there we made our way to Billings, MT where we were having a few things mailed to us. It all took much longer than we anticipated but we did get to stay an extra night at Canyon Creek Brewery, compliments of Harvest Host, and then another two nights free at Pierce RV Supercenter, even with power! Billings had everything we needed – Walmart, Home Depot, Coldstone, Goodwill, and a great yarn store called Yarn Bar (where Paula splurged; yes, she has an addiction).

After one night at Chief Joesph Campground and Rodeo Fairground in Harlowton, MT for only $20 (with power), we made our way into Great Falls, MT for 3 nights where we found a great burger at Roadhouse Diner (a local restaurant, not the chain) and Paula found another awesome yarn shop called Yarn and Honey. (But Tom had put her on a yarn diet; he said her traveling yarn bin was full though Paula thinks otherwise.) We toured the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and to our good fortune, it was the annual Lewis & Clark Festival Day and we got in free! The exhibits were excellent displays, but we wished they had had a movie about the explorers. (An author’s lecture might have pre-empted the normal schedule.)

We found a dog park that had some agility apparatus, set up ours alongside, and Whisper got some more practice. (See video.)

We had a huge surprise when at the Calvary Great Falls church we chose for Sunday morning, a friend from home came up to us! We didn’t realize she had grown up about 20 miles from there and was home to visit family. Great to see Valerie!

We were fortunate to get a site at Johnson’s of St. Mary’s just a mile outside the St. Mary’s east entrance to Glacier NP for 5 days starting the next day. Most of the RVers we know plan their travels for months in advance. Though we know it will likely bite us at times, especially at the more popular National Parks, we prefer to fly by the seat of our pants a bit more. It allows us to stay a little longer or shorter or alter our plans based on the weather or our whims. It worked out well this time.

Our first full day at Glacier, we drove in the St. Mary’s entrance and began the Going-to-the-Sun Road, a 50-mile one-way trip bisecting the heart of Glacier described as “one of the world’s most spectacular highways.” It was! It follows the shore of the park’s 2 largest lakes and hugs the cliffs below the Continental Divide as it traverses Logan Pass at 6,646’. No vehicles longer than 21 feet or wider than 8 feet are allowed, which indicates how narrow the road is. The views were simply spectacular. Around almost every turn there was another “Look!” or “Ooh” or “Wow!” The peaks (5 of which were over 10,000’) were snow-covered, waterfalls poured down the towering cliffs and often along the road. Fortunately, there were many pullouts along the road. (Be sure to double-click to enlarge the left picture below for a surprise!)

We planned to go as far as the west entrance as no reservation is required to drive east to west, but you must have one eastbound. When we got to the station, they would not let us just turn around. We had to go to the lodge, get on the internet to buy a $2 pass, then get in the line. Very frustrating! Even the ranger apologized for making us jump through that hoop.

The next day was also supposed to be lovely but began overcast, cool, and threatening rain. Our plan was to kayak and hike. We drove to the Many Glaciers entrance on the northeast side of the park, about 25 miles north. By the time we got our kayak inspected (a requirement, as the park ranger looks for parasites, non-native seeds, and “about 500 other things,” the ranger said), the weather had cleared a bit, and we enjoyed an easy paddle on Swiftcurrent Lake for about an hour.

We strapped the wet kayak on top of the Jeep and drove to the Many Glaciers Lodge, where a ranger-led hike of 3/4 mile began at 2:00 PM. We learned the glaciers were disappearing from the park (down to maybe 5, though we also read several numbers higher than that).

We hiked a little farther after the ranger-led hike ended, but the terrible take-away from that hike for Paula was 27 mosquito bites on her upper back (and she had on a blouse) with about 10 others on her ankles and elsewhere. (Tom got 2.) Ever since her 18 months of unidentified autoimmune inflammation, she reacts very strongly to mosquito bites, welting up into what looks more like spider bites… and they itch mercilessly. She had been taking an Insect Bite Mix for over 2 weeks. Evidently, it only helps with the reaction, not as a repellant. What do you think? Fortunately, Paula thinks it might have helped a little. They were only distractingly itchy for about 3 days, and then only mildly itchy for another 3 days.

At 4:00 PM, there was a tour of Many Glacier Lodge led by a ranger who had worked there for 44 years. Ranger Diane was a wealth of information! As a college student, she was hired as a waitress/singer/dancer and never left. Built in 1914, the five-story, 214-room majestic lodge was the largest in Montana at the time. Early on, the lodge was frequented by tourists who traveled by train and then rode on horseback to the lodge (similar to Yellowstone). They were entertained with nightly shows.

There was a beautiful double-helix staircase that almost didn’t make the restoration project…until funds from an anonymous donation were used to rebuild it. Turns out the funds came from the will of a relative of the lodge designer, Louis Hill. It made all the park employees very happy to have the staircase replaced because it is such a remarkable design aspect! We liked it too. Hill had incorporated Swiss-style architecture, Japanese lanterns, and Blackfeet pictographs, with his advertising slogan of “See America first,” to indicate it wasn’t necessary to travel abroad.

To finish out the day, we got together with the couple from the coach near us at the campground, who Paula learned did agility with her dog. Turns out, not only does Sarah do agility, but also her husband, Tom, and they had 4 dogs with them in their coach. And, Sarah is an agility judge. Now the pressure was on! She asked Paula if she and Whisper took classes in Phoenix, and wow, she knew several people who ran Jumping Chollas Agility Club where Whisper trained. Small world. We enjoyed a meal together the next night and hope our paths cross again. They were from NC and it was their 10^th time at Glacier, one of their favorite NPs.

It was a good thing we had fully used our first 2 days at Glacier. Overnight the rain began, and the next day’s high temp was 19° colder with winds up to 30 mph (pictured right is the “view” of the mountains from our site). WOW rocked back and forth hard enough to make Paula ask, “How much wind does it take to overturn a rig?” (We had seen one on its side en route.) All day was miserable by Phoenix standards. Paula got lots of knitting done on the 2 projects she had on her needles.

The downtime did give Tom extra time to work on getting our website going again. After several unsuccessful attempts at moving to a new platform, he finally decided to resurrect our old blog for use through the summer and then find something different later.

The next day was only slightly better in that the wind had ceased. Intermittent rain all morning led to some clearing, enough to make us decide to drive to the southeast Glacier entrance, Two Medicine. After a long, bumpy, winding road, we gazed over the very pretty Two Medicine glacial lake. That was pretty much it.

In the morning, we packed up and drove around the southern end of the park to the west side where we were unsuccessful at finding a campsite for the night (but then it was Saturday). So, we decided to start making our way to Spokane to see to see Paula’s nephew and his family.

That evening we were able to stay at another Harvest Host, Traveler’s Restful Haven, a family farm. Being out of season, they had no harvest to sell, but they did have a grassy mowed field that could have parked about 30 RVs. There were only 3 of us there. The proprietor was very friendly and offered to bring out a table and chairs, but we told her we were fine without them.

Once again, it poured rain overnight, and in the morning, Tom exclaimed, “Somebody stole the mountains!” We were socked in with low clouds and couldn’t see much more than across the field. You would never have known we were at the base of Glacier NP! We stayed snuggled up and watched our home church online. It was good to have a connection with home. The weather cleared a little and we enjoyed our final view of Glacier Mountains before departing, dropping a donation in their box.

Next up…on to the North Cascades National Park with an en route stop in Spokane to visit family.