Oh My Glacier, Montana - Part II

The next morning we woke up early and took quick showers. Marisa returned to our tent only to find that Christian had made new, tiny chipmunk friends. In fact, they formed such a strong bond that the chipmunks were soon fed human treats that consisted of wheat thins and a small piece of banana. We made our usual oatmeal breakfast on the propane burner and then cleaned and packed everything up and were on our way. I know those chipmunks are still thinking of Christian today. We drove into the St. Mary (East Glacier) entrance of Glacier National Park, which costs $25 per vehicle for a seven day pass. We explained to the park ranger that our time was unfortunately limited in the park and asked for a few “must see” suggestions – hikes, look out points, drives, etc. We were told to turn back around and head to a different Glacier entrance about a 10 or 15 minute drive away, called Many Glacier. Many Glacier was very beautiful, the drive had free range cattle along the way, a beautiful and very large lake on one side and an overwhelming amount of hiking trails. We ended up stopping at Poia Lake to hike, which was a steep boulder that led us to a hidden gem – a beautiful waterfall. We came across unusual plants and flowers along the way, but unfortunately no animals or wildlife, which we were really hoping to see. After about 1 and ½ or 2 hours, we decided to leave this awesome hiking trail and head out of Many Glacier and get lunch. We ended up stopping at an eclectic restaurant called Two Sisters, where we enjoyed delicious nachos and an eggplant sandwich. We learned from our server that alcohol had been banned for a few days in town because the land is on an Indian Reservation and it was a sacred week. Funny enough, our server snuck us 1 margarita to share. After lunch, we returned back into the St. Mary entrance we originally had entered earlier that day, since each entrance offers a completely difference experience of Glacier National Park. We couldn’t believe that two park rangers had recommended Many Glacier over where we were now! The views and landscape were much more spectacular here! As we followed the path up Going-to-the-Sun Road (a 50 mile road that climbs up to the highest point of the mountains and down a narrow, twisty road with tight curves) we ended up seeing one small grizzly bear and 1 ram. Glaciers are located all along this road that hugs the mountainside. We couldn’t believe how much snow still covered these glaciers in July but signs informed visitors that there aren’t nearly as many glaciers in the park due to global warming! There simply was too much to see and do along Going-to-the-Sun Road so we decided to find a place to set up camp again at one of the first-come first-served sites in Glacier National Park. Marisa had done a little research about the various campsites in the park and knew that Rising Sun campsite was the one that filled up the fastest because of the spectacular location, views of the glaciers and luxury of providing toilets and 2 coin-operated showers. We found a great site that we pitched our tent at! Within one hour, all of the sites at Rising Sun were taken. The park ranger immediately came up to us to welcome us, collected our $20 camping fee, and reminded us of the importance of storing EVERYTHING in the bear proof containers or our car. Signs on each picnic table, along with signs at various locations around Glacier National Park, remind visitors that you’re in “Bear Country” and that bears do not like the human voice but sure do love human food and products. We left our campsite after pitching our tent to run to the local store to pick up dinner to cook on the propane burner, as well as 2 local micro brewed bottled beers. When we returned to our site, we were amazed to find a large deer hanging out at our tent. It turns out, this deer has become habituated to humans and just walks around Rising Sun campsite, hoping to get fed. The park ranger explained that there is also a male deer, who has huge beautiful red antlers, and is often seen hanging out by the tents in the morning. We couldn’t believe how close we were to this deer and how friendly it was! The park ranger also informed us that there would be a Native American performance at the group campfire at 8pm. It was chilly, but we decided to attend this performance – which was conducted by a Blackfoot Indian Tribesman. He spoke, strummed his guitar and sang about his Native American family and history, as well as the important relationship Glacier National Park has had with Native Americans. Unfortunately it started to rain which stopped the musical performance about 45 minutes later. We returned to our tent site, where Christian assembled a make shift tarp (made from the blue ponchos we received at Niagara Falls) to protect us and our propane stove from the rain. Surprisingly, the fire Christian built stayed pretty strong, despite the rain! We ate a small, but satisfying meal consisting of pan seared fish and canned peas. It was around 9:45pm and we were pretty exhausted – we quickly rinsed our dishes from dinner and went to the outhouse to brush our teeth and get ready for bed. Christian returned back to the tent a few minutes earlier than Marisa, and at this point, the campsite was pretty dark and quiet. He saw something about 15 feet away from him, which he assumed was a dog, since a handful of neighbor campers had brought along their fury friends. However, the moving object was too big to be a dog and humans don’t walk on all fours – so Christian quickly found his head lamp to see what this dark moving object was. It turns out a large black bear had joined the Rising Sun campsite, most likely looking for food that had been left out. Christian remembered what the park rangers had repeated over and over again – make noises, bears don’t like the human voice. Christian and the big black bear met eyes and then after a few loud vocal “la la la’s” from Christian – the bear started to crawl away into the dark. Marisa came out 30 seconds too late, the bear had disappeared, but Christian sure was scared! We quickly put EVERYTHING in the car and went into the tent to go to sleep. It was very cold that night, right around 35 degrees, so our 20 degree thermal mummy sleeping bags really were handy that night! We woke up at 6:30am the next morning since we knew we had a long drive to Seattle. We quickly packed up our tent, took hot coin-operated showers, and grabbed a hot coffee and a bag of nuts at the campsite’s general store. We decided to drive up and down Glacier National Park one last time, hitting all of the incredible look out points along the way (Goose Island, Jackson Glacier, Logan Pass, Weeping Wall, and the list goes on and on!). There’s nothing like seeing such incredible natural beauty at 8am. What an incredible way to start one’s day, as well as wrap up an amazing 2-day trip at Glacier National Park.