Glacier Days 5-7

 Sept 6

The wind howled the whole time we were here – I think Many Glacier might be the windiest place we've been! It sure is pretty though. Here's the pic I promised of the front of the building.

The back looks onto the lake – which is where our balcony faced. We packed up our stuff and headed down the very bumpy under construction dusty gravel road to the Two Medicine area – about an hour and a half down the road. We arrived plenty early for our 1 pm boat ride across the lake to our next hike, so we took a hike that started right there to Paradise Point. It was a very nice hike that led to the lake.

The rocks from the bottom of this lake were smaller but still had those pretty colors.

Ghost berries - we were told they would kill you, but my google search doesn't show that to be true.   

We took the park's boat, Sinopah, who was 95 years old and the oldest in the inventory of boats at the park across the lake to the trailhead. 

Last year while the east side was closed due to covid they refurbished it and it looked like new! There was nice commentary while we headed across the lake and we could choose to hike with the guide – the young woman doing the commentary – or do it by ourselves. We opted to go alone and are glad we did. She had 29 people she was leading on the hike. It was a very easy hike that led to Twin Falls. Beautiful! 

We hiked back and got in line for the return boat. It turned out that not everyone waiting was going to fit on the boat and guess who was near the end of the line? Those 29 folks who went with her!

On the way out of the Two Medicine area we stopped at Running Eagle Falls – a short .3 mile walk that may not be the biggest falls we've seen but I think it was one of the most beautiful!  Along the way we had our only close up goat sighting - as they were running away!

I didn't mention the road to Two Medicine – wow! Narrow, winding, and steep at times! Bill handled it with his excellent driving skills but wow!

Did I mention we were close to Canada?

Back to Many Glacier area (and that lovely construction zone) just 1 mile down the road from where we stayed the last 2 nights to the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn. We can stay here for 3 nights for just about $100 more than we spent for 1 night at Many Glacier. We got checked in and had to circle the property twice to find our room!

Next up – dinner. And the restaurant here – Nell's – had PIZZA! And it was good! Everything is carry out so we grabbed our pizza and chowed down.

Another good day in the books. We plan to see how we feel tomorrow.

Sept 7

We slept well! We got a bit of a late start but got moving, breakfast, and headed out for a hike to Redrock Lake and Redrock Falls. Along the way is Fishercap Lake where moose are known to frequent. We knew we were a bit late for that but we swung down to the lake just to see and there was a bull moose at one end of the lake laying down! I got the best pic I could with my phone, but Bill got a better one with his camera. I'll try to get that one from him to put in the blog.   Got it!  The bull is laying at the end of the lake. 

The hike was a pretty easy walk in the woods and an out and back hike totally about 3.8 miles. 

It was well traveled by other hikers. Bear have been frequenting the area so we made sure to let them know we were around! One hiker we passed asked if we had seen the bear ranger. We had seen a ranger, but didn't know he was checking for bear activity! We have our bear spray just in case... The hike was beautiful. The lake was very nice and surrounded by beautiful multicolored mountains. The rocks were indeed red!

On the way back we swung by Fishercap again and the moose had apparently just gotten up and left, so folks got pics of him walking. We also heard that a Mom and her baby had been there earlier but we missed that.

Back to Many Glacier for lunch because Swiftcurrent's kitchen was closed till dinner. The number of cars parked along the road as we went by tells us if we want to park to walk the Swiftcurrent Lake trail tomorrow we better get moving earlier!! So that is our plan.  Here are a pair of tired feet!

IMPORTANT UPDATE!! We were on our way to go back to Fishercap Lake later in the day and came upon a very excited couple of ladies telling us they had seen a huge bull moose just up a horse trail by a waterfall. So up we went and WOW. There he was! 

Such a glorious HUGE animal. His big rack still had blood on it where he had been rubbing off the velvet he had developed. We watched him for a bit then headed down to the lake where we were met by a female moose in the lake! She was feeding and popping up and down while breast high in the water. She would occasionally shake like a dog – haha!   I know this pic is small... but it gets better later. 

Such a really exciting end to our day. Then dinner and to celebrate further we got a cup of soft serve ice cream. Yummy! Our alarms are set for an early start tomorrow. Night night!

Sept 8

An early start we did get! We headed out just as the sun was beginning to shine and headed for the trailhead for the Swiftcurrent Lake Loop.   The sun shining on this mountain made it glow red!

Such a pretty walk.

It's an easy but beautiful 2.6 mile loop around the lake – surprise surprise! It passes by the Many Glacier hotel so we opted to stop and get some coffee and make a pit stop. My attempt at a pit stop was delayed as the bathroom was closed for cleaning – glad they are keeping it clean! We finished our walk, did a few things back at the room then decided to get some lunch, forgetting that the only lunch available here was box lunch purchased at breakfast. So we hopped in the car and made our seecond trip to the Many Glacier hotel for lunch. As usual, a pit stop was called for and once again the ladie's room was closed for cleaning (it had opened earlier because I waited for it to do so). Geez. We came back, did a bit of packing and Bill worked on his pictures a bit. Then we packed up and headed for Fishercap Lake in search of more moose. We were not disappointed! As we headed down the trail a lady said there's a moose down there but “it's just a cow”. JUST A COW?? In this age of women you are saying just a cow??? I was downright irritated. But she was there, and she was beautiful. Bill got some fantastic shots of her and I even got some decent ones with my phone. 

Happy to have seen another moose, we headed back to get some dinner. Pizza here is really quite good, so pizza it was. I got up to use the rest room and – a trifecta! Closed for cleaning! It got quite comical and Bill said you HAVE to put that in the blog. We topped off our last day here with some of their yummy soft ice cream (yes the second day in a row – we are on vacation!) Tomorrow we will pack up and head out toward Augusta, Montana to see my cousin and his wife! Stay tuned for adventures with Ashby and Jacquie!