Glacier National Park

Aug 31:
Our flight was supposed to land at 2:10 pm at Calgary. Our plan was to get to Waterton for the night, so time was of the essence. Needless to say, it didn’t work out that way 🙂 We learned at Denver that our flight was delayed. We were fortunate that we switched our car rental pickup from an off-airport location that closes at 5 pm to an airport location just a few days before. Our car rental was booked months ago, yet, as I’m prone to do, periodically I kept checking for good deals. There was nothing that was even close to off-airport rates, as many on TA have noted. All of a sudden, about a week before our trip, Costco had a very competitive Alamo airport deal that was about CAD 50 higher. I figured that was fair price to pay for convenience, save time, and not deal with the danger of car rental closing in case of flight delay. I cancelled our airport pickup taxi and booked this deal.

Travel Tip: If you book off-airport rental as they are definitely significantly cheaper, it may be better to book a flight with morning arrival. Also, keep looking and you might just get a better deal at an airport location.

We picked up the car and headed south. Because of the delay, we decided to take the faster Route 2. We still had to stop for groceries and supplies, and I wanted to get to Waterton before sunset. We stopped at a Canadian Tire to buy bear spray and holster. Then we stopped at Wal Mart to buy some supplies, baby food, cups and plates etc. We could not get there before sunset, but I was still able to surprise my wife and son by driving straight to Prince of Wales Hotel — they didn’t know we would be staying there! We did have a lake view room, and the view was spectacular. We ate dinner at the lounge, walked on the lakeshore for a few minutes and went to sleep.

Sep 1 :
The plan was to spend most of the day at Waterton and then drive over the border to Many Glacier in Glacier National Park, USA where we were booked for the next two nights. The day started with breakfast at the Royal Stewart Dining room, overlooking the lake. The weather on this day was as good as it could be. Comfortable, mid-70s (F) temperature. And that was helpful for our first activity of the day, to hike up Bear’s Hump. Our 3-year old son Tintin handled it very well, far better than I expected. He enjoyed our periodic “Hey O” chants to warn the bears. Only towards the last 5 minutes or so did I have to carry him up. We took our time getting to the top. This is where Tintin found one of the two fun outdoor things that he would get eventually hooked to as the trip progressed — building “castles” with pebbles. Unfortunately, it was a bit hazy because of the recent prescribed fires in the US. We spent quite a bit of time up there. Some of our photos (more specifically, our hair) told the story of Waterton’s reputation of being windy.

When it was time to head back down, Tintin first refused to leave, then refused to walk. Thanks to the hiking sticks, I was able to carry him, despite the steep slope. But I realized soon that it was a pretty risky thing to do without a baby carrier. I stepped on a tree root and sprained my ankle/foot pretty bad. Adrenaline kept me going though, but I am sure that made it worse! About halfway down, my wife found a way to convince Tintin to walk down, which helped. But I was hobbled for the rest of our vacation.

Travel Tip: Accidents don’t happen every day. You might get away with improper attire/poor judgement many times, but that doesn’t mean you should do it. My snickers were solid, but not high enough. And it wasn’t a good idea to carry my son. My wife already had a bad knee, so not that we had too many options, but still there was no excuse for not being more careful, particularly on the first day of a two week trip. Hiking sticks are REALLY useful. We aren’t really avid hikers, but I was happy that I insisted on packing them. We found the Explora Waterton app very useful on the trail. It showed us exactly where we were on the trail.

It was past our checkout time at the hotel when we got back. The staff was super-friendly, immediately offering to send ice to the room and letting us take our time to pack up and check out. They followed up with a phone call a few minutes later to ask how I was doing. Not for the first time, I was impressed with Canadian hospitality and friendliness. Hobbled, but determined to not let our plans get sidetracked, we went to the townsite. Had lunch in Subway, and then sat on the lakeside and took some pictures. We passed on riding the Surrey Bikes. I picked up some cold packs and a crepe bandage.

I was going to rest my foot a little bit, so my wife took the wheels and we headed towards Red Rock Canyon. About halfway along, we saw 3-4 cars stopped on the other side of the road and we knew they had seen something. As we neared, we saw a bear cub munching on the grass right next to the road, like 5 feet from the car!!! As luck would have it, the battery went out in my DSLR at that moment. I tried to take some pictures with the phone, but didn’t get anything good. We had been as close to a bear as we would probably ever will be, and we were thrilled!

Tintin was fast asleep, so he couldn’t see the bear. Once we reached Red Rock Canyon, we put him in the stroller (still sleeping), and slowly made our way to the bridge overlooking the canyon. It was a perfect day, and kids were having fun in the water. The looks were interesting, but wasn’t anything we hadn’t seen as we have toured the American Southwest extensively. The area reminded us of Slide Rock State Park near Sedona, Arizona.

We started towards Many Glacier at around 5 pm. The border crossing was uneventful. We stopped for some groceries at Thornson’s. We decided to not cross over with fruits and vegetables so the store was very helpful. I had called ahead to make sure they would be open at that time and day. For the few things we needed, we didn’t think it was pricey so it worked out well. Once we reached Many Glacier hotel, Austin, a bellman, not only helped carry our luggage to our room, but also brought ice, and even parked our rental car in the notorious parking lot behind the hotel that you have to hike up to and brought the keys to the room. I cannot give enough of a shoutout to him. I did manage to get lakeside rooms (although no balcony, but more about it later) after months of persistence.

Travel Tip: Your choice of room will open up. You just have to persevere. I booked any rooms I got initially, and then changed one day at a time as our preferred room type opened up, and then called to merge the reservations. We ate in the room for the night. Sunset wasn’t anything to write home about because of the wet, chilly and cloudy weather that had begun to take hold — so we didn’t feel the urge to go down or walk around the lake. My legs were also thankful!

Sep 2:
The temperature dropped by 20F overnight, and the weather pattern shifted towards windy, chilly, and rainy. Not what we had hoped for. One way it did help me was I could rest my feet for the morning, the fact that we didn’t have anything specific planned until the 2pm Red Bus Tour also helped. After all, relaxing in a lakeside room at Many Glacier is not too bad. As with most things in life, you give some and you get some. Particularly in the mountains, as many have said, if the weather is bad, wait ten minutes, or drive an hour (across the continental divide)! Sure enough, suddenly the sun peaked through even as it was drizzling, and it was still quite cloudy behind Mount Grinnell. You guessed it — a rainbow across Swiftcurrent Lake, straddling Mount Grinnell. And it was a full, strong one, going from one end of the lake to another. Hobbled as I was, I had to grab my camera and head out, and fast. Ours wasn’t a balcony room. Rainbows don’t last forever! As I started to rush through the corridor towards the elevator, within a few steps I noticed a door on the lakeside with an EXIT sign. It was the fire escape. Bingo! There I was, on a balcony, all by myself! By this time, I noticed that there was another one — double rainbow! The warm morning light on the mountains, with a cloudy backdrop, and the shimmering lake, all framed by two rainbows. And it wasn’t fleeting. I went back to the room, got another lens, hobbled back out, and it was still there. At some point a guy who has been working at the hotel every season for a few years said “I have never seen anything like it here”. And I thought: we wouldn’t see it if the weather was as “gorgeous” as yesterday! Little did I know that it was not the last time I was having the same thought!

The rainbow went away, and came back again, and brought with it pick-a-boo of sunshine and shadow each time. Our day was already made. But then there was the Red Bus Tour. Our jammer was a young guy, but did possess all the knowledge about the park, geology, and flora and fauna — just like I expected. Because of the chilly weather, we never got the opportunity to ride open-top. The views of Jackson Glacier was blocked by clouds, and we rode through alternate periods of rain, wind, sunshine and hail. At the Goose Island overlook, we saw a big (well I don’t have a frame of reference for size here!) pile of bear scat — I’m sure I saw whole berries in it. Once we reached Logan Pass, it was hard to walk around with the windchill. The jammer gave us a bonus by taking us to Oberlin Bend, I guess to make up for the inordinate amount of time we wasted looking for two riders who weren’t at the right stop. It was a little bit weird when we helplessly went from hotel to hotel looking for them — all because they couldn’t be called (no cellphone signal). The panoramic view of the highline trail was very tantalizing — but I knew it won’t happen this time. On our way back on the GTTS, it really started pouring for a while. When we reached this overlook with an expansive view of St. Mary Lake with Goose Island in the distance, you guessed it — a rainbow appeared. We stayed there until it went away. By the time we got back to MG, it got dark again. There was no fiery sunset to be had.

The day ended with a nice meal at the Ptarmigan Dining Room.

Travel Tip: If you read this far, you know what it is I am about to write here. If the weather is bad, wait 10 minutes!

Sep 3: We had originally booked the 9 AM boat trip with ranger-led hike to Grinnell Lake. But given the fact that I had a bum ankle, and we would have to haul all the luggage, check out of the hotel and be there in time for the boat ride made us reconsider that. Who knows if I would even be able to hike ? With that in mind, we switched it to an 11 AM slot. That would give us more time to have breakfast, pack up and be at the boat dock. I was well enough to slowly make my way up the stairs to the parking lot to get our car. I should mention here that a tip on TA that recommended to take a right turn for accessible parking instead of left to go to the parking lot as you approach the hotel was very helpful as this way you can unload your luggage first and then park your car. This might change next year when construction is over.

Anyway, it started drizzling again as we got on the boat. The rain took turns in getting harder and lighter as we made the walk over the hump to the shore of Lake Josephine for the second boat, Morning Eagle. Believe it or not, they hauled the boat by hand for the last part its journey to the lake, however many years ago it was. It’s not going anywhere. Tintin was ecstatic that there were four boats rides to be had! Once the Morning Eagle docked, it was decision time. To hike or not to hike. We stayed in. All those who wanted to hike got their blue return ticket from the captain and the returning passengers were about to board. Tintin suddenly wanted to go out into the forest. On a whim, despite the rain and my bum ankle, we decided to go! Toddlers are known to change their minds though as we realized after a few minutes on the trail. The thing about them is it is hard to motivate them with the lure of a destination only, even if it is tied to a reward at the end. Delayed gratification is not an easy skill to master! There has to be something about the journey that they have to find engaging and interesting. That also means it will take longer — which was fine with us, except for the hourly schedule of the return boats which meant if we were not back in two hours, we would be waiting an extra hour. Mom did her magic and got Tintin interested in the many different types of berries along the trail. But every time he would linger at a berry plant too long, I was thinking about certain other large mammals that were also interested in berries 🙂 It took us more than an hour, but we made it to the Lake. It was very windy and chilly. And then when Tintin insisted on drinking his milk sitting down at the edge of (almost on the) water and we denied him, he was very upset. Ultimately he settled for a driftwood. We didn’t want to miss the 1:45 boat, as we had to have lunch and take GTTS to Apgar by the end of the day. The weather wasn’t cooperating either, so there was no point in staying long. We started heading back. About halfway through, I realized that we weren’t going to make it unless we walked faster. That is not an easy proposition with a toddler. Well, I bit the bullet, picked him up, and started briskly walking back — bum ankle and all. The boat was late and although a fairly long line had formed already, there was a good chance we would get seats.
Just as the boat was coming in, the rain and wind picked up. That meant some who were on the fence about hiking remained on the boat. We were third in line when the boat filled to capacity. Arrgh!
It was time to make use of the high energy bars and chill (pun intended) at the boat shelter.

As I said before, “if it’s bad, wait ….”. In about 20 minutes or so, the lake lit up. The sun came out. Tintin discovered skipping pebbles. I looked at the line of hikers going up to to glacier on the other side of the lake with envy. Ultimately, the time we spent waiting for the next boat wasn’t too bad. Once we got back, we really had to eat! We headed up to Swiftcurrent, but Nell’s hadn’t opened yet. We decided to pick up something at St Mary. By the time we eventually got on the GTTS, we didn’t have much time to do any hiking at Logan Pass, and it still was very cold. We did stop at overlooks, took some photos, and arrived at Apgar about a half hour before sunset. We were staying at the Village Lodge motel rooms, which made it easy to handle the luggage, as we could park right next to the door. I even found time to go the lakeshore and make some sunset images.

Travel Tip: In the mountains, it is important to have a flexible schedule. Things happen, unexpected weather changes are the norm, especially in September. If we had a packed itinerary, this day would have turned out to be very rushed, and we would be disappointed. We hadn’t planned on having to change the boat trip to a time two hours later, and then having to wait an extra hour for the return trip. But we still managed to complete the day’s activities with time to spare, and not having to rush driving through the mountain in the dark or anything like that.

Sep 4:
The night before we were agonizing over whether to spend two more nights at Apgar given the scary weather that was forecast, including wind and snow. We hadn’t been able to spend time or hike at Logan Pass, and the forecast was even worse for today. I did want to drive GTTS from west to east, and visit Two Medicine. Looked like we might have to stay near Apgar for the day. What made it worse was the fact that I had booked a surprise helicopter tour with Kruger at 9 in the morning, but hadn’t been able to reach them to confirm so far. Given the cloud cover, an aerial tour wasn’t looking very attractive either. It wasn’t easy keeping that in mind while discussing about our plans with my wife!
The day began with a sunrise shoot at the feet of Lake McDonald. It wasn’t the most colorful, but the mist that rose from the water made up for it. We decided to see what we can today and leave for Canada a day earlier, which would make our itinerary for the next two days less rushed. We were able to do that because we kept our plans flexible, with hotels booked on different days in British Columbia where we were headed next. We couldn’t take advantage of the third free night at Apgar, our original reason to spend three nights on the West side, but we thought it wasn’t worth waiting another day given the cold turn the weather had taken. The forecast called for the rain to move in at Two Medicine by early afternoon. The original plan was to drive the GTTS to get to Two Medicine, but we ended up taking Route 2 to beat the rain. I was pleasantly surprised by how scenic it was. We got there in time, but the boat ride was a little over an hour later. It was chilly, but I had time to take some shots from the lakeshore, and sit down for coffee and pastries at the cozy Two Medicine campstore, which we liked a lot. For the second straight day, the rain came as we got on the boat! This time we decided not to hike and remained on the boat. We wanted to spend the rest of the day in the Lake McDonald area. Once we got closer, the weather cleared up enough that we decided to take a shot at driving up to Logan Pass. Glad that we did! The sun came out and the warm light made for a nice drive, and indeed the views were different, and I thought better going towards east. We still couldn’t hike at Logan Pass, but had time to walk the Trail of the Cedars on our way back. We wanted to eat dinner at the Lodge, but the waiting line was long. After spending some time at the hotel porch overlooking the hotel, we came back to Apgar. That night we had dinner at West Glacier, and packed up to leave for Canada early. It was going to be a long drive.