We picked Patti up at the airport in Kalispell, then showed her the famous Going to the Sun Road for her first introduction to Glacier National Park. There was a problem with this plan, however, because instead of going to the sun, we were going to the clouds. As we climbed in elevation, we found the clouds covering those majestic peaks we had come to admire.
By the time we drove to the highest point at Logan Pass, we were totally engulfed in low-hanging clouds. We had so enjoyed our hike to Hidden Lake earlier, and we wanted to share it with Patti. But we quickly agreed that it wasn't worth the walk to the viewpoint since Hidden Lake would be hidden by the fog today. The good news is that there were open parking spaces at Logan Pass--something quite unusual.
As we drove towards the east side of the park, we got below the clouds. Only the tallest peaks were hidden by the clouds at these lower elevations.
We drove through a little rain before we got to the east side of the park where we are camping now. We were very excited to see these blue skies behind the puffy clouds. We're hoping the rain will wash some of the smoke from the air.
We could still see those blue skies behind the clouds the next morning. We had our guest up early this morning, as we were needing another one of those hard-to-get parking spots inside the park. This is our first drive on the plains of Montana just east of the mountains. With wide open spaces all around us, we can see why this is called "Big Sky Country."
We arrived at the Many Glacier entrance of Glacier National Park around 8:30. After our foggy weather yesterday, we are going to have great weather today.
It's so nice to see the grand mountains in this section of the park with no smoky haze. We have wandered into another of God's wonders!
We were looking for shorter and flatter trails for our guest, and we had heard good things about the Redrock Falls Trail. Our first stop was at Fishercap Lake, where moose are often sighted. We talked to a couple sitting in folding chairs beside the lake, and they had seen a moose cow early this morning. But she had gone back into the woods, so we didn't get our hoped-for moose sighting.
We continued down the trail, as the rocks around us turned to red.
That seems fitting since we are on the way to Redrock Falls.
These red rocks are like a playground for someone that loves to scramble over rocks. Mark climbed up to see the views from the top.
From there he could see Patti and Denisa enjoying the falls from where normal people stop. It was a beautiful place to spend some time.
We thought this was a great destination. But after a few more minutes enjoying the views, we talked Patti into a little longer hike just to see what was on the other side of the falls.
That's when we got to introduce Patti to her first ptarmigan. These are chicken-sized birds in the grouse family that hang out in the mountains. We include this picture of the mother hen that was guarding her flock from her rock overlook. She's easy to see with all the green leaves around her.
As she moved around the area, we could see how her brown mottled feathers helped to blend in with the surroundings. These birds are masters of camouflage, as they turn completely white in the winter to blend into the snow.
One of the other birds was burrowing down into the ground, purposefully throwing dirt over her wings to further blend into the surroundings.
As we stood and watched their bird behavior, they got very comfortable with us. The younger birds came right up to Denisa's foot to investigate this new part of the landscape.
We decided to turn back, and we were surrounded by mountains on the beautiful hike back to the car.
We might say it a lot of times today, but we are so excited to see clear views of mountains and blue skies, rather than the smoky haze we have seen for the last ten days. We gave Patti the credit for bringing those blue skies with her.
Our next stop was the Many Glacier Lodge. We are fans of these old historical lodges that were built to house the adventurous travelers from the east that were discovering the west for the first time. The advent of the railroad gave people a way to travel west in comfort, and these lodges were built by the railroad owners. We saw the famous red buses lined up in front of the lodge, ready to transport today's adventurous travelers on a tour of the park.
Patti likes flowers just as much as Denisa, and we both admired the beautiful blooms brimming from the lodge's flower boxes. The entire lodge is built to look like a Swiss chalet. It was the intent of the railroad owners to entice easterners to forego their European travels, in order to come west for a vacation in a chalet in the mountains of Montana.
We were greeted to the Many Glacier Village by a herd of female big horn sheep. The backgrounds of buildings and cars aren't as pretty as the natural slopes and flowery meadows we have seen on other hikes.
But the best thing about seeing this herd is the baby sheep. Because we have only seen bachelor herds in the past, we had never seen this year's babies.
They are born sure-footed, and we saw this young sheep climbing effortlessly up and down a rock wall beside the road.
We arrived about ten minutes before the start of a ranger-led tour of the lodge, so we rested our legs in the lobby chairs. We found these over-sized chairs are big enough for two, as Patti snapped this picture of both of us in one chair.
Since the lake didn't provide any moose sightings, it looks like this head mounted in the lobby will have to be our token moose picture of the day.
This lodge is almost 100 years old, and has had several updates and refurbishments to keep it in good repair. One update was to take out its famous double helix staircase, to make the gift shop bigger. The latest refurbishment was just completed, and we found out our tax dollars paid to reconstruct an identical staircase to return the lodge to its historical beginnings.
Our lodge tour concluded on the back porch, for a grand view of Swiftcurrent Lake and the mountains that frame it. This is a beautiful part of Glacier National Park, and people make reservations twelve months in advance for the opportunity to stay here.
We had hiked almost 9 miles today, so we deserved a good meal on the way home. We stopped in the tiny village of St. Mary to eat at Park Cafe. There was a sign outside that advertised, "The Power of Pie!" This sounds like Mark's kind of place!
We made ourselves eat our meal first, then ended with a slice of Grizz-berry pie. That would be a combination of huckleberry and several other berries, served up in a flaky crust.
It takes around 1.5 hours to drive to Many Glacier, so we did a lot of driving today. We were getting close to home when we saw several cars on the side of the road, looking toward a pond. It was a lovely scene with the clouds and the green hills reflected in the still water.
But if we zoom in to that tranquil scene, we could see two moose on the other side of the pond.
It looks like this is a young male, with ears almost as big as his small horns.
We watched as he moved closer to the smaller female moose, and we caught them in an intimate moment as they touched noses. Then there was a kick and a grunt, and the smaller moose ran for the woods followed slowly by the male. If we had been a few minutes later coming down that road, we would have missed seeing the moose. We are glad to say that the stuffed moose head at the lodge wasn't our only moose sighting of the day.
Our long drive home gave us some time to get hungry for the huckleberry cheesecake that we had in the freezer for our special guest. We intend to immerse Patti in all things Montana on this trip--including the state's favorite berry. So hang on for huckleberry crepes, huckleberry banana bread, huckleberry buckle, huckleberry jam, huckleberry yogurt . . .
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