Our drive back into Montana was fairly easy although we had a relatively long border crossing wait, about 1 ½ hours. Heading south from Edmonton you quickly enter the agricultural area of Alberta. Beautiful fields of yellow/green canola and wheat spread out in every direction. It wasn't too long before we came upon the border and what initially looked to be an easy crossing tunred into a rather long wait. And of course by this time the plains were heating up and the wait was too long to run the AC. But a nice breeze was blowing to help ease the heat.
Long wait at the border
About an hour after crossing we drove into the greater east side of Glacier NP. There is the small town of St. Marys with a few hotels, RV parks, a restauraunt and the east entrance to the park. Just north of here is another section of the park, Many Glacier, where a lot of the tourist amenities are located. We arrived too late in the day to get a campsite in the park thus we settled for a private site in the Indian owned CG, Chewing Blackbones. Yes that is the name of the CG which is owned by the Blackfeet, the tribe that is in this part of Montana. A CG with real potential but not much but power and sewer hookups but it served it's purpose for the night. Getting a site in the NP is very difficult and most of the CGs do not take reservations and they always fill up by 8 or so in the morning. We were very lucky the next morning to snag a site at the Many Glacier CG where we spent three nights.
While at the park we made two hikes and rode the red bus from the CG to the top of Logan Pass which is the tallest point on the road across the park. Our first hike was around Swiftcurrent Lake which was about 3 miles around from our camp site. It is a small lake that fronts the beautiful hotel on the shore. It was a very nice hike on a great day. Later that day we had a reservation on the red bus. These are old "busses" that have been completely refurbished by Ford and are really a blast to ride. And the drivers try to perform for you with both information on the park and surrounding area and fun times as well.
On the hike around Swiftcurrent Lake
Tourboat on the lake
The red bus
Riding with the top down
Our big day was a hike to Iceberg Lake a 10 mile RT to a beautiful lake that was partially frozen and had small icebergs floating around too. It was a beautiful day but we got a late start and did not begin until 10 a.m. It took about 3 hours to get to the lake and this being one of the easier hikes despite it's length the trail was very busy. Not too much wildlife along the trail but we did see a Ptarmigan and bull moose. Due to the late start we did not finish until close to 6 but it was a very rewarding hike.
Hike out to Iceberg Lake
Along the trail
Iceberg lake is at the base of these mountains
Iceberg Lake
This was our last day at Glacier so early the next morning we took off heading east.
More to come....
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