Week in Glacier July 21-28

[Mick]

Hesitate to post anything because basically it's the same stuff everyone does; especially for a first trip.
Day One: Were lucky enough to get a direct flight into Kalispell from Chicago. Small plane, 66 passengers. Picked up a car and quickly stopped at the Army/Navy Surplus store for bearspray. Thank you, list, saved fifteen bucks a can. Crossed the street and picked up some coffee from the excellent, friendly Montana Coffee Traders store. Detoured 50 yards off the road to Belton Chalet for a late lunch. Recommend the Buffalo meatloaf sandwich, wrapped in bacon and served cold. Washed it down with the first of many Moose Drool Brown Ales I had this vacation.
As I posted before, my wife Liz has a problem with heights so she spent the next hour staring at my right ear as we traversed the Going-to-the-Sun Road. Stopped to photograph some goats near Logan Pass with our new Canon S3 IS. Thank you for the recommendation, Rose! Eventually checked into the Great Bear Lodge in St. Mary.
Day Two: Drove 30 seconds to Park Cafe for breakfast, then off to the park visitors center to catch the hiking shuttle. Ranger felt a ledge on the Siyeh Pass hike might cause Liz some problems but urged us to at least hike up to that point. Glad we did, hot and windy but a beautiful hike. We got past the ledge and did the whole 10.3 miles down to Sunrift Gorge.
Took the list's advice and hit Two Sisters for dinner and instant seating. The fresh catch whitefish was excellent. It was, however, a good 80+ degrees in there.
Day Three: Park Cafe was overflowing, went back to the hotel for breakfast and had a nice chat with our waitress, a political science major from Texas. Drove to Many Glacier. All the major hikes were still shut down so we did the easy Grinnell Lake trip and spent an hour cooling off afterwards at the Many Glacier Hotel bar. Did dinner at Two Sisters again and had no trouble finding a seat; possibly because it was around 90 degrees inside this time.
Day Four: Checked out of the hotel and took a side trip to Waterton. As Dave Parker assured me, there was no problem crossing the border with our bearspray. Saw our first bear as we were approaching the park entrance. For years, I have been showing my wife Liz dramatic pictures of the Prince of Wales Hotel to lukewarm responses. "Yeah, that's nice", or "It's okay, doesn't blow me away". She was pretty quiet as we walked around the hotel. On the way out of town, she made me pull over and shoot some pictures of it from the distance. Told me the hotel looked so beautiful perched over that bluff that she had almost started crying. We had lunch over at Kilmorney Lodge while in Waterton. Really good food. Waitress told us she had been a half hour late for work earlier that week because a herd of cattle marched through town and stopped traffic. On the way back to the border, we snapped pictures of a nasty forest fire. A U.S. border guard who looked like Ricky Schroder made us take our eyeglasses off and gave us a pretty good eyeball to eyeball grilling before he let us cross. But if that's what it takes for homeland security, I'm fine with it. Drove down to Essex and checked into the Izaak Walton Inn. Stayed in the orange caboose. Had a good dinner at the Inn.
Day Five: Bad thing about the Inn is that it took us 45 minutes to get to the trailheads in Two Medicine. Hiked Cobalt Lake. Actually the highlight was not the lake but the wildflowers along the way. One stretch was so perfect that a professional designer couldn't have matched it. On the way back, something came crashing through the underbrush and crossed the trail. Only time we had to pull our bearspray and it generated a trail argument with Liz shouting "You mean this stuff only lasts six seconds?".
She thought she had 20 minutes worth of six second shots! On the way back through East Glacier, I noticed her staring at a shop selling handcrafted wooden spoons. Knew it was only a matter of time before we wound up in there.
Day Six: Drove back to Two Medicine and did Scenic Point. Liz got a bit spooked and stopped near the top; where we had lunch while a pot bellied marmot lurked nearby. Hit the spoon shop on the way back where an older gentleman described in great detail how a wooden spoon comes to be; then led us to his wife's spoon collection, attached to the ceiling. It included a spoon from the Flintstones movie and one from the Bonanza TV series. Yup, we wound up buying a spoon. And a tiny painting from the Western art gallery next door. Sweet, old lady owned and ran the place and was celebrating 30 years in the business. We got a complimentary commemorative pen.
Day Seven: Sat around on our caboose deck; sipping wine and writing postcards. And waving at the trains passing by, because that's what you do at the Izaak Walton Inn. Know that all over the park people are snapping pictures of waterfalls, mountains, lakes, and wildlife. At the Inn, they are "training" their binoculars and cameras on grafitti-ed up boxcars and locomotives. But a charming place. As Liz told me, "If you had taken me here when I was in my 20's, I'd be squirming. Now I kind of "get it" and appreciate it.".
So that's it. Want to thank everybody for their advice and suggestions. Almost had as much fun planning this vacation as I did actually taking it.

Mick Zaklan

[July Guy]

Mick.

Sounds like you had a good time, glad to hear it. We also stayed two days and nights at the Izaak Walton Inn. It was indeed unique, might not go back for a few years though. It certainly is ALL about the trains! Post pictures if you can.

July Guy

[Mick]

Hey July Guy,
Heard retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was staying at Izaak Walton Inn a week or two before us. Did you guys bump into her? And did you ever wind up doing the Scalplock Mountain Lookout hike? We got lazy and just vegged out our last day.

Mick

[Rose]

Mick:

Great trip report and it appears you and your wife had a good time in Glacier. Glad you liked the camera... I'm excited about having something to photograph other than the white rocks of Yosemite with mine this year. Would love to see some photos when you have a chance!

[Mick]

Rose:
Posting looks pretty complicated; know that I made the clerk at the camera store load and program the camera before I walked out. Otherwise, I suspect I'd still be trying to turn the thing on. Thought the 80 shot chip would be plenty of pictures for the park, but was I wrong! Probably could have used another 80. Whether they turn out or not remains to be seen; I pick up the prints tomorrow and I'm a little nervous about it. But it was great having a decent camera with a zoom. Until the next vacation, I'll probably be photographing our cats over and over.

Mick

[Rose]

Mick: Posting is really very easy. There have been several topics on here how to post photos. Most people use Photobucket which is a free site to host your pictures. Once you get them uploaded, you just copy and paste the link. Here's a couple of links on how to post:

http://glacierparkchat.com/chat/viewtop ... ing+photos

http://glacierparkchat.com/chat/viewtop ... ing+photos

http://glacierparkchat.com/chat/viewtopic.php?t=790

If you've still got questions, PM me and I'll try to help.

Rose

[July Guy]

Hey July Guy,
Heard retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was staying at Izaak Walton Inn a week or two before us. Did you guys bump into her?

Yes we did. She and her group (6 ladies, all were freshman at Stanford in 1946!) stayed the same days we did. They were a very lively group (we were tipped off by the bartender that they were there ). We visited with them the evening of the 19th, then again on the 20th..Justice O'Connor went fly fishing that morning, then the group went on a half day raft trip on the middle fork. Got a picture and a handshake. She was very nice!

[img][img]http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/ ... 07/482.jpg[/img][/img]


[img][img]http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/ ... 07/472.jpg[/img][/img]

[img][img]http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/ ... 07/473.jpg[/img][/img]

[Mick]

Rose: Thank you for the posting info. I just noticed the camera store never gave me back my memory card with the prints; I suspect I'd need that.
July Guy: I'm a lifelong Democrat but even I love that shot of you and Justice O'Connor! Noticing the guy in the background with the guitar, looks like more was happening the week you stayed than my week. The big event then was swinging on the front porch and watching the hummingbirds fight over access to the feeders.

Mick

[Rose]

Mick, better head back to the store and get your memory card. You definitely will need it to upload the photos unless you have already saved them to your computer.