Debbie and Ed's Wild West Trip: Part 2

Part 2: Essex, Montana to Glacier National Park, Montana

Our wild west trip continues as we make our way to our most western point. In store for us: a stolen cooler, huckleberry pie, and an encounter with a mama grizzly bear and her three cubs.

Day 6: Cut Bank, Montana to Essex, Montana
Drive time: 1 hour 12 minutes. 75 miles

We were getting closer and closer to the million-acre Glacier National Park, just a few miles south of the Canadian border. We had booked a night at the Izaak Walton Hotel, an old inn that is located just outside the park at a stop on the Amtrak. We arrived mid-morning and since our room was not yet available, we grabbed a hiking trail map and headed into the park.

We took the Going-to-the-Sun Road from the park's west entrance up to Logan Pass. The road, an engineering marvel, spans 50 miles through the park's wild interior, winding around mountainsides, affording amazing vistas.

Starting out from Logan Pass, we hiked toward Hidden Lake, stopping along the way for a picnic lunch.

That evening we dined at the Izaak Walton and walked along the railroad track after dinner. We met some people at the Inn who had boarded the train in Chicago and hopped off 28 hours later at the Inn – what a great way to travel.

Days 7 and 8: Two Medicine Lake Campsite, Glacier National Park
Drive time: 2 hours 60 miles

The next morning we headed back into the park in search of a campsite. Even though it was early September, many of the campgrounds had closed for the season -- leaving fewer sites available on a first-come, first-serve basis. We took our chances on a more remote campground: Two Medicine Lake and sure enough found a great site.

As we had figured out at previous sites, we cruised around the campground, determining which sites were available and finding one we like. We then placed our cooler on the picnic table to "reserve" it while we signed into the campground. When we came back to our site our cooler was gone. Simply vanished.

This act of apparent vandalism dismayed us. It just didn't seem like proper camping etiquette -- stealing someone's food. Eventually, the campground ranger showed up. She had confiscated the cooler and placed it in a nearby metal bear-proof storage box. She then read us the riot act about keeping food out of reach of the bears. Turns out, she wasn't pulling our legs. While in the park we encountered no less than 10 bears. (More later.)

We spent the next two nights happily camping among the mountains and lakes, hiking during the day and fly fishing into the twilight. We celebrated Ed's birthday with a hike up to Aster Falls Lookout. Our second day at Two Medicine Lake, we took a tour of the second half of the Going-to-the-Sun Road in a 1930's-era Red Bus.

We capped off our second afternoon with a trip to a tiny town called Hungry Horse for a slice of world-famous huckleberry pie.

Day 9: Many Glacier Hotel, Glacier National Park
Drive time: 1.5 hours

We spent our last night in the park at Many Glacier Hotel located on Swiftcurrent Lake. The hotel was built in 1915 by the Great Northern Railway as a way to entice tourists to come to the park via rail. Grinnell Glacier, one of the largest glaciers in the park, is a hard hike away (and up) from the hotel. We packed a lunch, grabbed our hiking poles and made our way around Swiftcurrent Lake over to Lake Josephine. Our plan wasn't to go all the way up to the glacier, but just to have a nice, peaceful hike around the lakes.

This is bear country; we saw six of them on the drive into Many Glacier.

When we got to Lake Josephine, some hikers told us that a grizzly bear and her cubs had been spotted way up the mountain above the trail -- and that just happened to the direction we were headed. Keeping  an eye out for her, we made our way along the shore path to a rock outcropping where we had our picnic.

All was quiet.  After lunch, we decided to head back. I led the way. We had gone no more than 100 feet when Ed (fairly calmly) asked me to stop and slowly turn around. I did. He was backing up and whispered that the bear cub had stuck her head out in the bushes just above the path, not 20 feet ahead of me. According to Ed, it looked like a furry Volkswagen Beetle with ears.

We went back to our rock outcropping and watched as the mama bear and her three cubs took their time eating berries, going for a swim, eating more berries and having a leisurely afternoon, never venturing far enough from the path to allow us to escape. Why hadn't we invested in a can of that bear spray?

At the other end of the path was a couple we had passed earlier, lugging large cameras. Because they were on the escape end of the path, they were having a grand time photographing the bears. I was too scared to even think to take a photo. We were stranded for an hour or so before mama decided to take her cubs and head back up the mountain. We headed back to the hotel encountering no more bears -- but looking and listening hard for them.

After our eventful afternoon, we took it easy by doing our laundry at the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn.

To be continued. Stay tuned....