Glacier National Park and Other Montana Wonders

We spent a week at Glacier National Park in Montana, just south of the Canadian border. It's a park we visited in 1983 (when we were engaged) and passed through again in 1988 (when Tory was an infant), and had always wanted to come back to.

In terms of beauty and things to do and see, Glacier has it all...

...majestic, knife-edged peaks...

...beautiful lakes, large and small...

...lush forests for hiking...

...waterfalls...

...streams...

...wildlife...

...wildflowers galore...

... and, of course, glaciers, although they are rapidly melting due to climate change, and may all be gone by 2030, according to the National Park Service.

Forest fires have run amok in parts of the park in the last few years, but you can see nature's repairs at work all around.

One of the highlights of any visit to GNP is driving the Going to the Sun Road, which winds its way up the sides of the mountains to Logan Pass, and then down the other side. The road, one of the top 10 drives in the country, in addition to the incredible scenery, features heart-stopping drop offs.

We were able to repeat some of the hikes we did in 1983 (and thought the fact that we could still do them was reward in itself), and tried some new ones as well. We also got our new kayak out on one of the mountain lakes.

Part of our visit to the area coincided with Labor Day weekend, so the park was VERY crowded - it seems like it gets much more tourist love than 36 years ago.

Glacier is adjacent to Canada's Waterton Lake National Park, and in 1933 the two parks were joined to become the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. We traveled up to Waterton one day and took a cruise on Waterton Lake (which spans the two parks) where the effects of geological uplift were very pronounced. We also took in the view of the lake from the majestic Prince of Wales Hotel.

After leaving Glacier on September 3rd, we visited a few more places in Montana. We first drove south to the city of Great Falls. We visited the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center, operated by the U.S. Forest Service and located on a cliff overlooking the Missouri River. This was the area where L&C had to portage their boats for 18 miles to bypass five waterfalls and cascades, the largest of which is the Great Falls of the Missouri. You can see the various falls today, but most have been topped by dams, which reduces the water flow and changes the experience for us modern travelers.

In that same area, we visited Giant Springs State Park, home of a massive spring that dumps 150 million gallons per day of mountain-fed spring water into the Missouri. The park is also home to the country's shortest river, the Roe, which is only 200 fee long.

We rounded out our time in Great Falls with a visit to the museum, home, and studio of cowboy artist Charlie Russell.

Continuing south, we took a boat tour through the Gates of the Mountains (so named by Lewis and Clark), a picturesque gorge on the Missouri...

...and then traveled to Bozeman, where we spent a weekend with Doug's friends from business school, Robert and Christine Smith (no relation...).

They showed us around the Bozeman area, including a visit to the headwaters of the Missouri River where three other rivers (the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin) combine to form the Missouri...

...and also to the site of an old Native American buffalo jump.

While in Bozeman, we visited the Museum of the Rockies with its world-famous paleontology collection. We were particularly impressed with exhibits of the growth patterns of some dinosaur species, including Triceratops and T-Rex, ranging from the very young to full grown specimens.

Departing Montana after almost three weeks, we headed south to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. More about that in our next blog post.