Montana Trip, Part II: Glacier National Park

After a great weekend climbing in Idaho, we first picked up Ney-J who flew in commercially to Boise, and then we flew to Salmon Idaho where Belyn had just gotten off working the Middle Fork of the Salmon River.  We then flew up to Kalispell City airport outside the park.  There we rented a car and played tourist for a few days in Glacier National Park.  It was fun – we stayed in the beautiful park lodges, went up into Canada to see Waterton Park, and stopped roadside to watch moose and bears.

We all decided the nicest lodge was the Glacier Park Lodge in East Glacier Park.  The great room is beautifully built with massive logs, still with the bark covering them.  Unfortunately, that area is also the wifi hot spot, so most everyone in this massive room had their head down into a smart phone or tablet.  I have all the latest stuff so I guess I can’t comment.

The best bear watching was not watching a bear move across steep ground above the road, but watching a couple stop their car right under the bear to get photos.  A woman got out and starting taking photos almost straight up. We were a little concerned but became alarmed when the bear kicked off some large rocks.  I yelled but no need – a rock slammed into the roof of their SUV and that got their attention.  The woman jumped inside and they shot off down the road with a pretty cool souvenir dent in the top of their car.

We did some nice hikes but we misread a climbing guidebook about where to find a “goat trail” to hike.   You can see from the photo that not even a goat could get much past where Betsy is hiking.

Stay tuned for part III where I scare Betsy while flying into the Schafer wilderness airstrip.  Actually, after asking around afterwards it turns out I scared Belyn too.