Glacier National Park in Montana ranks in the top ten in the way of having the best facilities, roads and sights to see in the National Park Service. Glacier is located about ten hours from Seattle—a day’s drive for most people.
Not being like most people, we broke the drive up by staying in Spokane which is five hours away from Glacier. We always saw Spokane on the map and thought it would be a good time to investigate this city. With our daughter, Pamela, we made the trek in July of 2017.
Interstate 90 will take you most of the way. Interesting country awaits the visitor through eastern Washington.
A number of wind farms are along the way.
Crossing the Columbia River is a must.
The wild horses are gone, except the iron statues along this ridge.
There is plenty of open land.
Spokane is one of those cities that is easily missed. Known as the birthplace of “Father’s Day,” Spokane is a thriving mini-metropolis. It is the second largest city in the State of Washington, and the 99th largest city in the United States.
We found Spokane to be vibrant and exciting. We stayed in the large Double Tree convention center along the Spokane River. Next to it is the 40 mile Centennial trail.
Walking along the main avenue, we came across an impressive Arts Center:
We found this humongous Radio Flyer wagon in a park nearby.
There was a large clock tower in the park
In downtown is where the famous Spokane Falls are located. The waters hear helped the early lumber industry and later became the focus of several railroads.
Harnessing the water became self-evident providing needed power.
There is a good size mall in the downtown area.
We came across a luxury hotel called the Davenport. I soon found out why people like it when I went into their restroom.
Our favorite restaurant became a pub known as O’doherty’s Irish Grille which patronizes Notre Dame football. We had a good meal there.
On the east part of downtown is Gonzaga University. You may recall they were ranked #1 for most of the 2020-21 season in College basketball, but lost the final game to Baylor.
It is a Catholic University with a decent cathedral.
Gonzaga is nicknamed the “Bulldogs.” They take their basketball quite seriously.
I talked a Gonzaga manager into let me see the baseball court and arena. He hurt himself a year earlier and became a manager. At 6’9″he was the tallest manager I ever saw. A nice guy too. Gonzaga #1.
Other sports are played here too with a beautiful sports complex. Ironically, football has not been played in Gonzaga since WWII.
The name “Gonzaga” came from a 16th century Italian monk, St. Aloysius Gonzaga, who helped the poor. He died caring for the victims of a serious epidemic.
As you travel eastward, a beautiful lake region, Coeur d’Alene, awaits. It is one of those areas that we wished we spent more time exploring. Driving on Interstate 90, there is a small section of northern Idaho that you must go through. We purposely stopped in a town known as “Wallace.”
Founded on mining, many of the buildings date back to 1890’s.
The surrounding area was devastated by a huge fire in 1910.
Today, Wallace is nicknamed “The Center of the Universe.” A mayor of Wallace coined the phrase in 2004 stating, “…it can’t be proven otherwise.”
Getting off the Interstate at St. Regis, we went into a popular trading post. There was an aquarium of trout I found interesting.
In the St. Regis store, we came across this saying.
Unless you had booked a year in advance, it is nearly impossible to get a room at one of the National Park lodges. The McDonald Lodge is quite beautiful overlooking the ten mile long Lake McDonald.
Boat rides can be taken at McDonald Lodge.
Then, too, there is Many Glacier Lodge located in the northern part of the park.
We happen to snag a Hampton Inn room for four nights in Whitefish, MT. The entrance to Glacier is but 25 miles away.
The town of Whitefish, MT is what you would expect a busy Western town to be. There are novelty shops, cafés and restaurants.
The Great Northern Railway was built in 1904 made this town accessible. A railroad tour departs from the depot everyday during the summer.
We enjoyed the food and motif of Craggy Range Restaurant. They had the best meatloaf.
Along the route to Glacier is a small town proud of its winning wrestling teams—Columbia Falls. I took this picture of this large building mural.
At the time of our visit in July of 2017, there was a convention of old cars. You just had to be patient if you got behind one of them.
As of today, May 2021, Glacier National Park has limited the number of people who can travel through the park. An online system has been developed, causing considerable criticism. In 2017, the park was wide open to everyone who wanted to come.
Like Zion National Park, a shuttle system has been developed. There is only so much parking in an area. In 2017, one could still drive through the park, but you may not be able to stop anywhere along the route. The fault with the shuttle system was the number of people who wanted to use it.
One could arrange a “Reb Bus” tour, known as “The Red Jammers.” There is a fleet of 33 busses that can sit 17 people—four across. This tour looked neat and they had qualified drivers to boot!
Our first stop on the shuttle was to the shorter loop of Avalanche trail. There were several impressive tree formations.
The creek that ran from the lake was cold and clear.
Kathie did not like this sign. Luckily, she gave up wearing “bells” tied to her shoes.
There was a bit of a wait for the next bus.
The next day we decided to drive the famous Going-to-the-Sun road. Built in 1932, the 50-mile road is impressive.
The highest elevation of the road is at Logan’s Pass at 6,646 feet.
We were there early and were able to snag a parking spot at the visitor’s center.
We took a trail that led up the mountain. Snow was everywhere.
People were thoroughly enjoying the moment
On the lower levels, there was an assortment of wildflowers.
The Highlands Trail went along the side of the mountain. We are brave, but not that brave.
We did notice that there were a number of areas that had forest fires at one time
In another spot, we came across this unique RV.
Pam took our picture at this location where we saw the RV.
It was near this juncture that we came across a sign explaining that the glaciers in the park are disappearing.
In 1850, there was 150 glaciers in the area. Today, there are only 25 that are left. It is believed the glaciers could disappear by 2030.
At the eastern end of the park is referred to as St. Mary’s. Just outside the park are several hotels and restaurants. We liked a place called “Snowgoose.”
There was a large restaurant inside to take care of tour groups. We were able to get a table along the glass overlooking the majestic mountains nearby.
It was inside this small hotel gift shop that we encountered our one and only Grizzly. Way in the distance at Logan’s Pass we did see a mother and her cub.
North of Lake Mary is Many Glacier Lodge. To get to it requires one to drive in the high plateau region. There are just few trees along the way.
Near the lodge, we spotted to what appears to be Elk, or Moose.
The Many Glacier Hotel sits right along the banks of Swiftcurrent Lake. In the background are a number of gorgeous looking mountains.
The Hotel Lodge has that rustic look with modern conveniences. We did have a snack in the Ptarmigan Dining room, a sausage and pepper sandwich
We took a 2 hour hike along the lake. What I remember was the “Christmas smell” from all the Balsam Fir’s.
We could have taken a boat ride, but decided to hike one trail. This area comprises a number of trails. Although, even in July, some of the trails were closed.
Taking the time to drive to Many Glacier area was, indeed, well worth the effort. It was a gorgeous day, and I was with a most beautiful woman.
