Day 47 Glacier National Park St. Mary’s Campground, St. Mary Montana

Captain’s Blog

Sunday

July 19, 2009

Last evening the wind picked up and continued until it felt like hurricane force winds. It did not let up until 4 AM. Ron slept like a baby but I was up monitoring the trees swaying around us. I was expecting some rain or thunder-storms but it was just wind. The sky was clear, bright and the stars were amazing. There is little to no ambient lighting here so the clarity of the stars was great.

As I said before the park has no roads running through it so getting to the other end of the park is done on peripheral winding roads. We went back to the Road to the Sun and tired for Logan’s Pass again. This time we were able to get in to the parking lot and spent time enjoying the views. We opted out of a hike because they were all 10 miles or more and we wanted to get over to Two Medicine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped at the Sunrift Gorge Pullout and hiked to the Baring Falls. The Gorge was beautiful and the falls pretty. The mountain ranges are granite and the boulders and rocks in the area are a variety of greens, blues, turquoise, red, pink, tan etc. They are really pretty and not what you see at home.

 

 

 

 

We then headed to Two Medicine so named because two tribes were to meet and combine and form one medicine lodge. One tribe got there late (not surprising with the road conditions) so the area ended up with two medicine lodges – hence the name Two Medicine.

Again the views were beautiful but different from other areas of the park. We stopped and had lunch by the river with more beautiful colored rocks I couldn’t take away with me.  

We then hiked to Running Eagle Falls near Two Medicine Lake.  The falls were once named “Trick Falls” because one waterfall rumbles over a cliff and another pours out of a huge hole in the cliff wall. Later in the season, the upper fall dries up leaving the lower fall looking like it is springing from solid rock. The area is significant to the Blackfeet Indian Tribe and is considered hallowed ground. The falls were beautiful and there was a group of teens jumping off the rocks into the whirlpool of water adjacent to the falls. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We headed back to the CG and had completed a tour of Glacier National Park over the last four days. It is a great place and we enjoyed our time here. Tomorrow we will be crossing into Canada stopping at Waterton, then on to Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper.