Seeing the Sites in Our Own Backyard: Glacier National Park

The first trip that my family took together was when I was almost nine years old. We traveled from Alabama to Kenosha, Wisconsin to attend the wedding of my oldest cousin. While we were in that part of the country, we also went to the air show in Osh Kosh, a fair in Milwaukee and the Sears Tower in Chicago.

It was on this trip that my parents realized my two older sisters and I were reaching a good age to enjoy an extended family vacation...so when in the late summer the year I turned eleven, we packed up our 1979 Dodge Van, stopped in St. Louis to get my aunt, uncle and cousin and we were off to the West. Destination: Yellowstone National Park (and a stop at the Grand Tetons). Even though I was young, I still have vivid memories of the beauty of the park and its surroundings. It was so unreal to be that close to buffalo, bears, elk and moose. Seeing Old Faithful erupt is something that is stuck in my memory. It was a wonderful experience. In late summer 2011, I went out West again. This time with my Mom and aunt as well as several other friends. We flew to Chicago where we boarded an Amtrak train and rode across the northern portion of the US until we reached Montana. Then we joined a tour that took us to five national parks: Glacier, Yellowstone, Tetons, Canyonlands and Arches.

I did some journaling back then, so here's a copy of my journal entry with some photos for the first few days of the trip when we traveled on the train and arrived in Montana.

We arrived at Union Station and after getting somewhat familiar with where we were, those of us with coach tickets, went ahead and checked our luggage.  Mom and Carol stayed in a roomette on the train and therefore had to wait to have their luggage checked through the tour company. We ate lunch at the food court and then ventured to “The Great Hall” at Union Station to meet the remaining members of our tour and a representative from the tour company.

Flooding in North Dakota delayed our arrival in Montana by several hours!

 The beginning of the delays in our schedule started here. Our train, originally scheduled to leave at 2:30, didn’t leave the platform until after 3:00. The seven of us in coach went to our assigned car and picked our seats which would be our home for the next thirty-one hours. Yes! We were on the train for thirty one hours. Originally, the trip was supposed to take twenty-eight hours, but because of the recent flooding in North Dakota, the train had to slow down to a crawl several times during our journey. We took it in stride and enjoyed the sites outside the windows as we played cards, ate some not so great food from the lounge car and a better meal in the dining car. Finally, at 10:30pm Monday night, we arrived at East Glacier Park, Montana where we met our tour guide, Conrad, who will direct our trip for the next fourteen days.

Conrad and the bus driver, Ricardo packed us in the bus and we drove about thirty minutes west to the Izaak Walton Inn. A charming place, the Inn was built in the early 1930’s to be a stop for the railroad companies that passed through. An entrance to Glacier National Park was also planned for near the Inn but the events of World War II squashed that idea and now, the Inn celebrates the life of the railroad. Besides the inn itself, it has several cabooses and even one engine car which have been redesigned as suites for overnight guests. Of course, due to the late hour, much of the scenery and design of the Inn could not be seen. 

This morning we had to be at breakfast at 7:00am, then meet on the bus at 9:00am for the beginning our our tour of Glacier National Park. Unfortunately, the weather again was not on our side. We had drizzling rain for most of the morning and because of the elevation, dense fog and clouds. The weather broke somewhat while we enjoyed a leisurely boat ride on Lake McDonald.

Cloud Cover over Lake McDonald

Lake McDonald is ten miles long and one mile across, but yet for nine of those ten miles is over 400 feet deep. Surrounded by forests, a long portion of the trees along the north side of the Lake are experiencing new growth due to a forest fire in 2003 which destroyed 60,000 acres of the Glacier National Park. The fire moved so swiftly that from its first sighting at 2pm close to 6,000 acres burned in the next four hours. Firefighters worked for days to contain the fire and thankfully no residential or hotel buildings were destroyed.

After the boat ride on Lake McDonald, we walked past the Lodge at Lake McDonald to eat at “Jammer Joes” for lunch. They served pizza, salads, sandwiches and soup which we all found tasty. After lunch, we rejoined the tour group to ride in the “Jammer” buses which took us halfway up the “Road to the Sun” route along the mountainside of the park. Once again, the weather proved challenging and we were unable to enjoy the clear view of the valleys below us.  It mostly just looked like we were standing in a cloud.  In fact, because of road construction and a motorcycle accident, we were stuck on the road for an hour on

Extreme conditions at Logan Pass!

the way up to Logan’s Pass and an hour on the way back. Logan’s Pass proved just to be a potty break for us instead of a leisurely photo opportunity. By the time we reached the Pass, rain was coming down in sheets and the temperature had dropped dramatically.  Since the road itself had only reopened on July 13th to the public (tremendous snow showers in the winter kept it impassable until then) our only restroom options at the Pass were port-a-potties lined up along the parking lot.  We laughed a great deal at all the unfortunate delays and unwelcome elements and took it all in stride. The bus driver thanked us for our great attitude about everything.

The weather cleared on our drive back to the Izaac Walton Inn and we enjoyed a good meal provided by the staff. Currently several members of our group are walking the grounds around the Inn and as I type this, the wheeling noises or a cargo train sounds through my open hotel  room window. Montana, although challenging weather-wise, is a beautiful and peaceful place and we are blessed to be able to enjoy it.