Day 8 Glacier National Park Day Two

Got up this morning and tried the Luna Cafe. Good pancakes and thick sliced bacon. Decided to go to St. Mary which is about 25 miles north of where I was. Even though it was only 25 miles it was a 45 minute drive due to the twisting winding roads. I skipped the visitors center and went on in the park. I drove a short way in (which I was later glad I only went a short way in) and discovered there was a boat ride tour of St. Mary Lake. I had arrived about twenty minutes before the ride started so I took a seat on a bench and waited. Soon the boat arrived to off load the other tourists. One funny about that was a lady who got off was wearing two hats. Both on her head! The bottom one was a baseball cap and the top was a huge floppy brimmed hat of Mexican hat dance size which bounced around with each heavy-heeled step she took. With each step it seemed to me that she was momentarily blinded by the brim flopping down in front of her eyes. It was most amusing.

Back to the ride. About 25 people got on the small craft and settled in for a pleasant ride. The young woman who was or guide was a local from the Blackfeet tribe and had started working at the park when she was 14 and loved the area so much she decided to stay. Ten years later she is still in love with the park.

She pointed out some of the landmarks like the small island that could almost be classified a mountain since the lake is around three-hundred feet deep except around this island. There are pockets that are five-hundred feet around it. There is only about 15 feet or so above the water which when you think about it makes it 500 feet tall. The island itself was only around 30 feet wide and 50 feet long carved from the surrounding land by glaciers thousands of years ago. Another interesting feature about the island is the trees. There are around 8 trees of note on it.


Looking at the picture you'll note that the limbs on the trees all grow mainly out to one side. The reason is that the winds there in the winter especially blow at one hundred plus miles per hour. the record was set a few years ago at 178mph. At that point the measuring device blew off and they have not found it yet. Anyway, the limbs on the trees became so damaged by the prevailing winds that the tree adapted by only growing the long limbs on the leeward side of the tree. The shorter limbs on the windward side offer protection from the wind but don't have to suffer the damage that a longer limb would have to.

So going on to the rest of the lake, it was just beautiful. I know I am saying that a lot during this writing but the fact of the matter is that the entire area of that part of Montana is just that!

A side note about the boat we were on. It was a gorgeous wooden craft built in 1926 specifically for doing the lake tours. It can hold probably around 50 people.

We went on to the other end of the lake and disembarked to go up a short trail to see a waterfall. My apologies to those actually reading this but I was not able to memorize all the names of all the mountains and waterfalls that I encountered at this park.

Waterfall at the far end of St Mary Lake


I stayed there a while and took some pictures none of which came out to my satisfaction. I was trying out a new lens adapter that gave ultra-wide angle capability. Well you get what you pay for. The edges all came out blurry and too distorted. Oh well.

The visit to the falls and the ride back to the other end of the lake was uneventful but a wonder to see.

An interesting sight there is the remains of a 36,000 acre forest fire that happened in 2005. I have never seen the effect first hand of what that looks like. There is nothing but a stark remains of the landscape. The trees are ghosts of themselves with the bark burned off and the remaining wood bleached by the sun and weather. But when you look at more than that you see the new growth of small trees and ground cover making a comeback. So under the dead timber is a layer of green that when the light is right on the landscape it shines through the carcasses of the remnant forest. When the fire was finally put out the government allowed the Indians to come in and harvest for ten days the trees that were of use. The rest, as you see in the picture, were left to do what nature would do with them.

After the boat-ride I went to the tourist based shop and restaurant and got some chips/salsa and some water.

I decided to head back to the hotel and given the 45 minute drive it would put me back there close to dinner time around 5 o'clock. It is amazing how time has no real meaning there but it goes by too fast anyway. I had suddenly found that I had been there almost all day.

On the drive back I decided to swing through Two Medicine to find out from a local what time the sun went down behind the mountains there. The two park people I talked to both said around 8 o'clock. I went on back to East Glacier Park Village and checked email then went for some dinner.

Around 7:45 I decided to head on back to Two Medicine to get some sunset photos. With the best laid plans of mice and men I got there about 20 minutes too late. The sun had already gone behind the mountains. I can assure you that every gnat, mosquito and midge had come out and my being one of the only people there they all wanted to feast on me!