As an initial warning, this post is huge. I took over 950 photos and 6 videos during this trip and trying to condense it into a blog post is pretty difficult. Just wanted to give anyone reading a heads up. You may want to grab a beverage in case you need mid-post hydration :-)
Dad and I have done a Montana trip in the past (to Bozeman), though much of it was actually spent in Wyoming (at Yellowstone National Park). Afterwards, I mentioned to him that I would really like to make it up to Glacier National Park (spurned by many awesome Ansel Adams prints) at some point in my life. Well the time came to plan another father/son trip so we figured why not head up to Northwest Montana!
Day 1 - Saturday
I flew out of Tallahassee and met up with Dad at the Atlanta airport. Surprisingly, we managed to make it through without any significant snags (a miracle for Atlanta) and arrived in Kalispell early in the afternoon. Grabbed our snazzy Cadillac and we were on our way!
Anyone who knows me will not be surprised that we booked our room at the Kalispell Hampton Inn. I love Hampton Inns and this one was especially snazzy . As it was already a little late for lunch, we decided to do something easy and close and ate at the Arby's right next to the hotel. After that we got settled in the room, then decided we would explore downtown Kalispell. As many Hampton Inns do, this one had a courtesy shuttle so they dropped us off downtown (which to Kalispellians apparently means "the mall") and we began to mosey. We discovered that there really isn't a whole lot going on downtown unless you need a salon or massage or spa treatment. Kalispell has that small mountain town feel and definitely doesn't feel like a resort at all, so it kinda amazed us that so many salons could stay in business. I guess all the locals have really nice hair. Anyhoo, we managed to find the KB Sports Bar & Grill (like dad and I would be looking for anything other than a bar) and enjoyed a few Montana based drafts. Always a good way to start a trip! We ended up eating while we were there then had our shuttle come grab us and take us back to the hotel. It had been a long day so we had no issues packing it in early.
Day 2 - Sunday
Our first full day in Montana! We got up and out pretty early and hit the road towards Glacier National Park. We kinda figured the first day would be more of a drive-around-and-explore kind of day so we were ready to log some miles. Before we even got out of Kalispell we were taken with the beauty of Montana. I could never get tired of looking at those mountains! Especially pretty with the sun rising over them. Don't these guys look ready to scope some scenery?
So we entered Glacier and started our trek down the Going-to-the-sun road. It is pretty much the main path through the park and covers a lot of ground so we thought it would be perfect for the first day and boy were we correct! Luckily, there are plenty of places to pull off the road because we were stopping to take pictures constantly, and since we got out early on a Sunday, we really didn't have to deal with many crowds at all. Every turn of the road opened up to a new vista of awesome scenery. One of the first nice views opened as we started to drive the shore of Lake McDonald (and no, as far as I know the name wasn't brought about by corporate sponsorship).
Had lunch at the Park Cafe then we took a small detour up to Many Glacier and ended up going on a nice little ~3 mile hike. Here's dad enjoying one of the awesome views from that first hike in Glacier!
One thing we noticed is that Glacier really likes their warning signage. We were warned about bears...
then about the precarious landscape and leading cause of death.
While being very careful, we continued our Glacier exploration. While I personally knew Glacier from photos of mountains, I never realized how many rivers and waterfalls it had. It was a welcome surprise!
It was amazing how, if you looked around a little, almost every peak had some sort of waterfall runoff. It was almost like a little game to try to find each one (this one is easy haha).
There was even a Weeping Wall where a lot of these water flows came together by a short section of road.
And yes, in those last couple of pics, that's snow! It wasn't too chilly where we were, but as we got up into the higher elevations it was less hard to believe that some snow was still sticking around.
While just about every view we had was amazing, I was still hoping to see some wildlife. While I never saw a wolverine or bear, There were a couple critters who showed up like a butterfly (that almost seemed to spread its wings and turn slightly to post as I approached)
and ground squirrels (by far the most prevalent wildlife in the park)
The only good thing about them is that they are so large you can usually feel them land on you and, if you are quick, can swat them before they dig in. :-) After our hike, we took a different path to loop back to the hotel. I'm still looking for some good photo stitching software to combine several of my shots into some snazzy panoramas, but until then I made sure to also take some with Dad's camera (since it has a mode that will just combine them in itself). I think if you click the image you can see it at a little higher resolution.
Since we were rolling in a little later we decided to just check out the large shopping center on the way into town for dinner. Ended up choosing a Moe's-like place called Bajios that turned out to be a pretty darn good meal! After filling our bellies, logging many miles in the car and a few more on foot, we were very happy to be back in our cosy hotel room.
Day 3 - Monday
Since we had completed the main loop through and around the park the day before, we thought that we would do something a little different this day. We decided to head to Canada! Had a bit of a tricky time documenting it, though, because it was so windy that the camera kept blowing over!
There is a city named Waterton that is in Waterton Lakes Park in Alberta, Canada. This park and Glacier are together the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park (double check this name) so it was kinda like we were just visiting another part of Glacier. We made our way through winding roads and howling winds and arrived in Waterton safely, where it turned out to be pretty darn windy.
We checked the boat tour schedule, though we were a little wary since we noticed quite a few whitecaps due to the windy conditions. We decided to mull it over over lunch. We found a nice little place with a view of a little park and of the lake. We were surprised to see a deer just hanging out in the park right outside the restaurant! Not something you see every day (unless of course you live somewhere like Waterton). The building behind them is where we had lunch.
After lunch we decided that we had driven all this way and we may as well go on the boat tour. So we stopped by the souvenir shop, visited with the deer, then hopped on the boat to head down the lake. The beginning of the trip was the most windy, but it really wasn't that bad in the covered back section where we were sitting. It got gradually calmer and easier to snap some pics of the awesome views.
Waterton lake actually extends down into the US and Glacier National Park so about halfway through the tour we were technically back in Glacier! We got a little bit of rain later in the trip and that, combined with the wind, made Dad and I think we might should have worn an extra layer. Though some chilly conditions, we still had a good tour and made it back to Waterton safely. And continuing with the trend of lots of warning signs, we learned that the deer aren't as docile as one might think.
Hopped in the car (the heated seats and steering wheel came in handy) and made our way back down to America. I believe we decided to take the Going-to-the-sun road in the opposite direction for a more scenic ride back. To add a little bonus, we got to play numerous games of "dodge the cow" on some stretches of road as well (this one was easy, but not all them like to stay off the road)
We also got to see a couple of mountain goats pretty close up (though we weren't in a place where I could stop, so no pics). Once back in Kalispell, we decided to try out Paddy's, a little sports bar that was within walking distance of the hotel. Turned out to be a pretty snazzy place! We had some good beers, a good meal, then walked back over to the hotel to crash after another long day.
Day 4 - Tuesday
We figured that you can't visit somewhere like Glacier without going on at least ONE decent hike. We did a little research and found that the Avalanche Lake Trail was a very popular one, about the right distance (~2.2 miles one way), and had spectacular views. So we set the alarm to get out early and started our hike! While there is zero cell phone signal in the park, I figured my phone should still be able to log GPS coordinates so I started it up and put it in my chest pocket to try to give it at least a little view of the sky. Turned out to work pretty well!
On the way out, we probably saw 3 groups of people total and, according to my phone, the end of the trail was actually about 3 miles out. The books didn't lie and the views were awesome. It was also nice that the first mile or so of the trail paralleled a river so the soundtrack was as nice as the view! It was definitely not as smooth a trail as our first one. We passed some resilient trees...
and some pretty big rocks...
but once we reached the lake and the views opened up, it was definitely worth it.
Even if it DID get a little windy at times.
You can see from the map of our hike that the lake is basically at the bottom of a big glacial bowl, so you can imagine it would provide some awesome panoramic views!
After we soaked in the scene and, of course, took many pictures around the lake, we started hiking back to the car. It turned out that we definitely planned it well because, while we saw maybe 8 people on the way out, we easily passed 80 on the way back. Glad we got an early start! Not that I really mind seeing people, but hiking a couple miles through the woods without seeing anyone definitely feels more like a commune with nature. So it ended up to be a decently challenging (at least to us non-hiker types) 6 mile trek. After that we definitely felt like we earned the brews we would enjoy later in the evening! We at lunch at one of the lodges in the park, then explored down a road that looked a little less traveled. Turns out it went through the area that had been part of a large forest fire a little while back so it was mostly barren, burned trees. Not quite as scenic as some of the other views we had enjoyed, but still cool to see another part of the p ark. After that little exploration, we drove back, hit up our downtown bar for some good draft beer, then walked from the hotel over to our "usual" Paddy's for dinner and beer. Yet another full, but awesome, day in Montana!
Day 5 - Wednesday
By now, we had pretty much done a lot of what we had planned to do on the trip. It is our typical style to kinda go "all out" the first few days, then that leaves us a day or two at the end to just completely take it easy, relax, and see whatever we feel like seeing. Up until now, I had been the driver of the trip (Dad + driving != him relaxing), but today he took over so I could try to snap some pictures from the places where there weren't any turnouts. While we had been on the going-to-the-sun road a few times already, it was amazing how different weather conditions could completely change the feel of the views we enjoyed. It was a super overcast day, so it really challenged me as a photographer (read: I had no clue what I was doing). I ended up taking multiple pics of everything in the hopes that at least one would turn out correctly (like I didn't have enough photos to go through already).
It was nice to be the passenger, though, as there were quite a few precarious driving situations that didn't really lend themselves to looking around and enjoying the scenery.
They even have to divert many of the waterfalls to run under the road!
And speaking of weather, it was awesome to have some weather NOT in the 90s like it has been in Tallahassee. As we got to Logan Pass, it was windy at 41 degrees outside!
They had even gotten a little fresh snow up in the mountains the day before.
Definitely a noticeable (and welcome) break from Florida weather :-) Since we were really doing the mosey thing, we were keeping an eye out for any side paths that we hadn't checked out previously. Dad suggested we check out Sun Point, which we thought would just be a little walk out to a point, snap a picture and walk back. It turned out to be a beautiful little lakeside trail...
that lead to a cool waterfall and along a small gorge that a river flowed through.
I even had a little critter try to sneak home with me!
I would guess we ended up hiking at least 2 miles total, which was a nice surprise to get a little more exercise. After the hike, we ate at a little restaurant in the park, then we started to head home. We thought we would to a little extra exploring since it was our last day, so we detoured over to Whitefish, a town not far from Kalispell, to check things out. turns out Whitefish definitely had a little more of a touristy feel and felt a little livelier than Kalispell. After driving around just a little, it is likely we will look to stay in Whitefish if we venture back to this area of the country. They even had a lake that people were actually getting in, so perhaps I could find a wakeboarding pull! :-) As I often do, I turned to the snazzy Yelp! app on my phone to see if we could find a watering hole (i.e. bar) to enjoy before heading back to Kalispell. Turns out the brewery where Black Star Double Hopped (the beer I often had on draft at the Kalispell Bar) i s made was located in Whitefish! So dad and I enjoyed a sampler of the 10 beers they made and had on tap,
then each enjoyed a pint of our favorite...
while enjoying a nice view overlooking Whitefish.
Then we took it back to the hotel to pack it in early since we were gonna have a pretty early morning the next day. Again, we walked over to Paddy's and had a great farewell-to-Montana dinner.
Day 6 - Thursday
Woke up at 4 am to discover that it really DOES get dark in Kalispell, then packed up everything and headed to the airport and bid Montana farewell. To know what I'm talking about with regard to the darkness, here's a pic out our hotel window at 9:45 PM.
And here is the same view at 6 AM.
That doesn't leave a whole lot of time for darkness! Anyhoo, overall, we covered a lot of miles, both in car and on foot, and really saw a great deal of Montana. As usual all the views were amazing and I was, as I mentioned earlier, really surprised by the number of waterfalls! I guess all that snow runoff had to go somewhere, but I knew Glacier for the mountains not the water! It was nice to have many beautiful rivers, lakes, and waterfalls at every other turn. It was yet another in a long line of awesome father/son trips and I'm thankful that Dad could put it together. Good times!Side note #1: Because I wanted to go ahead and get this post done and posted soon after the trip, all the above pictures are raw and unedited. I took so many pictures that the next few weeks will probably be filled with some of my favorite shots after I get a chance to post-process them, but with as many as I took, I'm sure it may take even longer to pour through them.
Side note #2: If you noticed, much of the water is a kind of teal-ish blue. This is because glaciers ground down the rock into such a fine powder (glacier flour they call it) that it doesn't sink. Since it stays suspended in the water, it changes the color to this shade of blue. Here's an example (including the Prince of Wales Hotel in Waterton) 
Pretty cool huh!? View original posts at http://www.justinandrewfincher.com/
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