MORE GREETINGS FROM GLACIER National Park
Many Glacier Hotel, Montana (MT), USA
There is a disadvantage in staying in lodges that are 100 years old – they are built with material and technology that is 100 years old.
The walls between the rooms are paper thin. At about 6 am the people in the room next door were up and ready to take on the day. Americans do not know how to whisper so the conversation was clearly audible – or in other words loud !.
He wanted to hike. She didn’t want to hike. She spent 10 minutes explaining why she didn’t want to hike. He spent 10 minutes explaining that the weather was going to improve and he was going to check on it.
There was about 10 minutes in which I managed to doze off but he was soon back and he had won. Then there was the organising. All the literature in the parks advise what to do if you unexpectedly meet bears (pronounced “baars” in the US). One myth is that you walk with bells to warn the bears. But they had bells. Lots of bells. It may not have been going to have any effect on any bears they might find but it had sure annoyed me enough to make me grizzly !
Anyway the weather was very ordinary – wet and foggy – so we decided against the boat trip and hike we were going to do. Instead we had a leisurely breakfast. We managed to score a window seat again and although it was misty and drizzling, the mountains were still a spectacular sight through the picture window.
After a brief consideration of going to the Canadian section of the park (we had heard one of the tour guides talking to someone else about it) instead, with the weather not predicted to improve, we decided to go south to a smaller section of the park called Two Medicine.
Our foraging black “baar”
On the way out at the same spot were we saw the 2 grizzlies yesterday, a black bear was roaming and a crowd had gathered once again. There was a ranger making sure the traffic kept moving and the parking was orderly to make sure there was no “baar jam” as they call it. The ranger also indicated that it had been a poor season for the berries so this had bought out the competition amongst the bears for feeding a bit more as they prepared for winter.
The trip to Two Medicine was only about an hour or so and it rained most of the way. Still, the mist gathering amongst the high peaks creates its own spectacular sight. When we got there, we stopped at the visitor centre which is right on a lake and had coffee. There was a brief burst of sunshine but this soon returned to drizzle as we headed back to the car.
Taking shelter at Two Medicine Visitor Centre
Not far from Two Medicine is East Glacier, the drop off town where the first tourists started to come to Glacier National Park in the early 1900’s. The Great Northern Rail Company had built the railroad to East Glacier and built a magnificent lodge – similar to the one here at Many Glacier. Gradually they built further accommodation at “day trip” distances closer to the park as the demand increased before the National Park was eventually created.
Many Glacier Lodge
On the way back, there was an occasional glimpse of blue sky and the drizzle had certainly stopped. We were able to stop at a
viewpoint across from the Many Glacier Lodge and take a couple of photos with a bit of sun around. Once we parked the car, we wandered around the lodge a bit more and got a few more photos.
Inside the Lodge
As you drive and walk around, you constantly find little groups pointing and staring up mountainsides. Half the time you have no idea what they are looking at. But they have their high powered binoculars scanning the scene for any apparent movement. Later (after dinner) we did manage to see what one group were looking at on the hillside above the lodge – a black bear foraging amongst the bushes. Mind you, even when we were offered a look through someone’s high powered binoculars, it was still a speck at that distance.
Enjoying a bit of watery sun
We have gone to a two meal a day plan with the meals so big so we again opted for an early dinner and a table by the window.
Our server tonight, Megan, was from Oregon and we were telling her where we were from and that we were heading to Oregon. We ended up having quite a chat over the time we had dinner as she had spent 12 months travelling around Australia – she had stayed 
around Haymarket for a couple of months and worked in the CBD, had travelled most of the east coast and spent a little time in WA and Margaret River – and was interested in how much of the USA we had seen.
After our “fast food” the night before, Megan made sure our meal was more spread out tonight. We shared a hummus dip for starters and Adrienne had chicken for her main and I had duck. The flavours were just perfect.
A sunny end to the day
After dinner the day had improved dramatically with the sun appearing out from behind the clouds for a while as it set.
Not a great sunset but certainly enough sun to get a big audience out on the balcony taking photos. So we are hoping we might get at least a nice sunrise as we say goodbye to Glacier National Park and head off to Bozeman tomorrow.