We were up relatively early again this morning in hopes of getting to glacier before both people and stronger winds arrived. A ranger was actually working the gate today, so I was glad to see that showing an email confirmation on my phone was sufficient to enter.
Within a mile of the gate, we made a quick left turn, parked in a lot by one of the other park lodges (also closed for the season), and were greeted with the view we had been hoping for.
I believe it was Forrest Gump who commented on seeing “two skies, one on top of the other” during one of his running ventures, and it has been some time since I have seen a reflection as sharp and clear. The view in person was far more impressive than through the lens, as is often the case. The vista was really something to behold.
After desperately trying to replicate what our eyes were seeing with our cameras, we got back in the car to drive a little ways up the Going to the Sun Road (the one and only real road that is partially open inside the park). We chose our pull off points based on how many other cars were present. If it was two or more, we drove by, one or less, and we would stop.
We walked down from the pull off to the water’s edge to get a nice look at the colored pebbles that have added to the aesthetic of Lake McDonald. These stones are a result of iron deposits and a long amount of time under the effects of erosion, oxidation, and glacial movements. The different colors are usually an indication of different ages. Anyway, it’s pretty.
We did one more pull off, but we worried that all of our photos were starting to look the same, so we elected to make this the last before working our way out of the park. We didn’t encounter many other visitors at this point in the morning. People tend to show up around noon or later. By the time we started working our way out of the park (a little after 11am), the water of Lake McDonald was getting more ripples on its surface, and as a result, becoming less reflective.
It was actually kind of strange because it happened so quickly. Within about 10 minutes of snapping the above picture, the lake was no longer reflecting the mountains above it. This is why I find it interesting that most people show up so late in the day. On a typical day, winds will increase as the day goes on, so all of these late arrivals were being robbed of that nice reflection. Perhaps they have seen it before and it’s old hat.
Just before leaving, we did another short mile hike that led us to this bridge across the creek. The rest of the trail was a bit boring — a straightaway with little scenery compared to what we had seen prior. With half the day remaining, we exited the park. While all of the road closures and limited access to park services make Glacier a bit less accessible, it does have the positive effect of making it more manageable. Like many national parks, the land it encompasses is quite vast. Glacier is larger than Yosemite in California, so it would take multiple hours just to drive through it without stopping. A mere eight miles of plowed road allowed us to really hone our focus on the area around Lake McDonald and what it had to offer, and I’m glad we took some extra time today to go back into the park.
A few miles outside the park, we made a stop at a place called the Huckleberry Patch. Huckleberries are evidently popular here, and I could have had them on a burger last night, but while I was open to trying it, I didn’t want to spend $19 on the opportunity. Inside the Huckleberry Patch, we got our obligatory ornament, magnet, and perused the other Montana paraphernalia. A nice man offered us samples of huckleberry cheesecake fudge, so naturally I indulged him. Unlike other establishments we have been to, he took hygiene seriously. And by that, I mean he didn’t touch the fudge with his bare hands, and he was wearing a mask. The bar is low here. We made another stop at Albertson’s on our way back to our cabin to get some food for later. If mask compliance was 1 out of 4 yesterday, it was 1 in 25 today. It defies logic. Do they think because they don’t live in a city, that they don’t have to worry? Or do they think it’s not real? Or do they just think that people who are wearing masks are liberal virtue signalers? Perhaps we will never know, but I do find it very annoying when workers are wearing masks, but customers can apparently do whatever they want.
We relaxed back at our cabin for a few hours for recovery. It is sometimes difficult to reconcile the beautiful scenery and tranquil landscapes with frankly insolent human beings that occupy that landscape. There seems to be a preponderance of junk in people’s front yards. We have seen all kinds of things from rusted out school buses, unseaworthy boats, gutted trailers, random farm equipment, and in the case here, a vintage Texaco gas pump. I would have liked to have gotten closer, but it’s actually someone’s house despite its outward appearance.
Just down the road from this house was a gathering of old vehicles. Again, I had lots of questions. Were they the owner’s old vehicles? Did they not start one day, and that was it? Was this a hazardous stretch of road where cars kept spinning out into a ditch? Are they awaiting a monster truck rally? Is there no AAA? Because this is not a one off. This kind of scene is at A LOT of different houses. I know it was a sort of cultural thing in Alaska to put a lot of junk in your yard almost as a measure of status, but the junk in Montana isn’t tchotchke, it’s proper junk. I did a bit of research and found that this is actually kind of a problem, at least in this region of the state. There are many illegal junk yards, and the state has passed multiple ordnances to try and deal with it, but thousands of illegally junked vehicles get towed every year by the state (which is a big number in a state whose population is barely 1 million.)
In any event, we drove back into Kalispell (does sign of the cross), to pick up a pizza. After last night’s debacle, we proceeded as if we were abroad in a country with questionable food and water hygiene, and figured a pizza would be a safe bet. It was not. In this case, we arrived to find it had a B-rating for hygiene (ie lack of hand-washing or improper food handling), a sign on the door indicating half the staff was out sick, and not a single person inside was wearing a mask including the workers. While again, I acknowledge the odds of us getting sick were probably slim, it’s highly unsettling and frustrating. You would think if customers walked in wearing masks, you would at least pretend to care for a second and throw on a mask while you’re completing their order, but no. A large number of people in this region of Montana just do not care, and they seem to take great pride in that. We ended up going to Five Guys, where they seemed to at least care a bit more about wearing masks to put up a sign. This was mostly successful. We ate back at our cabin in disbelief and awe of the other planet that is Kalispell, Montana.
To try and salvage the end of this blog post, let’s all appreciate the decor of our cabin. There are three cabins as part of this Air BnB, named Bear, Deer, or Moose. They are all decorated accordingly, and the bear ottoman has been known to move around the space. It seems to greet Nicole when she’s coming out of the bathroom as well as appear at her side of the bed. It just wants a friend.
passports & pepto bismol 